California legislators are primed to follow a few pioneering states when they decide whether to advance a bill granting employees statutory protections to use cannabis.

If the proposal becomes law, California will become the seventh state to protect adults who legally use cannabis from employer sanctions. An additional 15 states have narrower laws that protect medical marijuana patients from adverse treatment from employers for their legal use of cannabis, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Individuals can legally use cannabis in more than half of states but often can be fired if traces of cannabis are detected in their bodies, even though that detection doesn’t prove current intoxication or impairment.

The push for new state laws comes in part from a tight labor market and efforts to increase equity in the workplace, as well as a diminished stigma for pot use, lawyers said.

“As long as the federal prohibition remains, you’re going to see states, in my opinion, continue to enact legislation to protect employees and make sure they are not discriminated against because they’re using cannabis,” said Jonathan Robbins, a lawyer who leads Akerman LLP’s cannabis practice. “It will continue. It has to,” he said.

California offers one example of a legal gray areas around cannabis use. Voters through ballot initiatives legalized marijuana use...

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