New York’s legalization of adult-use marijuana has created a “nightmare” scenario for employers navigating what the year-old regulations mean for their operations and policies, legal experts said during a panel Tuesday.
Under the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, most employers cannot penalize job applicants or employees for off-duty marijuana use. Barring some exceptions, employers are also not allowed to screen for marijuana in preemployment or on-the-job drug testing.
“It’s a nightmare for employers, to be honest,” Daniel A. Johnston, of counsel to Bell Law Group in Syosset, said during a Newsday webinar moderated by Newsday associate editor Joye Brown.
“It’s very, very difficult to navigate these new laws as an employer, or not ruffle feathers or step outside the bounds of the law,” said Johnston, who is also founder and chairman of Gotham Growth Corp., a Hauppauge company that intends to process cannabis.
Domenique Camacho Moran, partner and head of the labor and employment practice at Farrell Fritz, said that many of the ways employers previously determined whether someone may be under the influence are no longer viable under the new law.
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“Historically, somebody would come in smelling like marijuana and that was a signal that they were impaired,” Moran said. Under the new rules, employers “cannot rely on smell...
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