A recent study concluded more Americans are reporting daily, or near-daily marijuana use than are fessing up to drinking alcohol at the same pace. According to the study, which was published in the journal Addiction, about 17.7 million people reported using pot daily or near daily compared to the 14.7 million who reported consuming alcohol with the same frequency. Unsurprisingly, the study found that cannabis use tends to rise during “periods of policy liberalization.” With the passage of Issue 2, Ohio has moved into an era of “policy liberalization” and if the trend cited in the study holds, more Ohio adults are likely to start or increase their use of pot. This article will briefly discuss the history of Issue 2 and then address the impact this new law may have on employer’s policies while providing some insight into practical realities employers might want to consider.
In November 2023, Ohio voters approved Issue 2. As a result, adult recreational marijuana use became legal in Ohio. When the law became effective on December 7, 2023, Ohio became the 24th state to legalize adult recreational marijuana use. There has been much debate at the Statehouse over proposed changes to the law and the timing of when the first retail sales will start. However, the most recent reports are that adults in Ohio will likely be buying recreational weed legally by the time this article is published. So, Ohio employers may soon feel the impact of Issue 2 if they haven’t already.
What does Issue 2 change for Ohio employers? The answer is, not much. At least with respect to placing any additional legal restrictions on their employment policies when it comes to drug testing and use. Ohio employers are still permitted to establish and enforce drug testing policies, drug-free workplace policies, and zero-tolerance drug policies. Importantly, employers are not required to permit or accommodate an employee’s use, possession, or distribution of adult use cannabis in the workplace. Furthermore, employers may refuse to hire, discharge, discipline, or otherwise take an adverse employment action against an individual because of that individual’s use or possession of marijuana. Overall, employers retain the same rights that they held prior to the passage of Issue 2.
One of the biggest changes that employers will have to face in this post-Issue 2 world is the idea that off-duty consumption of marijuana is now perfectly legal – just like a can of beer. However, the reality is it will not be that easy when it comes to testing for impairment. With alcohol, there are scientifically supported, well established limits that can be used to prove intoxication. However, things are different with pot.
When a person consumes marijuana, the body metabolizes the delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) contained in the marijuana (the ingredient that creates the high). THC metabolites are leftover in the person’s system and may be detected on a drug test up to 90 days post consumption. In addition, although some states (including Ohio) have adopted DUI laws that establish a per se finding of intoxication when a certain level of THC is found in the body, there is no generally accepted scientifically based amount of THC in a person’s system that necessarily equates to intoxication. Part of the challenge in establishing such a limit is the amount of THC metabolite left behind after consumption varies based on several factors, including frequency of use, gender, and weight.
As mentioned, post-Issue 2, an employer can still terminate an employee who tests positive for marijuana. This means that an employee can legally smoke a joint while off-duty and return to work, days later, stone-cold sober. However, because of the half-life of the marijuana metabolites in a person’s system, the employee may still test positive, even if they are not impaired. As a result, an employee can be terminated following their legal consumption of marijuana even though they did not come to work high. Well, you may say, “So what? They were still smoking pot. If they test positive, they are out of here.” But weed is not just being used by college kids and musicians. A large swath of the population is opting to use marijuana, especially now that it is legal.
While an Ohio employer may enforce a zero-tolerance drug policy that provides no leniency to employees who use weed on their own time, the reality is this may not be the best business option for employers. The fundamental dilemma employers will face as the result of the passage of Issue 2 is that marijuana can now be consumed legally by adults, just like alcohol. An employer may want to give some thought to whether or not it wants to investigate an employee’s off-duty use of pot without a clear business necessity.
Consider an employer that has a zero-tolerance, one-and-done drug policy that includes random drug testing for all employees regardless of the position they hold. It doesn’t matter whether you drive a forklift or mop the floors, if you work here, you are subject to random drug screens and if you test positive you are gone. A program like this is still permissible following the passage of Issue 2. However, now that smoking pot is legal for adults, the reality of continuing a program like this could be more complicated.
Imagine the person who tested positive for marijuana is not Johnny Rockstar, who you’ve been unhappy with since a week after he started. Instead, the employee who tested positive is Joyce from Accounting. Joyce does her job well and is a pleasure to deal with. Joyce, who you love and can’t run the business without, has decided to take advantage of the new law and enjoys pot after work and on the weekends, instead of the glass or two of Chardonay she used to drink. Because the policy was drafted before Issue 2 passed, it was meant for a world where smoking weed for fun was illegal. So now the employer with a zero-tolerance policy for marijuana is in a bind, it either has to fire Joyce for violating the drug-free workplace policy or keep her, and open itself up to a lawsuit from Johnny Rockstar who it happily fired the week prior when he tested positive.
So, what is an employer to do? An employer is certainly free to maintain the status quo. But, in the alternative, an employer could look at their existing policy and determine if it still makes sense in the current environment. The advocates for the passage of passage of Issue 2 argued that weed should be treated just like alcohol. And this same logic might help employers when evaluating their drug policies. Specifically, most employers don’t probe into the off-duty use of alcohol by their employees unless it spills into the workplace. This is true even for those employees who an employer might suspect of consuming more than their recommended daily allowance of alcohol in the evenings or on weekends, as long as they are showing up on time, sober, and are getting their work done. Proponents of Issue 2 would argue that weed should be treated the same.
If Joyce is a good employee and simply likes to partake in a perfectly legal activity in the state of Ohio, Joyce’s employer may want to think through why they are opening themselves up to the risk and complications associated with subjecting everyone to random drug tests and firing everyone that tests positive for marijuana.
Now, for those employees driving forklifts or working in other safety sensitive roles, or who are subject to DOT or other federal rules, the analysis is different, and a business could more easily justify the continuation of its zero-tolerance policy for those positions. The point for Ohio employers is that they should evaluate their existing policies considering the new legal landscape when it comes to the use of marijuana. Post-Issue 2 drug policies should take into account that, in Ohio, grown folks can (and will) now legally consume weed on their own time.
As with all important employment decisions, employers should work with their counsel of choice to help guide them through evaluating existing policies and potentially adopting new ones. Employers should ensure their workplace rules make sense for their business in the new reality ushered in by Issue 2.
Kuntz is an associate with Frost Brown Todd in its Labor and Employment Practice Group. She earned her J.D. from the Northern Kentucky University Chase College of Law. Moore is a partner with Frost Brown Todd in its Labor and Employment Practice Group. Moore is a frequent lecturer and author on topics related to employment law, and a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law.