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7 Things Employers Need to Know About Marijuana Decriminalization

Knowledge

7 Things Employers Need to Know About Marijuana Decriminalization

January 15, 2020

Sean P. Beiter, a partner in the firm’s Employment and Labor and Cannabis groups, wrote an article for Buffalo Niagara Partnership discussing the rippling effects of marijuana decriminalization on employers.

In “7 Things Employers Need to Know About Marijuana Decriminalization,” Sean explains what this means for employees, including encountering more employees utilizing legal medical marijuana under state law, finding it increasingly difficult to maintain a drug-free workplace as medical marijuana use expands, and how employers should support lobbying efforts to protect their interests as legislative moves forward.

“With recreational marijuana legislation in limbo, the New York State Department of Health is poised to reevaluate its reforms that have already expanded greatly since 2017. Expect the expansion of dispensaries, medical professionals who can prescribe medical marijuana, and medical conditions for which it can be prescribed. It seems that if New York will not pass legal adult recreational marijuana in the state, the Department of Health is poised to increase the number of medical marijuana users. Both the Department of Health and prescribing physicians agree that medical marijuana for chronic pain issues is preferable to opioid prescriptions and has helped opioid users transition off of it.”

 

 

Read the full article here:

“7 Things Employers Need to Know About Marijuana Decriminalization,” Buffalo Niagara Partnership, November 20, 2019

More about Goldberg Segalla’s Sean P. Beiter:

Sean P. Beiter concentrates his practice on the area of traditional labor law for private and public sector employers in the health care, public safety, manufacturing, transportation, education, office, professional, blue-collar, and white-collar settings. His practice focuses on counseling employers in the development of comprehensive strategies and approaches for success in labor-management relationships and disputes. He represents employers in collective bargaining negotiations, contract administration, grievance arbitration, and before the National Labor Relations Board and the New York State Public Employment Relations Board. Sean has also represented many employers in numerous disciplinary procedures in various forums, mediations, contract dispute arbitrations, and in compulsory interest arbitration proceedings. He has represented employers during strikes, lockouts, and a myriad of picketing disputes.