What does this law do?
- Define adult use cannabis to mean marijuana as defined in Section 3719.01 of the Revised Code and establish the Division of Cannabis Control (the "Division") within the Department of Commerce;
- Authorize the Division to regulate, investigate, and penalize adult use cannabis operators, adult use testing laboratories, and individuals required to be licensed;
- Legalize and regulate the cultivation, processing, sale, purchase, possession, home grow, and use of cannabis by adults at least twenty-one years of age;
- Create additional protections for individuals who engage in permitted adult use cannabis conduct;
- Establish the cannabis social equity and jobs program and require the Department of Development to certify program applicants based on social and economic disadvantage;
- Define "social disadvantage" to include membership in a racial or ethnic minority group, disability status, gender, or long-term residence in an area of high unemployment;
- Shield certain confidential information from disclosure to the public, including but not limited to any information reported to or collected by the Division that identifies or would tend to identify any adult use cannabis consumer and prohibit the Department of Development from releasing certain application information as public records;
- Require the Division to provide preferential treatment to applicants who have qualified for the cannabis social equity and jobs program based on social disadvantage when issuing level III adult use cannabis cultivator licenses and dispensary licenses;
- Prohibit certain local government entities from limiting specific research, levying a tax, or charge on adult use operations, their owner, or their property not generally charged on other business, and prohibit certain local government entities from prohibiting or limiting adult use cannabis home grow or prohibiting or restricting an activity authorized by the proposed law;
- Authorize a landlord or an employer to prohibit the adult use of cannabis in certain circumstances, and prohibit the operation of a motor vehicle while using or under the influence of adult use cannabis and from using any other combustible adult use cannabis while a passenger in a motor vehicle;
- Limit criminal liability for certain financial institutions that provide financial services to any lawful adult use cannabis operator or testing laboratory licensed under the proposed law;
- Require the Division to enter into an agreement with the Depa1tment of Mental Health and Addiction Services to create a program for cannabis addiction services;
- Provide for the creation of five funds in the state treasury: the adult use tax fund; the cannabis social equity and jobs fund; the host community cannabis fund; the substance abuse and addiction fund; and the division of cannabis control and tax commissioner fund; and
- Provide for taxation of 10 percent on the sale of adult use cannabis by dispensaries in addition to usual sales taxes and require that all monies collected from the IO percent tax levied to be deposited into the adult use tax fund and quarterly distributed as follows: 36 percent to the cannabis social equity and jobs fund; 36 percent to the host community cannabis facilities fund; 25 percent to the substance abuse and addiction fund; and three percent to the division of cannabis control and tax commission fund.
How will this affect employers in Ohio?
Firstly, this appears that it will not dramatically affect current employment practices of Ohio employers.
Employers are
- NOT required to “permit or accommodate an employee’s use, possession, or distribution of adult use cannabis”, and
- NOT prohibited from “refusing to hire, discharging, disciplining, or otherwise taking an adverse employment action against an individual … because of that individual’s use, possession, or distribution of cannabis.”
- NOT prohibited from refuse to hire, discipline, or discharge an employee if that employee tests positive for marijuana, even if the positive test was the result of lawful, off-duty use.
NOTE: This legalization has NO affect on companies or employees regulated by the Department of Transportation (DOT).
What about finding employees or workers?
Companies in Ohio were already struggling to find workers, and this legal change may make that even more difficult. Employers who take a hard line on marijuana “off-duty” use may find it even more difficult to find workers in the current tight labor market in Ohio where the unemployment rate was about 3.4% in August which is only slightly above the all-time low of 3.3% hit in July. This is made even more challenging as there is still no clear method for testing for marijuana impairment or for determining off-duty use. Not sure if changes are needed for your drug-free workplace policy? Contact National Drug Screening for assistance updating your policy and your testing program.
More updates will be coming as this moves toward implementation and if any legal challenges arise.
