Medical Marijuana in Massachusetts: Reasonable Accomodations in the Workplace
While we continue to follow the recreational marijuana legalization saga and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Medical Marijuana Program, our colleagues on the employment law side of the equation are monitoring decisions regarding the ability of employers to take disciplinary action against employees for using marijuana at work. This blog post discusses an important new decision issued by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Barbuto v. Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC, in which the Court concluded that, under the circumstances in that case, employers must accommodate medical marijuana users in the normal course to avoid violating the state’s antidiscrimination laws when it fires an employee because of a failed drug test based on the employee’s use of medical marijuana. It’s a must read for employers grappling with this emerging area of employment law.
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