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Marijuana legalziation poses challenges for employers
YOUNGSTOWN
Potential legalization of marijuana could cause a headache for the local business community.
ResponsibleOhio, a political action committee, is seeking to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot for a regulated, taxed, and tested marketplace for medicinal and recreational marijuana. The amendment would create 10 wholesalers that grow the drug.
Mahoning County would house one of the five proposed testing facilities to check drug supplies for potency and safety.
Lydia Bolander, a spokeswoman for ResponsibleOhio, said the amendment doesn’t address drug-tests directly.
“Employers will still be free to set their own drug- testing policies,” she said. “The Marijuana Control Commission or the General Assembly could choose to pass additional protections for individuals who legally purchase marijuana at a licensed retail store or not-for-profit medical marijuana dispensary.”
The group will also conduct an economic-impact study to determine how much revenue marijuana legalization would generate for Ohio’s economy.
“I’m confident that this would be beneficial to the economy,” Bolander said. “There are so many opportunities for people who want to work in this industry.”
However, some have expressed opposition.
“I’m absolutely opposed to [legalizing marijuana],” said Don Crane, president of Western Reserve Building Trades, which represents more than 6,000 workers in the skilled trades.
Crane said it’s already a challenge to find workers who can pass a drug-test since trade jobs come with dangerous tasks.
“The one common denominator is drug-free,” he said.
Many employers perform drug tests when hiring new applicants.
“What concerns me very much ... is how would legalization of marijuana affect our ability to be able to test for marijuana in the workplace?” Dale Foerster, vice president of the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, asked.
Butch Taylor, business manager for Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 396, said employers would also have to adapt the “drug-test program to encompass the law.”
Finding drug-free applicants posed a problem in the Valley two years ago when the oil and gas industry started drilling in the Utica Shale, said Josh Dunne, co-owner of Accord Occupational Health Services in Boardman.
During that time, 80 to 90 percent of applicants tested positive, he said. Today that number has dropped.
“Users are no longer putting themselves in a position to be tested,” he said.
Marijuana is still the drug that has the highest tested positive rates, he added.
Last year his clinic conducted 5,300 drug tests from Trumbull and Mahoning counties. Dunne said rates for testing positive vary depending on the type of job. The positivity rate of federally mandated programs, such as transportation jobs, is about 3 to 4 percent.
“That [rate] never really changes,” he said.
While skilled trade jobs test less than 3 percent positive, general labor will probably have higher rates, Dunne said.
Drug use in the Valley is still high, and positivity rates would increase if marijuana is legalized, he said.
Legalization also could lead to changes through legislation or judicial action in hiring practices, he said.
Guy Coviello, vice president of government affairs for the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber said it’s an issue that Chamber hasn’t look into much depth at the moment.
“There are probably going to be some human-resources issues to be sorted out,” he said.
ResponsibleOhio will submit the amendment to the attorney general in the coming weeks, Bolander said.