{"id":51447,"date":"2019-03-26T23:26:14","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/?p=51447"},"modified":"2022-11-30T09:53:40","modified_gmt":"2022-11-30T14:53:40","slug":"new-utah-marijuana-laws-change-things-for-employers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/blogs\/new-utah-marijuana-laws-change-things-for-employers\/","title":{"rendered":"New Utah Marijuana Laws Change Things For Employers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marijuana reform<\/strong> is sweeping the nation, and every year it seems that more and more starts are adopting new laws and regulations related to the use of this drug. Recently, Utah joined the ranks by passing Utah Proposition 2 by a majority. This law allows the use of medical cannabis<\/strong> if patients are found to have a qualifying illness and be recommended by a physician to start receiving the drug for medical use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a slow process, but it\u2019s likely that medical cannabis cards<\/strong> will begin to be issued by March of 2020 at the very latest. That\u2019s great news for patients who suffer from illnesses, but currently, the law lacks provision related to employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law defines qualifying illnesses as any type of medical condition that can be considered persistent, chronic, and debilitating. Some of the conditions included in this definition are:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 HIV
\u2022 Alzheimer\u2019s disease
\u2022 Crohn\u2019s Disease
\u2022 Ulcerative colitis
\u2022 Autism
\u2022 Any condition that causes persistent pain
\u2022 Any condition that causes persistent muscle spasms
\u2022 Cancer
\u2022 And more<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, if a patient suffers chronic debilitating pain that they can\u2019t use other pain medications for, a doctor may recommend the use of medical marijuana instead. The law also requires that cannabis cardholders don\u2019t smoke marijuana using a device that creates combustion at a temperature greater than 750 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while that\u2019s great for patients, what does it mean for employers? Traditionally, the use of a 5-panel drug test<\/a> <\/strong>has been used to conduct pre-hiring screening<\/strong> <\/a>as well as to conduct \u2018reasonable suspicion\u2019 drug testing and random testing. But now that some employees may be able to use marijuana to treat their illnesses, what does that mean for employers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the moment, it\u2019s unclear. There are no provisions in the new law concerning employers, which means that they should be able to create their own drug policies \u2013 especially if the workplace is one that is dangerous or reliant on employees being clear headed. But, a 5 panel drug test won\u2019t be able to determine if an employee has been using their medical marijuana outside of work as allowed by law or if they\u2019re high while on the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employers will need to consider the new regulations and update their drug policies accordingly in order to ensure that they remain in compliance. They may still need to use drug testing facilities in Salt Lake City<\/a> and throughout Utah<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marijuana reform is sweeping the nation, and every year it seems that more and more starts are adopting new laws and regulations related to the use of this drug. Recently, Utah joined the ranks by passing Utah Proposition 2 by a majority. This law allows the use of medical cannabis if patients are found to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":53781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"60880,50876,51514,51223,55058,51045","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82,48,81],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationaldrugscreening.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}