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By Nicole Maxwell
A bill seeking to remove cannabis from the list of substances employers test for during employment drug screenings in most cases is being discussed in the Roundhouse. Under HB 230 employees would also not be considered “impaired” if cannabis metabolites show up in a test sample.
“The purpose of this bill is really to protect employees from being adversely impacted by inadequate cannabis impairment testing and to create guidelines to better measure cannabis impairment,” House Majority Floor Leader Reena Szczepanski, D- Santa Fe, said at the House Health and Human Services Committee Wednesday.
The bill was initially heard Wednesday but the vote occurred Friday due to a lack of quorum.
It passed the House Health and Human Services Committee Friday on a 6-2 vote with Rep. Nicole Chavez, R-Albuquerque, and Rep. Elaine Sena Cortez, R-Hobbs, voting against it.
Employers would be able to require a drug test for cannabis if reasonable suspicion exists that a worker is impaired while on the job, after an accident involving someone else or after property damage is reported.
The New Mexico Economic Development Department found issues that may arise with the bill including implementation, the need for a standardized cannabis impairment test and relying on objective evidence without standardized criteria making enforcement difficult, the bill’s Fiscal Impact Report. States.
The bill is similar to what Bernalillo County has already done.
“We’re working on robust implementation, but I can’t explain the kind of praise we’ve gotten from our… officers, our firefighters, our folks that do some of the toughest jobs in our county are thankful that they have an option,” Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa said at the meeting Wednesday. “This will help us all, our whole state, and this will just help us, you know, streamline that implementation and how our [human resources departments] can work with it statewide.”
“}]] By Nicole Maxwell A bill seeking to remove cannabis from the list of substances employers test for during employment drug screenings in most cases is being discussed in the Roundhouse. Under HB 230 employees would also not be considered “impaired” if cannabis metabolites show up in a test sample. “The purpose of this bill is Read More
