With the arrival of the unofficial annual holiday known as “4/20,” employers can celebrate by reminding themselves of the state laws that could protect employees’ off-duty 4/20 celebrations....more
On February 14, 2024, a judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont dismissed a plaintiff’s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) discrimination and failure-to-accommodate case, holding that his medical...more
3/7/2024
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Controlled Substances Act ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Drug Testing ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Failure to Accommodate ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Popular ,
Termination
On November 7, 2023, Ohio voters made Ohio the twenty-fourth state in the United States to legalize the recreational possession and use of marijuana. Ohio Revised Code (R.C.) Section 3780, which is subject to amendment by the...more
11/10/2023
/ Decriminalization of Marijuana ,
Department of Transportation (DOT) ,
Drug Testing ,
Drug-Free Workplace Act ,
Election Results ,
Employment Policies ,
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ,
Marijuana ,
OSHA ,
Recreational Use ,
State and Local Government ,
State Elections
On November 8, 2022, voters in Maryland and Missouri overwhelmingly approved ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana, becoming the 20th and 21st states to do so. And, as part of the ballot initiative in Missouri,...more
California employers may soon be barred from discharging employees or refusing to hire individuals based on their off-duty use of marijuana, under a new bill headed to the governor’s desk. On August 30, 2022, the...more
9/7/2022
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Drug Testing ,
Employee Rights ,
Employment Policies ,
FEHA ,
Governor Newsom ,
Marijuana ,
Off-Duty Employees ,
Pending Legislation ,
Recreational Use ,
Screening Procedures
In a decision issued on August 11, 2022, the Nevada Supreme Court declined to recognize recreational marijuana use as a “lawful” activity for purposes of the state’s law providing employment protections for “lawful...more
Legalization of medical and recreational marijuana use continues to spread across the United States despite the drug remaining a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law. This comes as respondents to Ogletree...more
Rarely are we able to combine the Grateful Dead and Mississippi in the same sentence, but the band once said, what a long strange trip it’s been.
In November 2020, Mississippi voters overwhelmingly approved Initiative...more
On May 6, 2021, the Alabama legislature approved a medical marijuana legalization bill. Senate Bill (SB) 46, more commonly known as the Darren Wesley ‘Ato’ Hall Compassion Act, will now go to Governor Kay Ivey for final...more
As Judge Richard A. Licht (quoting a slightly more famous source) said in a 2017 court opinion: “I get high with a little help from my friends.” Four years later, employers may be asking themselves which of their employees...more
In November 2020, voters in five states (Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota) voted in favor of legalizing medical and/or recreational marijuana. Since then, there have been several developments within...more
In the past several years, marijuana legalization has become an increasingly difficult issue for employers to navigate. Marijuana legalization raises challenging workplace questions related to drug testing, disability...more
On March 24, 2020, upon the request and recommendation of Mayor Randall Woodfin, the Birmingham, Alabama City Council unanimously adopted a “shelter in place” order, “An Ordinance to Establish a ‘Shelter in Place’ Order for...more
The 2020 state legislative sessions are underway across the country and a hot topic in many states is medical marijuana. As discussed last year, Alabama was poised to become the first Deep South state to enact a medical...more
On March 20, 2019, House Bill 243 (HB243) was introduced in the Alabama House of Representatives. HB243, a bipartisan bill with extensive support from both the majority and minority leaders, would create the Compassion,...more
On July 25, 2018, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a Birmingham federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the February 2016 Alabama Uniform Minimum Wage and Right to Work Act (commonly known as “the...more
On July 17, 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court issued a unanimous ruling in Barbuto v. Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC, allowing medical marijuana users to assert claims for handicap discrimination under the...more
7/19/2017
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Drug Testing ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Essential Functions ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Interactive Process ,
MA Supreme Judicial Court ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
State Law Claims
On January 18, 2010, the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act (NJCUMMA) was signed into law. While the NJCUMMA explicitly states that it does not require employers to accommodate a qualified patient’s use of...more
My unabashed love affair with the state of Vermont has been around for quite a while. Maple syrup, Phish, innovative ice cream, beautiful scenery, and a statewide ban on interstate billboards—what’s not to love? ...more
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended (ADA) considers alcoholism to be a “disability.” Individuals who suffer from alcoholism are entitled to the protections of the ADA just as those with significant mental...more
8/17/2015
/ Alcohol Testing ,
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Conditional Job Offers ,
Drug & Alcohol Abuse ,
Drug Testing ,
Employment Policies ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Medical Examinations ,
Mental Illness ,
Popular ,
Screening Procedures