Council bans medical marijuana use among city employees

Move anticipates coming state law permitting rx cannabis, legal dispensaries

BEREA — Medical marijuana will not be tolerated among city employees when the legalization of medicinal cannabis in Kentucky takes effect on January 1.

Council passed municipal order 04-2024 to prohibit the use of prescription pot at any time by city employees at Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting. The vote was 6 to 1 in favor, with Councilmember Katie Startzman opposing the measure.

The new state law also empowers local employers across Kentucky to prohibit medical use of the drug by employees, as Berea has done.

“The General Assembly has passed this because they have seen it fit that there are people in our society who can benefit from [medical cannabis],” Councilmember Steve Caudill said during the meeting. “And I don't want to say that for any employee just because you’re employed here, you can’t take part in that.”

The problem, Caudill laid out for his colleagues, is that there is no surefire way to prove an employee had used marijuana (cannabis) while on the job.

Police Chief Jason Hays confirmed for Council during the meeting, that screening for cannabis is tricky — traces of the psychoactive component of the drug, THC, can remain in a person’s system for as long as a month — making it difficult to know whether a person had consumed the drug while on the job, or on personal time.

Hence, Council banned its use in City employees, whether or not they are on the job.

The move is not unique to Berea, according to City Administrator Rose Beverly, who told Council at the meeting that in anticipation of the new law, many other Kentucky municipalities are opting to erect similar bans rather than invite confusion over whether psychoactive substances are ever permitted in the workplace.

“That’s the hard part,” Beverly said. “As far as we know, all the cities and counties in Kentucky are leaning toward this stance just because it is new to us. If there is another way, I don’t know that anyone is aware of it.”

Beverly noted that roughly half of City employees such as those who hold a commercial driver’s license or who are a member of the City’s police department, already are ineligible for a medical marijuana use card due to the nature of their job.

The new state law when in effect next month also does not give protected status to employees who use medical cannabis, nor does it give them a cause of action in wrongful termination or discrimination cases.

Additionally, being fired for using medical marijuana on the job, testing positive for a controlled substance, or working while under the influence could be a disqualification for unemployment insurance benefits, depending upon whether the employee violated workplace personnel policies.

Council’s municipal order might only be a chapter in a larger story, however. “If the classification of marijuana changes, we’ll have to revisit the policy, sort of like we would with opioids,” Beverly told Council.

Currently, marijuana is a schedule one drug, meaning the federal view is that it is among those substances posing the greatest threat of addiction and other harms to citizens.

Earlier this year, however, in a reversal of 50 years of drug policy, the Biden administration moved to reschedule marijuana as a drug with less potential for abuse than other schedule one drugs such as heroin.

Cannabis would still be a controlled substance if the schedule changes, and would not be for recreational purposes, but medical only. The move is still pending, but with the incoming Trump administration, pressure on the Drug Enforcement Administration to make the change is likely to ease.

Still, to reschedule the drug federally would bring its use into alignment with most states. Kentucky is the thirty-eighth state to have legalized medical marijuana.

Meanwhile, over the past decade, Congress has prohibited funding any Department of Justice interference with state and local marijuana laws, meaning it has largely been up to states to carry the decision.

When the Kentucky General Assembly legalized medical marijuana in early 2023 (SB47), local governments across the state were automatically opted in as allowing for cannabis dispensaries to operate legally within their jurisdiction, and for people qualified by the Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis to use them.

Like with local jurisdiction over medical marijuana use and employment, local governments are also granted by the language of KRS 218B.130, to “prohibit all cannabis business operations within its territory through the passage of an ordinance or by ballot question.”

During last month’s election, neither Berea nor Madison County put to voters whether to opt in or out of the law’s de facto green light for medical marijuana, including whether to permit the construction of dispensaries within the county or city limits. Either government could still move against the placement of dispensaries in their jurisdiction, however.

The next regularly scheduled City Council meeting is on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, at 6:30pm in the City Annex, 304 Chestnut Street. The entrance is in the back of the building.

You can watch this week’s regularly scheduled meeting here: