On May 25, 2022, Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee signed into the law the Rhode Island Cannabis Act, which legalized recreational cannabis. As a result, Rhode Island has joined a small but growing minority of states that extend employment protections to employees who use marijuana during non-working hours. With certain exceptions discussed below, an employer’s ability to take adverse action as a result of an applicant’s or employee’s positive drug screen for cannabis is likely significantly limited absent evidence of current impairment at the time of the test. Although employers are still expressly permitted to implement drug-use policies that prohibit employees from being under the influence of cannabis in the workplace, including medical cannabis, several of the law’s key provisions raise more questions than they answer regarding how such policies can be implemented effectively.
How The Law Limits an Employer’s Ability to Regulate Off-Duty Cannabis Use
Medical cannabis has been legal in Rhode Island since the Edward O. Hawkins and Thomas C. Slater Medical Marijuana Act passed in 2006. Effective immediately, the Rhode Island Cannabis Act allows state residents over the age of 21 to possess and consume cannabis for recreational purposes. At the same time, the General Assembly has limited the ability of Rhode Island employers to discipline employees for off-duty cannabis use. As a general rule, employers cannot “fire or take disciplinary action against an employee solely...
The National Board of Directors of the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) hereby alerts the general public to a growing pattern of impersonation, misrepresentation, and the unau...