MidsMagazine

ALERT: Many Colorado communities will have public votes this November to ban dispensaries– and many others are considering enacting bans. Sensible Colorado is working with local activists in communities across Colorado to fight these restrictions on safe access. If you live in one of these communities, the time to begin fighting these bans is now!

Here is a list of communities which either have a November vote planned, have a current ban, or are discussing a ban.

**URGENT** Broomfield
Activists in Broomfield are currently gathering signatures to overturn their local ban. They have just a few weeks to collect almost 2000 signatures and need help gathering signatures today!
Contact: Pamela Gianola: 303 466 7420 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 303 466 7420 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Cities
Aurora, Loveland, Longmont, Windsor, Larkspur, Minturn, Grand Junction, Paonia, Broomfield

Counties
El Paso, Eagle, Larimer, Garfield, Granby, Fraiser, Douglas, Las Animas, Mesa, Ouray, Montrose

**If your community is being effected by a ban or you want to help fight these restrictions please contact us asap at info@sensiblecolorado.org or 720 890 4247 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 720 890 4247 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Rebecca DeKeuster doesn’t act like a woman who has just cornered much of Maine’s medical marijuana market.

The former high school English teacher is criss-crossing the state behind the wheel of a 1997 Chevy Cavalier. Her husband towed it from California behind a U-Haul moving truck, she said.

And when she finally pauses for a face-to-face newspaper interview, DeKeuster suggests the Augusta House of Pancakes, a favorite breakfast spot in her newly adopted hometown.

DeKeuster, 40, is the most powerful figure in Maine’s emerging dispensary business. She is the chief executive officer of Northeast Patients Group, which has been awarded state licenses to operate four of the Maine’s first eight medical marijuana dispensaries. Its licenses give Northeast exclusive dispensary rights, at least for now, to the state’s biggest markets — including Portland, Augusta and Bangor.

Just eight years ago, DeKeuster was teaching in a northern California high school and knew little about medical marijuana, she said.

“I was not a pot person.”

Then she got a call to come home to Missouri because her father was dying from lung cancer.

Friends suggested she take her father some marijuana to help with pain, nausea and depression, but she didn’t want to risk getting caught by airport security, DeKeuster said.

“I watched him die … knowing that if I just had the guts to do it, I could have helped him so much,” DeKeuster said, wiping tears from her eyes. “It shouldn’t be something that I’m afraid to tell you about. It shouldn’t be something that I’m afraid to fly with.”

Soon after that, she left teaching and took a $14-an-hour job as a salesperson at Berkeley Patients Group, a medical marijuana dispensary, and got to help other people, some with serious and terminal illnesses, she said. “It was an affirmation for me.”

DeKeuster eventually became general manager, a position that brought her to Maine last winter to meet with policy makers writing rules for the state’s new network of dispensaries.

“We’ve been very open about sharing our model,” she said.

She gave advice to the state’s task force, as well as other groups, and began to feel invested in the state’s new rules, she said. “It became harder and harder to leave.”

DeKeuster and her husband officially moved to Augusta in March and she became the sole officer of a new group, Northeast Patients Group. The group applied for five licenses, hoping to win one or two, she said.

DeKeuster has since been racking up the miles in her Cavalier, working to set up the new businesses and a central marijuana growing facility in Hermon.

DeKeuster would not say how much she was paid as Berkeley’s general manager, and said she does not yet know what Northeast’s salaries will be.

But she said she did not get rich in the medical marijuana business in California and won’t in Maine, either.

“There has always been an underlying plan to share our mission,” she said.

Seven Loveland medical marijuana dispensaries have joined to form the Loveland Association of Wellness and recently drafted a resolution outlining the group’s efforts to ensure their businesses are more acceptable to the community.

Additionally, the businesses plan to host open house events from 11 a.m. to noon Tuesday and Aug. 24.

Anthony Freitag, co-owner of Paradise City Caregivers, said he hopes the open houses bring residents into the dispensaries, allowing them to see what the businesses do.

The group’s resolution includes regulations that limit signs on and around medical marijuana centers and eliminates advertising that promotes the businesses and/or their products.

Loveland Association of Wellness, or LAW, members also promise to prohibit consumption of marijuana in retail space or common areas, limit medical marijuana sales to 2 ounces per person per 96 hours and attempt to confirm the legitimacy of incoming patients’ documents, according to the resolution.

This month, the Loveland City Council finalized ballot language to allow residents a final vote on whether medical marijuana dispensaries should operate in the community.
Source:http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20100815/NEWS01/8150326/Loveland-dispensaries-join-forces

An internationally-respected hydroponics medical marijuana cultivation educator won Canada’s most prestigious medical marijuana quality award during a Toronto hydroponics expo competition…and he used a brand new type of hydroponics nutrients to do it.

Famous for his highly-ranked “Urban Grower” hydroponics how-to Internet show, licensed medical marijuana cultivation expert Remo used a scientific breakthrough hydroponics nutrients system to grow medical marijuana called “Bubba Kush.”

Remo entered his Kush in the Treating Yourself Cup competition, and won top prize. The competition’s connoisseur judges described his winning entry as ”exceptionally flavorful, aromatic, smooth, and potent.”

The hydroponics nutrients system Remo used for his award-winning Kush was created and manufactured by Advanced Nutrients, a North American and internationally-based company known for innovative hydroponics nutrients and equipment.

According to company co-founder Michael Straumietis, Remo used the company’s pH Perfect nutrients and Bigger Yields Flowering System to grow his winning medicine.

“Our nutrients system significantly changes and improves how hydroponics gardeners provide nutrients to their hydroponics crops,” Straumietis explains. “It eliminates several significant technical problems that frustrated growers for decades, while also sending a wider range of nutrients, enhancers and yield-boosters into crops faster and easier so hydroponics growers get way more quality and value.”

The judges at the Treating Yourself Cup affirmed how Remo’s entry was superior to all others, and Remo himself reveals that the latest Advanced Nutrients hydroponics system gives him performance superior to the already-excellent results he was getting previously.

“As a hydroponics consultant and grower with many years experience helping Canadians use only the best hydroponics techniques and technology, I note that the new Advanced Nutrients system is easier to work with, and produces a larger, more potent medical crop than anything I’ve ever seen or worked with,” Remo says.

Straumietis explains that his company and its scientists dedicated years of research to overcoming pervasive deficiencies found in past generations of competitors’ hydroponics nutrients.

At the same time, Straumietis says, his researchers discovered specialized natural and synthetic nutrients and chelates, as well as proprietary manufacturing techniques, that give hydroponics growers total crop control that has never before been available.

”The science is truly amazing, and so is the plant,” Straumietis explains. “And when you give medical marijuana plants this kind of hydroponics feed program, you get the results Remo got…so you easily see the very positive differences in your crop yields and in increased convenience and efficiency of your hydroponics nutrients.”
Source:http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100812/International-cultivator-wins-Canadas-prestigious-medical-marijuana-quality-award.aspx

LONGMONT — The future of the Feiler family’s business is in the hands of the city and the state.

Loree Feiler — an attorney, mediator and former Florida criminal court judge — owns the Longmont and Boulder Nature’s Medicine shops. Her daughter, Allyson, who has a master’s degree in business entrepreneurship, takes care of much of the day-to-day operations.

Medical marijuana has been legal since 2000, but the constitutional amendment did not account for dispensaries. A law passed this year mandated licensing and regulation of the hundreds of dispensaries already open statewide.

Nature’s Medicine in Longmont met the Aug. 1 deadline to apply for state licensing and must meet a September deadline to ensure the business is producing 70 percent of the medical marijuana it dispenses.

That requirement meant the family had to find a location to cultivate the marijuana. They opted for a place in the county after looking at properties in and out of the city and working through zoning requirements.

Further, state regulators have to complete full investigations of each of the businesses — a reported 800 of them — that applied for licenses in the state, which Feiler said could take months.

For instance, the state is expected to complete criminal backgrounds on the owners and employees. Inspectors are also expected to audit the personal and business finances for each dispensary.

Even the state license application required extensive financial information.

But while the family has plenty of legal resources, Feiler said she doesn’t believe the volume of paperwork would deter anyone intent on preserving their business.

“The (Colorado) Department of Revenue have made themselves very available,” she said.

Given the family’s legal background, Feiler said she supports the state regulation both to legitimize the business and to protect patients. For instance, she said some dispensaries were using personal kitchens to make edible medical marijuana goods. The requirement for a commercial kitchen is a plus, she said.

The state also now tracks marijuana sales. So Nature’s Medicine is launching a point-of-sale and accounting system to help track the product and accurately report sales to the state.

Feiler also appreciates that the state law seems aimed at making sure the businesses aren’t funded with money from any criminal enterprise. No one with a previous drug felony or a felony conviction in the past five years may own a dispensary.

The family bought the business last fall from Craig Clerkin, who ran it as Ancient Alternatives.

The Longmont shop, at 1260 S. Hover St., is near a dentist’s office and used to house a chiropractor’s office. It has the feel of a small health-care operation, with a waiting room and rooms to meet with patients.

Feiler thinks the new regulations will benefit Nature’s Medicine, one of Longmont’s seven medical marijuana centers. That is, if it clears all of the state’s hurdles and the Longmont City Council doesn’t ban the dispensaries, which state law allows.

“I think it would be a shame to have all the people we see here in Longmont have to go to Boulder or Denver to get their medi-cine,” Loree Feiler said.

While Feiler talked about the business, her daughter worked constantly, helping patients or dealing with the office business.

Feiler said her daughter wanted to run her own business, and her husband, who also is an attorney, researched medical marijuana for years. She said the family works hard to keep the business open.

“It is not the cash cow people think it is,” she said.

Pierrette J. Shields can be reached at 303-684-5273 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 303-684-5273 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or pshields@times-call.com.

THOMAS TWP. — On Friday, a neon-green sign that said “Tri-City Compassion Club, park here” in stenciled block letters was posted in front of the lot and Thomas Township home owned by John F. Roberts.

Roberts, 49, whose home — where he lives with his fiancée Stephanie Whisman, 38 — was raided by DEA agents July 6, is the new location of the Tri-City Compassion Club.

Roberts, a state-registered grower, patient and a former leader of the Bay City-based compassion club — now the newly named Mid-Michigan Tri-City Compassion Club, which has more 300 members, according group President Kim M. Zimmer — left the Bay City group and was allowed to use its old name to begin a separate club.

Roberts said the purpose of the club is to educate prospective patients about getting started legally and to inform current patients about growing and processing methods.

Members also bring baked goods, oils and dried marijuana to sample, purchase and trade — provided they are certified medical marijuana patients, Roberts said.

He said the clubs offer a comfortable alternative for patients who don’t wish to purchase their medical marijuana on the black market.

None of the meeting attendees wished to speak publicly about their involvement with medical marijuana or reasons for attending the club meeting.

Zimmer said her club parted ways with Roberts after his home was raided in July. She declined to speak about specifics of the separation.

“There is no conflict,” Roberts said. “The person who owned the building wanted to go in a different direction than I wanted and that I could afford.”

He wouldn’t disclose the owner or location of the building the club calls home but said he had been paying the club’s building lease until he left and could no longer afford to.

Roberts’ club is in his backyard among wooded trails and fire pits.

Cars parked on the grass at the outskirts of Roberts’ property Friday.

About 15 medical marijuana patients, two children, caretakers and others who were curious exited their vehicles and crossed a length of freshly cut grass, walking toward a brownish-red wooden storage shed with two open doors.

Inside about four medical marijuana patients sat in chairs around a coffee table, upon which lay brownies and muffins baked with cannabis butter — they were donated by one of the group members — and on another table were two jars full of marijuana buds — each containing about an ounce of marijuana, Roberts said.

An empty container on the table said “donations for baby girl.”

The anticipated donation was marijuana, not money, Roberts said.

Roberts said he and others provide medicine, what he calls “Rick Simpson hemp oil,” to a state-registered 6-year-old girl suffering from a brain tumor — free of charge — and it takes 2 to 3 ounces of marijuana to make enough of the dark, tar-like extract, which he said lasts two weeks.

Mixed with peanut butter for ingestion, the oil helps the child to sleep and to eat regularly, Roberts said.

Roberts said he’ll continue to conduct compassion club meetings at his home each Friday and Monday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A company based in Washington state wants to open a medical marijuana facility in Trenton, according to the News-Herald.

Trenton city officials have placed a six-month moratorium on medical marijuana businesses while they consider ordinances to help regulate the industry within city limits, according to the paper. City Attorney Wallace Long said the city isn’t trying to ban the production facility from coming to town.

Communities around metro Detroit are dealing with medical marijuana facility proposals that have been growing since a 2008 ballot proposal legalized the use of medical marijuana in Michigan.

The Royal Oak City Commission voted unanimously last week against a local businessman that wanted to turn his vacant warehouse into the state’s largest medical marijuana growth facility. More than 20 other marijuana-related businesses have expressed interest in setting up shop in the city.
Source:http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2010/08/trenton_considers_proposal_for.html

Weed Wars: Walnut Creek builders see green in household marijuana rooms
Posted at 09:37 AM on Monday, Aug. 16, 2010
By Peter Hecht – phecht@sacbee.com

* Pot poll finds weed has grown on California
Pot poll finds weed has grown on California

John Wade, 43, a San Francisco commercial lighting specialist, takes a quick hit from a marijuana cigarette on the golf course to steady himself before putting.

Sarika Simmons, 35, of San Diego County, sometimes unwinds after the kids are asleep with tokes from a fruit-flavored cigar filled with pot.

And retiree Robert Girvetz, 78, of San Juan Capistrano, recently started anew — replacing his occasional martini with marijuana.
* Medical pot sellers cash in with direct deliveries
Medical pot sellers cash in with direct deliveries

Undeterred by laws that have closed storefront dispensaries, medical marijuana sellers across the state are flourishing — by delivering pot directly to homes and offices.

Hundreds of these unregulated delivery businesses have sprung up in recent months — a sign of how quickly California’s fabled pot industry is moving from the shadows and into uncharted legal territory.

In Fresno, some dispensaries have moved to unincorporated areas since the city began forcing storefronts to close. Some of them deliver marijuana to Fresno residents, and the city attorney concedes the city has little authority to stop them.
* Prop. 19 raises thorny pot issue, drug czar says
Prop. 19 raises thorny pot issue, drug czar says

Proposition 19, a November ballot initiative, would legalize recreational marijuana use for California residents over 21 and allow small residential cultivation — but also would put the state in conflict with federal law that says the drug is illegal.

“The [Obama] administration opposes legalization of any drugs, including marijuana,” Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in an interview Thursday.

Kerlikowske was in Fresno to announce the results of an ongoing crackdown on marijuana-growing operations known as Operation Trident. It is focused on pot farms on public lands in the foothills and mountain areas of Tulare, Fresno and Madera counties.
* Calif Chamber: Pot law would allow smoking at work
Calif Chamber: Pot law would allow smoking at work

Supporters and opponents of a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in California are dueling over the law’s possible effects on employers and the workplace.

The California Chamber of Commerce claimed in a legal analysis released Thursday that Proposition 19 would lead to more workplace accidents by forcing employers to let workers smoke pot on the job.

The analysis also contends the law would make California companies ineligible for federal contracts because employers could not guarantee a drug-free workplace.
* Calif Chamber: Pot law would allow smoking at work
Calif Chamber: Pot law would allow smoking at work

Supporters and opponents of a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in California are dueling over the law’s possible effects on employers and the workplace.

The California Chamber of Commerce claimed in a legal analysis released Thursday that Proposition 19 would lead to more workplace accidents by forcing employers to let workers smoke pot on the job.

The analysis also contends the law would make California companies ineligible for federal contracts because employers could not guarantee a drug-free workplace.

construction[1].JPGThe glossy brochure for the Good Green Builders Construction brims with photographs of home growing rooms featuring tomatoes, bell peppers and lettuce in a spectrum of leafy colors.

“We love what we do. And we are discrete,” says the leaflet for the Walnut Creek firm founded by Brett McCormick, 25, and William McKenzie, 26, two agribusiness graduates from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

The discretion the duo is promising isn’t for home-grown arugula. McCormick and McKenzie have built a successful general contracting firm by working with Californians wanting to set up safe – and discreet – residential grow rooms for cultivating pot.

McCormick says Good Green Builders works only with certified medical marijuana users and checks their physician’s recommendations to ensure they have have a legal right to grow for themselves or others.

California law permits people with physician’s recommendations for marijuana to cultivate up to 6 mature or 12 immature plants. Growers can legally cultivate for multiple medical users. And some cities and counties allow substantially higher growing limits – 72 plants, for example, in Oakland or 100-square feet in Humboldt County.

“We basically make sure they’re legal,” McCormick says. “We check their recommendations and don’t set them up with something outside of their limits.”

But Good Green Builders – and like-minded builders – may be poised for a boom if California voters in November approve Proposition 19 to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults over 21. The initiative would permit all California households to maintain a 25-square foot – or 5 by 5 – growing space for pot.

“Typically, we’re doing bigger (growing) settings than 5 by 5,” McCormick says. “We can definitely cater to that. There are going to be a lot of people who can grow their own.”

With stories of at-home growing causing house fires from faulty wiring or otherwise overwhelming household infrastructure, Good Green Builders says it subcontracts with licensed electricians, plumbers, heating and ventilation specialists and other professionals depending on the job demands.

McCormick say the firm’s specialty is doing “custom build-outs” of garages as people covert indoor parking to pot cultivation. The firm has also built basement grow-rooms with subterranean retaining walls and moisture barriers, created bedroom growing systems and a range of residential green houses.

“A lot of our customers are first-time growers,” he says. “We cater to that. We definitely make it as easy as possible.”

Pictured: McCormick with Good Green Builders residential designs for at-home cultivation. Peter Hecht/phecht@sacbee.com

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/08/16/2043141/weed-wars-walnut-creek-builders.html#ixzz0wrzr8c4U

Prosecutors portrayed Fredrick Wayne Dagit in court Thursday as a drug dealer who allowed more than 150 pounds of marijuana to be stored in his home.

But the attorney for the 60-year-old owner of Williamstown Township’s Green Leaf Smokers Club painted him as a compassionate caregiver who was operating within the spirit of the state’s medical marijuana law.

The case, Dagit’s attorney James White told a judge, “involves a bunch of old guys smoking marijuana.”

Dagit has been in jail on a $500,000 bond ever since police raided the club as well as his house in Okemos two months ago. According to court documents, police seized more than 225 pounds of marijuana – all of which was provided to Dagit by a confidential informant – as well as about 40 marijuana plants.

At Thursday’s hearing in 55th District Court, during which prosecutors amended the charges and reduced the maximum sentence Dagit faces from 15 to seven years, Judge Donald Allen agreed to release Dagit on an electronic tether.

He is expected to be released within days.

After the hearing, White called the initial bond “outrageous,” adding that it was “further indication that this was a political issue regarding the marijuana statute.”

The charges

Dagit, who has a medical marijuana card, faces the following charges: Two counts of possession with intent to deliver between 11 and 99 pounds of marijuana; growing 20 or more marijuana plants; maintaining a drug house; and possession of marijuana.

A preliminary hearing, which determines if the case advances to trial, had been scheduled for Thursday, but was delayed until Aug. 12.

Assistant Prosecutor Bill Crino laid out some of the case against Dagit in court Thursday in arguing a motion about whether he could present certain testimony at the preliminary hearing. Allen ruled that he would allow the testimony.

A confidential informant told police that he had been providing Dagit with marijuana since March. Dagit began operating the club in February. Court documents say Dagit paid as much as $35,000 for about 14 pounds of marijuana, although Dagit paid for some and the informant allowed him to buy some on credit.

Police then used the informant to arrange to sale of more than 100 pounds of marijuana to Dagit.

According to court documents: On May 26, the informant met Dagit at his home on Hillcrest Avenue, and put three duffel bags containing about 154 pounds of marijuana in a basement closet to store it there. Dagit gave the informant a key to his house and told the informant he could buy his own lock for the closet.

Dagit and the informant agreed that 50 pounds of the marijuana was reserved exclusively for Dagit, according to the documents.

Later that same day, the informant delivered about 70 pounds of marijuana to the club. They agreed the total price would be $56,950 and Dagit gave the informant $10,000 in cash as an initial payment.

Soon after, officers from the Tri-County Metro Narcotics Squad raided the club with guns drawn. They also searched Dagit’s home.
‘Overzealous’ team

White called it “a classic case of entrapment” by “an overzealous law enforcement team, who weren’t satisfied after being turned away.”

He said Dagit sometime earlier threw an undercover police officer out of the club after the officer tried to buy marijuana, but didn’t have a medical marijuana card.

“All of the marijuana that is alleged to have been the source of this crime can be accounted for by patients and/or caregivers that were members of the (club),” White said.

Source: http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100730/NEWS01/7300330/1002/NEWS01

Michigan – There’s a budding attraction in Genesee County: a Medical Marijuana University.

Patients in need of medical marijuana can now learn more about the new law that just went into effect this year and their options at Oaksterdam University.

University officials say this weekend people from all across the country will be learning how to grow and handle medical marijuana.

The Genesee County Compassion Club, a medical marijuana advocates group, is setting up for their fifth weekend operating Oaksterdam University in Genesee Township.

This is the first and only Oaksterdam campus outside of California to host seminars on medical marijuana.

“It’s truly fantastic to finally be able to educate people freely, openly, about this as a medicine,” said Jeremy Rupinski, director of the Genesee County Compassion Club.

Classes are given to patients, caregivers and the general public on the medical law and how to grow the plant efficiently indoors.

“We don’t limit it to just cardholders,” Rupinski said. “We have people from out of state coming. In fact about 40 percent of our students are out-of-state students.”

Dispelling ignorance about medical marijuana is what class facilitators say is one of the best parts of the seminar.

This weekend’s Oaksterdam University seminar costs $250 to attend.

Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=7584315

R.I. – Boston man plans to start a medical marijuana school in Rhode Island that he said will be the first of its kind in New England.

“It will teach folks items such as safety, legal compliance, as well as of course medical marijuana cultivation,” Luis Hernandez told NBC 10 IN a phone interview.

Hernandez said the first class will be held on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26 in Barrington. He estimated that it will cost about $200 for two days of training.

“Depending on what our costs are, that will be adjusted. So that’s not a number that’s written in stone,” Hernandez said.

Several groups in Rhode Island already offer free medical marijuana training.

“We take care of whatever a patient needs. If a patient needs to learn how to grow, we’ll teach them how to grow. If a patient needs a caregiver, we’ll provide them with a caregiver,” said George DesRoches of Help Is On The Way.

DesRoches founded Help Is On The Way, a Providence-based charity that works with marijuana patients. He’s also a licensed marijuana patient himself.

“Patients shouldn’t have to go pay to learn how to grow. There are services provided by organizations in the state of Rhode Island,” he said.

“Over half the patients who have licenses are on SSI or SSDI. That means they’re living on about $700 a month,” said JoAnne Leppanen of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Center.

RIPAC also runs seminars for patients and caregivers free of charge.

“If someone’s going to teach you how to grow, what are their credentials? Are they licensed?” Leppanen said.

Hernandez said his class won’t use any actual marijuana because he’s not licensed in Rhode Island. But he said he’s passionate about teaching the class.

“I think that there’s a whole range of options of how to learn, and there’s a place for all of them. As well as for what we offer to the market.”

Hernandez said he’ll check to make sure people who take the class have marijuana licenses.

He said two people have confirmed they’ll attend, but he said he expects more to sign up.

Source: http://www2.turnto10.com/news/2010/jul/30/pot-101-man-teach-marijuana-class-ri-ar-171990/

As an increasing number of states enact, or are considering enacting, medical-marijuana legislation, employers are being forced to ponder what responsibilities they may have with respect to medical-marijuana users in their workforces, and the individuals who work side-by-side with them.

The confusion among employers in these states increased last fall when the U.S. Department of Justice issued guidelines announcing that the Justice Department, for the time being, will not enforce the Controlled Substances Act that classifies marijuana as a Schedule I substance and criminalizes its use.

The DOJ’s guidelines were immediately hailed by medical-marijuana users, activists and civil libertarians as a welcome relief from the Bush administration’s policy of zero tolerance for medical use of marijuana. Despite the federal government’s change in policy, however, employers in states with medical-marijuana laws must continue to exercise caution in addressing employment issues that arise in connection with medical-marijuana users in the workforce.

The DOJ’s decision to refrain from criminal prosecution of such use does not necessarily relieve employers from their obligations to address the potential dangers that may be associated with use of medical marijuana by their employees.

First, it must be understood that rather than granting medical-marijuana users, including those in the workforce, carte blanche to engage in the medical use of marijuana, the DOJ guidelines can be read as simply aimed at addressing the shortfall of resources that are available to the federal government in its War on Drugs.

The guidelines provide that the DOJ “should not focus federal resources … on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.” According to the guidelines, “prosecution of individuals … who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law … is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources.”

However, despite advising that medical-marijuana users in states that have legalized marijuana’s medical use will not be sought out for prosecution, the DOJ guidelines do not go so far as to decriminalize its use under federal law.

To the contrary, the guidelines emphasize that they do “not alter in any way the Department’s authority to enforce federal law, including laws prohibiting the manufacture, production, distribution, possession, or use of marijuana on federal property.”

Further, the DOJ guidance explicitly states that it “does not ‘legalize’ marijuana or provide a legal defense to a violation of federal law, nor is it intended to create any privileges, benefits, or rights … enforceable by any individual … in any administrative, civil, or criminal matter.”

The guidance further warns that even “clear and unambiguous compliance with state law” does not “create a legal defense to a violation of the Controlled Substances Act.” Instead, the guideline “is intended solely as a guide to the exercise of investigative and prosecutorial discretion.”

Accordingly, there is nothing in the DOJ’s recent policy pronouncement that requires employers to turn a blind eye to medical-marijuana use by members of their workforce. Indeed, despite what some might consider a softening of the federal government’s position toward medical-marijuana use, a number of federal laws and regulations limiting the unchecked use of marijuana in the workplace are still on the books and should be carefully considered by employers in states that have enacted medical-marijuana laws.

For example, U.S. Department of Transportation regulations, pursuant to the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991, require transportation-industry employers that have employees in “safety-sensitive” positions, such as pilots, school-bus drivers, truck drivers, train engineers, subway operators, aircraft-maintenance personnel, armed transit-security personnel and others, to have drug-free workplace programs that include both drug and alcohol testing.

These regulations are unaffected by the DOJ guidelines.

Indeed, the DOT issued its own policy statement on Oct. 22, 2009, regarding medical use of marijuana in response to numerous inquiries it received following the DOJ’s guidelines on criminal federal prosecutions. In the DOT’s statement , the agency made it abundantly “clear that the DOJ guidelines will have no bearing on the Department of Transportation’s regulated drug testing program.”

According to the DOT’s policy statement, DOT regulations do “not authorize ‘medical-marijuana’ under a state law to be a valid medical explanation for a transportation employee’s positive drug-test result.” The DOT further emphasized that “[i]t remains unacceptable for any safety-sensitive employee subject to drug testing under the Department of Transportation’s drug testing regulations to use marijuana.”

Employers must also consider their obligations under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, which imposes a general duty to maintain a safe workplace. This duty, which is set forth in what is commonly referred to as the Act’s General Duty Clause, provides that each employer covered by the Act must “furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.”

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration website reports that “between 10 and 20 percent of the nation’s workers who die on the job test positive for alcohol or other drugs” and that “impairment by drug or alcohol use can constitute an avoidable workplace hazard.”

It is the position of OSHA that “drug-free workplace programs can help improve worker safety and health” and are “natural compliments to other initiatives that help ensure safe and healthy workplaces.”

Although not mandated by law, OSHA “strongly supports comprehensive drug-free workforce programs, especially within certain workplace environments, such as those involving safety-sensitive duties like operating machinery.” (1998 OSHA Advisory Letter, Enforcement Programs)

While OSHA supports workplace drug and alcohol programs, however, it does not currently maintain a standard applicable to such programs.

Nevertheless, failure to maintain such programs could be found to constitute a violation of OSHA’s General Duty Clause where the following four factors are found to exist: (1) the employer failed to keep its workplace free of a “hazard;” (2) the hazard was “recognized” either by the employer or by the employer’s industry generally; (3) the recognized hazard was causing or was likely to cause death or serious physical harm; and (4) there was a feasible means available that would eliminate or materially reduce the hazard.

Employers should also be mindful of potential obligations under the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988, which requires some federal contractors and all federal grantees to agree to provide drug-free workplaces as a precondition of receiving a contract or grant from a federal agency.

While the Act does not require drug testing, a number of federal agencies (including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and National Aeronautics and Space Administration) have issued regulations that require federal contractors, grantees and licensees to maintain fitness-for-duty requirements or drug-free workplace programs that do include drug testing.

For the time-being, at least, federal laws and regulations governing drug-free workplaces and drug-testing will likely take precedence over any rights under state laws permitting possession or use of medical-marijuana, especially to the extent that safety-sensitive positions within the workplace are impacted.

Any employer operating in a state that has enacted legislation legalizing the possession and use of medical-marijuana should therefore consider not only the state’s law, but also the many federal laws, regulations and policy statements in determining the best course of action when presented with an employee or applicant who claims the right to use medical marijuana under the state’s medical-marijuana statute.

Source: http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=488193341