Pubdate: Tue, 24 May 2011 Source: Gazette, The (Colorado Springs, CO) Copyright: 2011 The Gazette Contact: http://www.gazette.com/sections/opinion/submitletter/ Website: http://www.gazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/165 Author: Andrew Wineke, The Gazette MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN THE WORKPLACE A WORRYING ISSUE Medical marijuana seems to be a moving target, with new laws, new regulations, new business strategies and new warnings from the federal government all contributing to a confusing playing field. Employers having to deal with employees who may have medical marijuana cards, however, just want to know what they're supposed to do. Grant Butterfield, legal counsel for Pinnacol Assurance, the worker's compensation insurer, attempted to answer that question for local business owners and human resource managers Tuesday morning. The explosion in recent years in both patients and providers has made it an issue for a growing number of employers, he said. "There seems to be, and I don't want to alarm anyone, an epidemic of chronic pain among 20-something males," Butterfield joked. Butterfield reminded the group that marijuana remains an illegal drug under federal law and Colorado's constitutional carve-out for medical marijuana doesn't change that. Nor does Amendment 20, which legalized medical marijuana in Colorado in 2001, require employers to change their drug policies. "Nothing in Amendment 20 requires an employer to accommodate the use of medical marijuana in the workplace," he said. "There is no requirement to allow for smoke breaks." Pre-employment drug screening, zero tolerance policies and random testing are all legal and, Butterfield said, a great way to screen for potential problems, although he acknowledged that those measures can come with their own costs. "I gave this talk up in Estes Park and they were saying, 'We'd love to have zero tolerance, but our summer employees all come from Boulder,'" Butterfield said. Mandatory drug testing after a workplace injury is another important policy for companies to have in place, he said. "Magically, a lot of claims go away if you require mandatory screening," Butterfield said. "We can't preach it enough." Another step employers can take, he said, is speaking with their medical providers to learn their views on medical marijuana. While employers can't dictate what care their approved doctor prescribes, they can take their business to another provider. Until recently, Butterfield said, 75 percent of the medical marijuana recommendations in the state came from only 15 doctors. Although Amendment 20 precludes health insurance plans from covering medical marijuana, it doesn't say anything about worker's compensation companies, Butterfield said. So far, Pinnacol's policy is not to pay for it and no one has challenged that, he said, but he expects the issue to come up at some point. Several employers at the presentation said that they haven't had significant problems with employees using medical marijuana, but that it's something they need to keep an eye on. "We've only seen one case for a person with a (medical marijuana card)," said Jeff Kiersch, regional manager for Jiffy Lube. "We want to stay on top of it and make sure we're fair to all our employees and that we're keeping our employees and customers safe." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.