TROY — A majority of Michigan voters approved the legalization of recreational marijuana for those ages 21 and older, but what will that mean in the workplace?
The proposal allows people 21 or older to purchase, possess and use marijuana and marijuana-infused edibles, and to grow up to 12 marijuana plants for personal consumption.
Regulations and licensing for retailers should be in place to allow for the purchase of pot for recreational use by the end of this year.
James E. Baiers — the chief legal officer of the Troy-based Trion Solutions Inc., which manages the human resources administration for approximately 150 small- to midsize businesses in Michigan and 450 companies across the United States — spoke with Trion COO Craig Vanderburg on issues facing employers and employees at a program hosted by the Auburn Hills Chamber of Commerce Feb. 7.
Baiers said he planned to talk about the steps that businesses should take to revise company policies regarding drug and alcohol testing if the owner, occupier or manager of the property wishes to prohibit the use or consumption of marijuana.
Driving under the influence of pot, and consuming it or using it on public and some private property — including hotels, businesses and office buildings — remain illegal.
Baiers explained that employee testing is threefold: pre-employment testing; reasonable suspicion testing if behavior or other signs indicate that someone may be under the influence, if that’s in the company policy; and random drug testing.
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In the latter case, companies need to institute policies to ensure that testing is uniformly enforced — “truly random” and not used selectively or to discriminate against someone, Baiers said.
“One of the issues, unlike alcohol, is that a positive result will not necessarily reveal if someone is under THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana) influence at the time,” Baiers said.
He noted that marijuana could have been ingested or consumed two or three days prior and still show up in a urinalysis, even though the person would no longer be under the influence.
“With marijuana, we don’t have such a (definitive) test at this point,” he said.
Man sues over job rejection due to medical marijuana.
A Connecticut man whose bid to become a firefighter in the state’s largest city was rejected because he uses medical marijuana has sued.
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The Connecticut Post reports that James Bulerin III says in his lawsuit that he passed all eligibility requirements to become a Bridgeport firefighter, but he was denied after he tested positive for marijuana.
His lawyer, Thomas Bucci, says Bulerin has a medical marijuana card, and his client’s undisclosed condition does not affect his ability to serve as a firefighter.
Bucci says as long as he’s not using pot during work hours, his client cannot be denied the employment opportunity under state law.
What do pot and heroin have in common? Nothing, says poet John Sinclair — which is why he is suing
John Sinclair is famous for many things. He’s a poet, civil rights activist and, certainly not least, one of Michigan’s leading potheads.
His conviction to 10 years in prison in 1969 for selling two joints to an undercover agent became a cause célèbre, attracting John Lennon, Bob Seger and Stevie Wonder to his aid.
Now, 50 years later, Sinclair has a new cause. He is suing the Michigan Board of Pharmacy to erase marijuana from the state’s list of controlled substances. If he is successful, pot would no longer be in the same category in Michigan as drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
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Sinclair’s conviction was overturned by the Michigan Supreme Court, which ruled his punishment unconstitutional. The landmark case also barred the government from using electronic surveillance without a warrant..
Joining Sinclair are the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, the Michigan Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, pharmacist Paul Littler, autism researcher Christian Bogner and medical marijuana patient Josey Scoggin.
Attorney Michael Komorn said the placement of marijuana as a Schedule I substance in Michigan — formally defined in the Public Health Code as a “high potential” for abuse and no accepted medical benefits — is entirely contradictory to the formation of both the medical marijuana industry and the recent passage of Proposal 1.
“Marijuana can no longer be considered harmful,” Komorn wrote. “Because of its contraband status, the mere suspected presence of marijuana is sufficient to establish probable cause to raid citizens’ homes and forfeit their property. Under current case law, there is probable cause to search every single medical marijuana cardholder.”
While Proposal 1 effectively legalized the adult possession and recreational use of marijuana, Komorn said its ranking within the Public Health Code could open the door for unwarranted police enforcement. He also contended Child Protective Services could lean on the list to make custody decisions for pot smoking parents.
“The continued placement on the public health code defines marijuana as a narcotic or some type of dangerous substance,” Komorn added. “It completely contradicts the regulatory structure that allows for medical marijuana. It’s not a dangerous substance and needs to be removed from that list immediately.”
Komorn, however, couldn’t offer a single example of an unlawful search and seizure since the passage of Proposal 1. Sinclair also recognized the lawsuit could be more a symbolic gesture than a mechanism for meaningful change. For him, it’s more about state recognition that the board’s scheduling structure is flawed.
The pilot program will allow patients that receive or are qualified to receive opioid prescriptions access to medical marijuana as an alternative to prescription opioid medications such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin.
The pilot program comes amid a nationwide epidemic of fatal opioid-related drug overdoses. Of the 70,200 drug overdose deaths that occurred nationwide in 2017, opioids caused 47,600, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. There were six times more opioid deaths that year than in 1999.
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Opioid-related overdose deaths in Illinois increased to 15.3 per 100,000 persons in 2016 from 3.9 per 100,000 persons in 1999.
The Alternative to Opioids Act also lifted restrictions included in Illinois’ original medical marijuana law, the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, which took effect January 2014. That law required providers to fingerprint and perform criminal background checks on all applicants. In fiscal year 2017, IDPH denied 635 qualifying patients, some solely on the basis of failed background checks. The Alternative to Opioids Act eliminated the fingerprint and background check requirements.
“There is not a singular answer to the [opioid] crisis … it’s a piece of an answer,” state Rep. Kelly Cassidy, D-Chicago, chief co-sponsor of the bill. “But the minute we passed this bill, New York state introduced a version of it. We were the first in the country to contemplate short-term access as a way to prevent addiction.”
OTSEGO COUNTY, Mich., A Michigan musician who was a finalist on “The Voice” has been sentenced to 1 year probation.
Laith Al-Saadi plead no contest to one count of possession of a controlled substance.
Two other drug charges were dropped with the plea deal
The charges came from a traffic stop in February 2017 when Al-Saadi was pulled over by Michigan State Police for an expired license plate.
According to the trooper, there was a strong smell of marijuana coming from the vehicle.
The prosecutor said the troopers then searched the vehicle and found a backpack that contained marijuana, as well as other drugs including hydrocodone.
“I fully recognize that it was stupid, and I have attempted to use this to better my life in the best way possible,” said Laith Al-Saadi at sentencing.
Honorable George J. Mertz of the 46th Circuit Court said he took multiple things into consideration during sentencing, including the fact that Al-Saadi is 41 years old and does not have a criminal record.
“My point is that I don’t think that you are using these things recreationally, and that makes a difference to me in sentencing,” said Judge Mertz. “You do have a very successful career and from what I’ve read you’ve used that in ways to help the community which I think is important, and I think it’s important you continue to be able to do that.”
Although the case has had an impact on Al-Saadi’s career, his attorney says they are satisfied with the sentencing.
“This a situation where he [Al-Saadi] had a previous prescription for the narcotic that he was found with, and it had lapsed, as that sometimes happens,” said Attorney Michael Komorn. “Also, I think it’s important that the court recognized that he is under a doctor’s care, and most remarkable I think is that the court agreed with us that he does not have a controlled substance problem.”
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While on probation Al-Saadi will be allowed to travel in and out of the state, as well as the country, if it is for work purposes.
LAITH AL-SAADI
His next performance in northern Michigan is a charity concert to support mental health will be held at the Traverse City Opera House on February 15th at 7:30 p.m. ‘Cure for the Winter Blues‘
New study seeks to understand whether people are using cannabis for evidence-based reasons
Date: February 4, 2019 Source: Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan Summary: A new study seeks to understand whether people are using medical cannabis for evidence-based reasons.
Slowly but surely, the stigma surrounding marijuana use is losing its grip in the U.S. Since the 1990s, advocates have pushed for a re-evaluation of cannabis (the plant species name often used interchangeably with marijuana) as a viable treatment for a host of ailments. As of 2018, 33 states and the District of Columbia have approved the medical use of cannabis, while 10 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use. Despite this fact, at the federal level, marijuana remains a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act, defined as a drug with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.
New research from the University of Michigan, published in the February issue of Health Affairs, takes a deeper dive into state medical marijuana registry data to provide more insight into its use.
Hmm…what data?
“We did this study because we wanted to understand the reasons why people are using cannabis medically, and whether those reasons for use are evidence based,” says lead author Kevin Boehnke, Ph.D., research investigator in the department of anesthesiology and the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center.
He and his U-M colleagues Daniel J. Clauw, M.D., a professor of anesthesiology, medicine, and psychiatry and Rebecca L. Haffajee, Ph.D., assistant professor of health management and policy, as well as U-M alum Saurav Gangopadhyay, M.P.H., a consultant at Deloitte, sought out data from states with legalized medical use of marijuana.
To examine patterns of use, the researchers grouped patient-reported qualifying conditions (i.e. the illnesses/medical conditions that allowed a patient to obtain a license) into evidence categories pulled from a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report on cannabis and cannabinoids. The report, published in 2017, is a comprehensive review of 10,000 scientific abstracts on the health effects of medical and recreational cannabis use. According to the report, there was conclusive or substantial evidence that chronic pain, nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy, and multiple sclerosis (MS) spasticity symptoms were improved as a result of cannabis treatment.
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Evidence-based relief
One major finding of the Health Affairs paper was the variability of available data. Less than half of the states had data on patient-reported qualifying conditions and only 20 reported data on the number of registered patients. The authors also noted that the number of licensed medical users, with 641,176 registered medical cannabis patients in 2016 and 813,917 in 2017, was likely far lower than the actual number of users.
However, with the available data, they found that the number of medical cannabis patients rose dramatically over time and that the vast majority — 85.5 percent — of medical cannabis license holders indicated that they were seeking treatment for an evidence-based condition, with chronic pain accounting for 62.2 percent of all patient-reported qualifying conditions.
“This finding is consistent with the prevalence of chronic pain, which affects an estimated 100 million Americans,” the authors state.
This research provides support for legitimate evidence-based use of cannabis that is at direct odds with its current drug schedule status, notes Boehnke. This is especially important as more people look for safer pain management alternatives in light of the current opioid epidemic.
Notes Boehnke, “Since the majority of states in the U.S. have legalized medical cannabis, we should consider how best to adequately regulate cannabis and safely incorporate cannabis into medical practice.”
BUT WAIT…WHAT’S THIS ??? A CONTRADICTION
Major study finds ‘no evidence’ that cannabis relieves chronic pain
