By Shelley Ridenour | TriValley Central
With last month’s two-year anniversary of Arizona’s law that allows for the use of medical marijuana, and as dispensaries begin to open in Pinal County, city officials are talking about personnel policies regarding medical marijuana.
An informal survey of three governments in Pinal County shows they haven’t yet adjusted personnel policies to accommodate the use of medical marijuana by their employees.
Arizona voters approved a proposition legalizing marijuana for medical use on Nov. 2, 2010, and the law took effect on April 14, 2011.
Scott Barber, human resources director for the town of Florence, said he and other officials “don’t envision the need to specifically change any policies” to cover medical marijuana issues.
Barber said Florence officials understand that the law bans discrimination in terms of employment.
Specifically, the law prohibits “certain discriminatory practices including” that employers may not discriminate against a person who has qualified to use medical marijuana “in hiring, terminating or imposing employment conditions unless failing to do so would cause the employer to lose a monetary or licensing benefit under federal law.”
That language makes Arizona’s law stand out from bills in the other 17 states and the District of Columbia where medical marijuana is legal, Denis Fitzgibbons, an attorney in Casa Grande, said.
If you’d like to discuss medical marijuana, contact Ryan Hurley, director of the Rose Law Group Medical Marijuana Dept., rhurley@roselawgroup.com
