Employment discrimination: medical cannabis.
The bill seeks to mitigate the barriers faced by individuals who use medical cannabis, acknowledging that many workers, under proper medical advice, benefit from cannabis for pain management and other medical conditions. It draws attention to the fact that while some employees are permitted to use prescribed medications, those utilizing medical cannabis may face unjust discrimination. As such, AB 2355 aims to recognize and protect the rights of these workers to seek reasonable accommodation in similar ways as others who are prescribed legal drugs.
Additionally, AB 2355 acknowledges the existing legal landscape where a number of other states have implemented protections for medical cannabis patients against employment discrimination. In that light, the bill aims to align California's laws to offer similar protections, recognizing that workplace drug testing methods currently do not effectively measure impairment and can result in unfair penalization of medical cannabis users. This alignment reflects a broader legislative intent to adapt to changing attitudes and laws surrounding cannabis use across the nation.
Assembly Bill 2355, introduced by Assembly Member Bonta, aims to amend Section 12940 of the Government Code concerning employment discrimination related to medical cannabis. The bill intends to make it unlawful for employers to discriminate against employees who are qualified medical cannabis patients or hold identification cards, thereby granting them similar protections as those provided for other prescribed medications. This inclusion is based on the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, which prohibits employment discrimination due to medical conditions.
However, the bill does not exempt employers from maintaining safe workplace environments and includes provisions that allow for impairment testing. This is a point of contention, as some critics argue that this could still leave room for discrimination under circumstances where employers might claim safety concerns. The bill doesn't prevent employers from taking legitimate actions against employees discovered to be using or impaired by medical cannabis during work hours, which could lead to potential conflicts between the rights of the employee and the employer's obligations to maintain safety standards.