A Washington, D.C. Council committee on Thursday unanimously approved a bill to ban most workplaces from subjecting job applicants to pre-employment marijuana testing. The legislation, sponsored by Councilmember Trayon White (D), cleared the Labor & Workforce Development Committee. It would expand on previous legislation the D.C. Council approved to protect local government employees against workplace discrimination due to their use of medical cannabis. “This is an important step towards eliminating historic inequities of cannabis use and ensuring that those who use cannabis medically or recreationally are not penalized in their work spaces [for what they do] on their private time,” White said at the committee meeting on Thursday. The new bill stipulates that, with certain exceptions, “it shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer, labor organization, employment agency, or agent thereof to require a prospective employee to submit to testing for the presence of any tetrahydrocannabinol or marijuana in such prospective employee’s system as a condition of employment.” Police, safety-sensitive construction workers and people with jobs that require a commercial driver’s license or work with childcare and patients and positions “with the potential to significantly impact the health or safety of employees or members of the public” could till be drug tested for cannabis, however.There are also exceptions for workers contracted by the federal Department of Transportation (DOT).
Kyle Jaeger, Marijuana Moment, 03/03/2022 16:41:00