ALBANY — New York was the first state to pass a law banning employers from testing workers for cannabis without signs of impairment as part of the legalization of recreational marijuana. More than two years later, the labor law lacks clarity for both employers and employees, a new report from Cornell University said.
The Cornell Labor and Employment Law Program studied the rights of employers to have a safe and drug-free workplace in conjunction with the rights of adults, including workers, to use marijuana recreationally in New York after the drug was legalized in March 2021.
The labor law makes an exception for federal employees and also workers at companies with federal contracts; those workers are still subject to cannabis testing due to the drug’s classification as a Schedule 1 drug federally, which lumps it with drugs such as ecstasy, heroin and LSD.
Esta Bigler, director of the Cornell program, said that their findings show the law lacks clear regulations on how and when employers can test for cannabis.
“It is a recreational drug, and it is not to be used at all when you’re working,” Bigler said. “It sounds simple, right? But it’s not.”
The main problem, Bigler said, is that tests generally show cannabis use for up to 30 days. There is no affordable, reliable test for marijuana impairment that could show if someone was...
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