[[“value”:”
Alderpersons on the Annapolis City Council approved an ordinance last night amending the city’s employment policy to abolish marijuana drug screening for most public employees.
Council members voted unanimously in favor of Ordinance 35-24, which updates the city’s employment policy. The ordinance states, “The city shall not conduct cannabis testing during pre-employment screening or after hiring an employee.”
Over 600 workers are employed by the city, which is Maryland’s state capital.
NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano testified in favor of the measure at a pair of committee hearings. He said that requiring public employees to undergo marijuana urinalysis tests “discriminates against people who are compliant with the state’s marijuana legalization laws, unnecessarily limits the pool of applicants seeking public employment, and punishes those who rely on the use of cannabis as a medicine.”
He praised local lawmakers for adopting the policy change. “Marijuana urinalysis testing is a holdover from the zeitgeist of the 1980s ‘war on drugs.’ But times have changed; public attitudes have changed, and in many jurisdictions, like Maryland, the marijuana laws have changed. It is time for workplace policies to adapt to this new reality and to cease punishing employees for activities they engage in during their off-hours that pose no workplace safety threat.”
Alderman Robert Savidge, who was the lead sponsor of the ordinance, said: “I’m glad that the entire City Council came together to pass this measure unanimously. We have corrected an injustice where our employees were being unjustly punished and potentially having their careers destroyed for responsibly utilizing a legal substance on their own time. This [ordinance] is a common sense solution, as illustrated by the Council’s unanimous support.”
Alderman Savidge says that he intends to work toward enacting a similar ordinance countywide. Anne Arundel County, which is home to the city of Annapolis, has a population of approximately 600,000 people.
Baltimore and Frederick County, Maryland (population: 287,000) already prohibit pre-employment marijuana screening for most public employees. The new Annapolis ordinance goes further than those policies by also halting marijuana screening for those who have already been hired.
State lawmakers legalized medical cannabis access in 2014. Marijuana became legal in Maryland for adults in 2023.
In recent years, lawmakers in several states — including California, Connecticut, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island — have adopted similar limitations on marijuana testing in the workplace.
NORML has consistently argued that employers should not presume that the detection of either THC or its metabolites is evidence of impairment. That is because their presence is not predictive of either diminished performance or recent exposure. Alternatively, NORML has called for the expanded use of performance-based tests, like DRUID or Predictive Safety’s AlertMeter.
Additional information is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Marijuana Legalization and Impact on the Workplace.’
“]] “It is time for workplace policies to cease punishing employees for activities they engage in during their off-hours that pose no workplace safety threat.” Read More
