New Mexico’s House of Representatives has also passed a law that protects medical marijuana patients from having their off-duty cannabis usage penalized. The Senate also approved a companion bill.
In a vote of 7-3, the House Judiciary Committee on Friday approved Reena Sczepanski’s (D) proposal as the leader of the House majority floor. It’s been almost a full month since a committee first advanced this proposal.
Meanwhile, the Senate companion bill—sponsored by Sens. Linda López (D) and Shannon Pinto (D)—separately passed the Senate Health and Public Affairs Committee by a tally of 6-3.
Employees could be considered to have been “impaired” if they are tested solely for THC-metabolites.
Measures would also ban random marijuana testing, although patients may be subjected to screening if it is reasonable suspected that cannabis has been used at work resulting “insignificant damage” to property.
A minor amendment was adopted at the previous House Committee meeting. It replaces the line that said that a “drug-test for cannabis will be reviewed by an independent medical officer, who will determine whether the positive result is due to a valid medical reason.”
In the revised language of the bill, it now states that “an employer shall follow the cannabis impaired guidelines when testing for impairment by cannabis.”
In the House Judiciary Committee, the legislation was amended to prohibit the use of positive results from a cannabis test in civil proceedings “exposing an employer to liability due to the employee’s conduct on duty.”
These measures stipulate also that the Department of Health of California must “assist in the development of cannabis impairment guidelines based on research or evidence-based indicators of impairment, including physical symptoms and the evaluation of psychomotor performance and cognitive function.”
The department of workforce solutions is responsible for informing private employers about this section, and providing information on the latest advances in testing methods to determine cannabis impairment. The Department of Finance and Administrative shall provide the guidelines on cannabis impairment to all state agencies, political subdivisions and state governments.
Meanwhile, commissioners in New Mexico’s most populous county recently approved policy details of a plan to stop testing and punishing most government employees for off-hours marijuana use. Bernalillo County, where Albuquerque is located, was the first public body in the state to implement the reform following the legalization of cannabis in 2021.
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The votes on the statewide cannabis employment legislation comes as a bipartisan proposal to establish a therapeutic psilocybin program in New Mexico had an initial hearing before a Senate panel, with lawmakers voting unanimously to advance the bill.
New Mexico legislators passed and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) endorsed, a resolution requesting that state officials research the therapeutic potential of psilocybin and explore the creation of a regulatory framework to provide access to the psychedelic.
The prior year, the House Health and Human Services Committee passed a bill that called for the creation of a state body to study the possibility of launching a psilocybin therapy program for certain patients. This measure, however, did not progress further during the session of 2023.
New Hampshire legislators unanimously pass psilocybin-decriminalization legislation
Martin Alonso is the photographer.
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