Bill Would Bar Workers From Being Fired for Private Pot Use

HYANNIS – A proposed law in Massachusetts would bar employers from firing workers for using marijuana legally on their own time.

While recreational marijuana use is legal for adults in the state, workers can still be fired for using the drug.

And that applies even if it’s outside of work and its effects have worn off by the time they return to their jobs.

The region’s first recreational marijuana shop opened last week in Wareham.

The measure filed by Democratic state Sen. Jason Lewis would treat marijuana much like alcohol.

Employees could be fired for showing up to work impaired, but employers could not police the private use of pot.

Federal contractors would be exempted as marijuana remains illegal under U.S. law.

There is currently no reliable test for marijuana impairment and drug tests can detect traces of cannabis days or weeks after use.

It took more than two years and several delays for Massachusetts to get from a successful 2016 referendum to the first legal recreational marijuana sales in the eastern United States.

The slow rollout is expected to continue into 2019 and gradually pick up steam.

More than two dozen pot shops have received either final or provisional licenses from the state’s Cannabis Control Commission, and many other applications remain under review.

Five stores have launched so far, though the openings came well after the original July 1 target date for marijuana sales to debut. 

Sales of recreational marijuana and related products totaled nearly $9.3 million through mid-December.

As the new year approaches, regulators are expected to gradually shift focus from merely getting the industry off the ground to expanding it geographically and perhaps into new frontiers such as social consumption and scientific research into marijuana.