Medical marijuana seems to be a moving target with conflicting state and federal laws contributing to a confusing playing field.
Employers having to deal with workers who may have Colorado medical marijuana cards just want to know what they’re supposed to do.
Grant Butterfield, legal counsel for Pinnacol Assurance, the state's leading worker compensation insurer, offered his company's take on the issue at a business seminar Tuesday morning.
The explosion in recent years in both medical marijuana patients and providers has made it an issue for a growing number of employers, Butterfield said.
‘‘There seems to be, and I don’t want to alarm anyone, an epidemic of chronic pain among 20-something males,’’ Butterfield joked.
Butterfield reminded the group that marijuana remains an illegal drug under federal law, according to The Gazette newspaper.
Colorado’s state law allowing medical marijuana doesn’t change that, he said. Nor does the state law require employers to change their drug policies.
‘‘Nothing in Amendment 20 requires an employer to accommodate the use of medical marijuana in the workplace,’’ he said. ‘‘There is no requirement to allow for smoke breaks.’’
Also, pre-employment drug screening, zero tolerance policies and random testing are all legal and a great way to screen for potential problems, Butterfield said.
He acknowledged that such testing may get costlier in Colorado.
‘‘I gave this talk up in Estes Park and they were saying, 'We’d love to have zero tolerance, but our summer employees all come from Boulder,' ’’ Butterfield said.
Mandatory drug testing after a workplace injury is another important policy for companies to have in place, he said.
‘‘Magically, a lot of claims go away if you require mandatory screening,’’ Butterfield said. ‘‘We can’t preach it enough.’’
Another step employers can take is to speak with their medical providers to learn their views on medical marijuana, he said. If desired, they can take their business to another provider, he said.
Although the state law precludes health insurance plans from covering medical marijuana, it doesn’t say anything about worker compensation companies, Butterfield said.
So far, Pinnacol’s policy is not to pay for medical marijuana prescriptions and no one has challenged that, he said, but he expects the issue to come up at some point.
Several employers at the presentation said that they haven’t had significant problems with employees using medical marijuana, but that it’s something they expect to keep an eye on.
‘‘We’ve only seen one case for a person with a (medical marijuana card),’’ said Jeff Kiersch, regional manager for Jiffy Lube. ‘‘We want to stay on top of it and make sure we’re fair to all our employees and that we’re keeping our employees and customers safe.’’