Massachusetts Lawmakers Pass Bill to Provide Marijuana Users with Employment Protection

Massachusetts legislators have introduced a bill that would provide protections in the workplace for those who smoke marijuana.

The Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development passed on Friday the bill from Rep. Chynah (D), sending the document to the House Steering, Policy and Scheduling Committee.

It comes two months after another committee approved a bill similar to the one passed by Rep. Michael Kushmerek.

The proposal presented on Friday would prevent employers from insisting that cannabis be tested until they have made a conditional job offer. The measure also states that an employer cannot “directly, indirectly or forcefully” require a prospective or current employee to be tested for marijuana.

Individual protections will be provided to medical marijuana patients who meet the criteria.

The employer could not refuse to hire or terminate an employee, penalize or fail to promote a qualified patient, or take any other adverse action against the person based on their status, “unless that individual used marijuana, had it in his possession, or became impaired while at work.”

“A qualifying patient’s failure to pass an employer-administered drug test for marijuana components or metabolites may not be used as a basis for employment-related decisions unless reasonable suspicion exists that the qualified patient was impaired by marijuana at the qualifying patient’s place of employment or during the hours of employment,” the bill text says.

The legislation contains exceptions. The law does not require, for instance, employers to allow or tolerate the consumption, possession or display of marijuana at work or during employment.

As well, protections will not apply to situations in which drug tests are required under federal employment contracts. Cannabis screening could continue for employers in designated “safety-sensitive” jobs.

In the background of this legislative effort, the Massachusetts attorney general’s office last week confirmed it has been receiving complaints from the public about petitioners for a 2026 ballot initiative aimed at rolling back the state’s marijuana legalization law–with a growing number of people alleging that signature collectors are peddling misleading information about the proposal.

For its part, the campaign to repeal marijuana said, last month, that they are “on course” to secure enough signatures to put the initiative on ballots. The campaign is working hard to reach 100,000 signatures before the December 3 deadline.

Meanwhile, the head of Massachusetts’s marijuana regulatory agency recently suggested that the measure to effectively recriminalize recreational cannabis sales could imperil tax revenue that’s being used to support substance misuse treatment efforts and other public programs.

It remains to be seen if the cannabis-related measures will make it through. In 2016, voters approved the legalization of cannabis, and sales began two years later. In the past decade the cannabis market has evolved and expanded. As of August, Massachusetts officials reported more than $8 billion in adult-use marijuana sales.

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Regulators are also working to finalize rules to allow for a new cannabis consumption lounge license type, which they hope to complete by October.

Separately, in May CCC launched an online platform aimed at helping people find jobs, workplace training and networking opportunities in the state’s legal cannabis industry.

State lawmakers have also been considering setting tighter restrictions on intoxicating hemp-derived products and a plan to allow individual entities to control a larger number of cannabis establishments.

Also in Massachusetts, legislators who were working on a state budget butted heads with CCC officials, who’ve said they can’t make critical technology improvements without more money from the legislature.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts lawmakers recently approved a bill to establish a pilot program for the regulated therapeutic use of psychedelics. Separately, two committees conducted hearings for the discussion of additional measures related to psilocybin.