In an article published by the Society for Human Resource Management on August 7, Sally Culley provides advice for HR professionals and managers to stay up to date on the ever-changing reality of drug use in the workplace. If someone tests positive for THC, he or she might say that the positive test result was caused by the medical use of marijuana, which can be used in an oil form, or through CBD oil use, which also might be used for medical reasons.

“If an employee is taking CBD oil or cannabis oil – which often has higher concentrations of THC – in accordance with a state’s medical marijuana laws, there may be some state law protections for the employee,” shares Culley. “Otherwise, employers with zero-tolerance drug policies are free to discipline employees for failing drug tests, even if the ingestion of THC was inadvertent.”

However, in some regions, it is no longer lawful to have a zero-tolerance policy for marijuana or CBD use. Certain employers have stopped testing for THC when drug screening job applicants, due not only to laws limiting pre-employment testing, but to “more accepting attitudes toward marijuana use and to widen the pool of qualified candidates,” Culley adds.

For the full article, click here.