Ron Strider
Well-Known Member
A bill that would have blocked Oregon employers from firing workers for legal, off-hours marijuana use is dead for the session. Key backer Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a Eugene Democrat, acknowledged Tuesday the demise of Senate Bill 301 in the face of virulent business opposition and skepticism among some other Senate Democrats.
The policy also would have prohibited employers from denying a person a job based solely on testing positive for pot in a pre-employment drug test.
The bill died despite Prozanski's last-minute attempt to have the bill apply only to marijuana use by people with a medical marijuana card, not recreational use.
The tweaked version of SB 301 was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on 3-2 party-line vote Tuesday morning. But after a closed-door caucus discussion among Senate Democrats, it became clear that the new version didn't have the votes to pass the full Senate either, Prozanski said.
Employers raised major concerns about the fact that there's no scientifically proven way to determine when someone who tests positive for THC, marijuana's psychoactive element, actually consumed the substance or if they're impaired.
THC enters a person's system quickly after they consume the drug but can stay in the body for days or weeks, long after the effects of the drug have worn off. That means an employer would have no way of knowing, based solely on a standard workplace urine test, when a worker smoked marijuana or whether he or she was impaired at work.
Oregon's local governments, meanwhile, opposed the bill because they were worried about losing federal grants or contracts that require them to provide drug-free workplaces.
Prozanski said he believes those concerns were overblown.
He said blood tests are much more accurate than urine tests in pinpointing when a person consumed marijuana.
"But from their perspective, businesses are concerned about operating without having a way to know for sure whether a worker is under the influence," Prozanski said.
The bill contained exemptions for many employers to avoid conflicts with federal rules or collective bargaining agreements, he added.
Prozanski said he expects the issue to resurface in the Legislature in the future, especially for medical marijuana patients.
"It's hard for me to distinguish between someone who is using marijuana for medical purposes who can be discriminated against now and someone taking opioids or other pain medication and is able to work," he said.
But Sen. James Manning, a Eugene Democrat, said that some medical marijuana cardholders obtain them "under false pretenses."
"I'm very hesitant about this," he said.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Eugene lawmaker's bill to ban firing workers for off-hours pot use evaporates for this session | | nrtoday.com
Author: Saul Hubbard
Contact: Contact Us | Site | nrtoday.com
Photo Credit: Brand X Pictures
Website: nrtoday.com
The policy also would have prohibited employers from denying a person a job based solely on testing positive for pot in a pre-employment drug test.
The bill died despite Prozanski's last-minute attempt to have the bill apply only to marijuana use by people with a medical marijuana card, not recreational use.
The tweaked version of SB 301 was voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on 3-2 party-line vote Tuesday morning. But after a closed-door caucus discussion among Senate Democrats, it became clear that the new version didn't have the votes to pass the full Senate either, Prozanski said.
Employers raised major concerns about the fact that there's no scientifically proven way to determine when someone who tests positive for THC, marijuana's psychoactive element, actually consumed the substance or if they're impaired.
THC enters a person's system quickly after they consume the drug but can stay in the body for days or weeks, long after the effects of the drug have worn off. That means an employer would have no way of knowing, based solely on a standard workplace urine test, when a worker smoked marijuana or whether he or she was impaired at work.
Oregon's local governments, meanwhile, opposed the bill because they were worried about losing federal grants or contracts that require them to provide drug-free workplaces.
Prozanski said he believes those concerns were overblown.
He said blood tests are much more accurate than urine tests in pinpointing when a person consumed marijuana.
"But from their perspective, businesses are concerned about operating without having a way to know for sure whether a worker is under the influence," Prozanski said.
The bill contained exemptions for many employers to avoid conflicts with federal rules or collective bargaining agreements, he added.
Prozanski said he expects the issue to resurface in the Legislature in the future, especially for medical marijuana patients.
"It's hard for me to distinguish between someone who is using marijuana for medical purposes who can be discriminated against now and someone taking opioids or other pain medication and is able to work," he said.
But Sen. James Manning, a Eugene Democrat, said that some medical marijuana cardholders obtain them "under false pretenses."
"I'm very hesitant about this," he said.
News Moderator: Ron Strider 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: Eugene lawmaker's bill to ban firing workers for off-hours pot use evaporates for this session | | nrtoday.com
Author: Saul Hubbard
Contact: Contact Us | Site | nrtoday.com
Photo Credit: Brand X Pictures
Website: nrtoday.com
