Pubdate: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 Source: USA Today (US) Copyright: 2014 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/625HdBMl Website: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466 Author: Trevor Hughes Pot and the Workplace: IT'S COMPLICATED In Colorado and Washington, the Legal-Marijuana Experiment Wafts Uncomfortably into the Office DENVER - Last month, Colorado diner owner Mark Rose posted an unusual job description: "Looking for part time experienced breakfast cook. Pays well, must be friendly and a team player, could turn into a full time gig by summer. 420 friendly a must." With that public declaration, Rose put himself squarely in the camp of employers acknowledging that marijuana use is perfectly legal in Colorado. Perhaps more significant, it also puts him in the camp of employers who officially don't care if their employees use pot off-duty. The phrase "420" is shorthand for someone who uses marijuana. Rose owns Dot's Diner on the Mountain in the pot-friendly mountain town of Nederland, Colo., just west of Boulder. He says he wanted to hire a marijuana-friendly employee to ensure he didn't have to deal with someone who might complain about his own pot use. Legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington state is sparking new conflicts between employers trying to maintain drug-free workplaces and workers who say they're being punished for their off-duty indulgences. Nearly half the states now legalize some sort of marijuana use, either for medical purposes or purely for fun. "I imagine there will be a great deal of upheaval in the future," says Curtis Graves, a staff attorney with the Mountain States Employers Council, which advises companies on workplace issues. He added, "The law is going to be in flux for another 10 years." Twenty states now permit the use of marijuana for medical reasons, but employers in those states are under no legal obligation to allow any kind of pot use in the workplace. Colorado has a law that says workers cannot be fired for legal activities while off duty, but the state's courts also have said marijuana use isn't lawful because the federal government considers it an illegal drug. The result: More employers are testing workers before hiring and continuing random drug tests, says Tiffany Baker, co-owner of the Denver DNA and Drug Center, which provides employers with drug-testing services. "I think big companies were already testing anyway," she says. "I think small companies are ... now more likely to send their workers over." "Employers have total power in this arena," Graves says. "At this point, the employer can do anything they want to do." In Washington state, which is still developing its retail marijuana system, there's been little change, says Jenifer Lambert, a vice president of the employment agency Terra Staffing Group, which places about 5,000 workers a year. She says manufacturers and companies that work in federally regulated areas such as interstate commerce and aerospace continue to test job applicants for drug use. Only one of about 500 companies that Terra works with has relaxed its rules. Lambert says she expects to see increasing conflicts as marijuana becomes more socially acceptable. She says it's ironic because workers rarely complain about a smoke-free workplace that bans cigarette use. At the same time, she says, some prospective workers are smoking themselves into a corner by using legal marijuana. She says the company doesn't track how many prospective employees are failing drug tests but says there's an increase of people admitting they won't pass. "It's sort of a Wild West scenario. It's very, very tricky," Lambert says. "I feel badly when someone comes to us and doesn't understand the implication of their pot smoking." MEDICAL MARIJUANA RISKS Office manager Dawn Owens, 47, knows all too well what would happen if she got caught using marijuana to ease her migraines. Instead, she takes prescription drugs because those are allowed, even though she feels far less able to work effectively. "It would literally take two to three puffs off a joint and my headache would be gone within one to two minutes," Owens says. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom