The Maryland Senate committee has handed a invoice to guard for fireplace and rescue staff from being penalized for off-duty use of medical marijuana.
The measure from Sen. Carl Jackson (D) cleared the chamber in a vote of 36-8 on Monday. It now heads to the Home of Representatives, the place companion laws has additionally been filed this session however has not but superior.
Beneath the proposal, state legislation could be amended to codify that firefighters and different rescue staff who’re registered medical hashish sufferers couldn’t be penalized over their participation within the state-legal program or for testing constructive for marijuana.
Employers couldn’t “self-discipline, discharge, or in any other case discriminate in opposition to the fireplace and rescue public security worker with respect to the worker’s compensation, phrases, situations, or privileges of employment” primarily based solely on a constructive screening for THC metabolites.
In addition they couldn’t “restrict, segregate, or classify its staff in any method that will deprive or are likely to deprive the fireplace and rescue public security worker of employment alternatives or in any other case adversely have an effect on the fireplace and rescue public security worker’s standing as an worker,” the invoice textual content says.
Nonetheless, employers might proceed to set zero-tolerance insurance policies for on-duty impairment from hashish.
The invoice was authorized final week by the Senate Finance Committee, which adopted an modification.
Initially the invoice stated that employers might particularly prohibit the usage of marijuana inside 12 hours of coming to the job, however language on the timeline was altered in committee attributable to issues concerning the enforceability of the coverage.
The modification additionally clarifies that employers can prohibit on-duty intoxication from medical or adult-use marijuana merchandise. The invoice beforehand referenced solely medical hashish.
At an preliminary listening to earlier than the Finance Committee earlier final week, the sponsor stated “our courageous fireplace and rescue personnel put their lives on the road each day to guard our communities, usually at nice private threat.”
“It’s crucial that we offer them with the entry to the medical care they want, together with physician-approved hashish remedies, with out concern of employment repercussions,” Jackson stated.
“Firefighters endure excessive bodily and psychological stress because of the nature of their work. Many endure from continual ache, put up traumatic stress dysfunction and different debilitating situations ensuing from the hazards they face within the line of responsibility. Conventional therapy choices equivalent to opioids and different prescription drugs can have harmful unwanted effects—together with dependency, cognitive impairment and the diminished capability to perform successfully. Medical hashish has been acknowledged as a safer, viable different that can enable firefighters to handle their signs whereas sustaining their capability to carry out on the highest stage.”
“Regardless of confirmed medical advantages of hashish, outdated employment insurance policies proceed to penalize firefighters who’re unable to legally use it below a health care provider supervision,” he continued. “This contradiction between medical necessity and employment insurance policies locations firefighters in an untenable place, forcing them to decide on between their well being and their profession.”
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Companion laws to the Senate invoice has been filed within the Home and is at the moment pending earlier than the chamber’s Financial Issues committee.
The invoice’s development comes about two months after officers in Maryland’s most populous county stated they have been shifting to loosen marijuana insurance policies for would-be cops in an effort to spice up recruitment amid a staffing scarcity.
In the meantime, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) final month touted laws in his State of the State tackle that will develop alternatives for folks to have their legal information for marijuana expunged, permitting individuals who violated phrases of their parole or probation to petition courts to erase these information.
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