Top Employment Law Categories drugs/alcohol

"drugs/alcohol" Blog Tag

NJ: Weed, opioids, workers' comp – who pays?

February 24th, 2020

Alexander Castelli at Shawe Rosenthal

Federal crime: to manufacture, posses or distribute marijuana.

New Jersey's Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical [Marijuana] Cannabis Act: ". . . the purpose of this act is to protect from arrest, prosecution, property forfeiture, and criminal and other penalties, those patients who use [marijuana] cannabis to alleviate suffering from [debilitating] qualifying medical conditions, as well as their [physicians] health care practitioners, [primary] designated caregivers, institutional caregivers, and those who are authorized to produce [marijuana] cannabis for medical purposes."

Who pays: the insurance company (for the marijuana), the employer (for breaking a law), the employee (with pain and an opioid addiction)?

Alexander Castelli lays out the background, the court's decision and the court's reasoning.

NY 11 employment laws you missed if you blinked (not 10)

February 25th, 2020

Jennifer Queliz at Cozen O'Connor

Not content to simply stop at 10 new employment laws and regulations, the state that gives us:

Eleven Madison Park (the #4 restaurant in the world),
Eleven (a clothing line aiming "to enhance the conversation amongst footballers – the world over")
11R (an art gallery that hasn't updated their website since 2017)

pushes over the double-digit threshhold ala Spinal Tap and their magic amps with 11 new employment laws and regulations that have passed or gone into effect this year.

IL Tidal wave (or tsunami) of new laws for Illinois employers

August 15th, 2019

David Moore and Peter Gillespie at Laner Muchin

Look, I am not one to argue with attorneys because you never know when you might need one, so you decide for yourself the correct roaring-wall-of-water metaphor.

Regardless, any Illinois employer that either has or deals with:

employee handbooks
confidentiality
cannabis
policies
salary (history, sharing info, pay equity)
REQUIRED ANNUAL TRAINING (sexual harassment)
employees (probably should have just lead with that)

would be well advised (attorney-speak for "just do it") to read what David Moore and Peter Gillespie have to say and then execute said prescribed actions elucidated (attorney-speak for "just do it") (attorneys have a rather extensive alternative vocabulary).

NJ New medical marijuana law drifts toward legalized recreational

July 22nd, 2019

John MacDonald at Constangy

Medical marijuana seems to imply "need" and recreational implies "want", right? Well, if you are in New Jersey, you may "want" to read this blog from John MacDonald because you are going to "need" to make some adjustments, like:

jettison "zero tolerance" from your marijuana vocabulary
add another written notice template to your collection
redefine "reasonable accommodation" and "medical need".

CBD – the oil, not the alphabet, under the influence

June 18th, 2019

Bruce Douglas and Jennifer Bocchinfuso at Ogletree Deakins

CBD oil is legal in most states if derived from hemp, and the uses, although not necessarily efficacy, range from anxiety to acne, pain relief to heart disease. It is considered an effective anti-seizure medication by the Mayo Clinic and is being studied as a treatment for Parkinson's schizophrenia, diabetes and MS. And if it is derived from marijuana, it may contain THC and be psychoactive. Dude.

So it is coming to your office, if it isn't already there. Now you have to figure out how to deal with it.

Bruce Douglas and Jennifer Bocchinfuso help with a little background, perspective and some takeways.

Temperance in the workplace

May 10th, 2019

hrsimple

We’ve talked at length about the issues of dealing with alcohol in the workplace, but here is a new take: how does an employer deal with a non-drinker?

While it seems like a no brainer, we all know that nothing in the employment law world is as black and white as it seems, so check out what the Evil HR Lady has to say in Inc. Magazine and read up on all things teetotaler now.