New Mexico lawmakers recently passed a bill designed to shield medical marijuana patients in their state from facing employment penalties for off-duty use of cannabis.
On Friday, the House Health & Human Services Committee unanimously passed Reena Szczepanski (D), Majority Floor Leader for House Majority Floor Leadership, legislation through 6-2 vote.
“First responders face stress, chronic pain, insomnia and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). To deny them access to medicinal cannabis is extremely harmful and unnecessary.” Now is the time for change!
Under this bill, an “employee shall not be considered impaired due solely to presence of cannabis metabolites or components”, it reads.
Under this measure, random drug testing for marijuana would continue to be prohibited; however, patients could still be tested when there’s reason to believe cannabis was used during work-related activity and caused significant property damage as part of its usage.
Friday afternoon, the committee approved a minor amendment that revises one line in the bill to state that any positive test for cannabis must be reviewed by a medical review officer to ascertain if a legitimate medical explanation can be offered as to its significance.
Under its new language, the bill now stipulates that an employer is expected to adhere to cannabis impairment guidelines when testing for cannabis impairment.
In accordance with this measure, the state Department of Health must assist workforce solutions department in creating cannabis impairment guidelines based on evidence- or research-based indicators such as physical symptoms evaluation as well as psychomotor and cognitive performance measurements.
“The workforce solutions department shall notify private employers about this section and inform them about recent advancements in testing protocols for cannabis impairment,” it states. Meanwhile, “The department of finance and administration shall disseminate cannabis impairment guidelines among state agencies and political subdivisions within their state jurisdiction.”
Last week, the committee heard testimony from labor leaders representing firefighters and other public sector workers whose rights would be safeguarded under this bill.
Miguel Tittmann, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 244, noted that military veteran members would especially benefit from new workplace protections because many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and pain related ailments.
“Shift work is how we operate. Sometimes no sleep for 48 hours!” He further commented that many ailments that our members suffer from and receive medications with cannabinoids as the active ingredients were being diagnosed as well as prescribed to them through this facility.
Tittmann asserted that random drug testing for marijuana use would violate constitutional and ethical norms and lead to their loss of jobs, livelihood and pension funds – this being at the crux of it all.
Theodore Ygbuhay, Vice President of the Union’s Firefighters Local 588 Local, recently described cannabis as “a safe alternative” for treating firefighters’ ailments than opioid-based prescriptions or other pharmaceutical solutions.
“Whenever we rely solely on random urinalysis tests that do not demonstrate current impairment,” he stated, “this could go back 30 days.”
Bernalillo County in Albuquerque was the first public body in New Mexico to implement this reform following legalization of cannabis in 2021. Commissioners approved policy details of their plan to end testing and punishing government employees who use marijuana outside work hours – making Bernalillo a pioneering example in New Mexico of cannabis legalization reform.
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A bipartisan bill to establish a therapeutic psilocybin program in New Mexico underwent its inaugural hearing before a Senate panel and received unanimous support, passing unanimously with lawmakers voting to advance it.
Last year, New Mexico lawmakers and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) adopted and supported a resolution calling upon state officials to research psilocybin for therapeutic uses and devise a regulatory structure allowing access.
Prior to 2023’s session, however, the House Health and Human Services Committee passed a bill calling for the creation of a state body to investigate psilocybin therapy programs for certain patients. Unfortunately, however, that bill failed to advance further during that session.
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