DRUG-TESTING PROPOSAL DEBATED

Oregon House - A Bill Sets Procedures For Pre-Employment Or Random
Worker Testing

SALEM -- Medical marijuana users, growers and a number of Oregon
employer groups jammed a House hearing room Wednesday to debate
proposed changes to state law.

Not likely to happen this year: A proposed $98 state tax on every
ounce of medical marijuana sold.

What may have a chance: A bill setting procedures for pre-employment
or random drug testing of workers.

House Bill 2881 proposes sending drug test results to a physician who
would review positive results with the applicant or employee. The
bill is still being amended, but one version calls for the physician
to report a positive test to the employer if there is reason to
believe the worker's drug use poses a job safety risk.

Under current law, employers argue that they have no way to evaluate
whether a person is abusing marijuana. And they say the state's
medical marijuana law makes it difficult for them to enforce
drug-free policies.

Rep. Mike Schaufler, a Happy Valley Democrat and chairman of the
Business and Labor committee, acknowledged that the Legislature has
grappled with the medical marijuana law every year since 2001. But he
said he's optimistic that some changes long sought by employers may
happen in 2009.

"I think we need to clarify the law," Schaufler said Wednesday. "I
want employers to be able to manage their risk and employees to be
treated fairly."

Without the change, employers will continue to be caught between
federal drug-free workplace rules and the state's medical marijuana
law, said Gary Conkling, lobbyist for the Associated General Contractors.

The state's contractors want to maintain a safe workplace, Conkling
said. And they also want to be sure the roads and buildings their
workers construct are safe.

Lee Briney, president-elect of the Columbia Willamette Chapter of the
American Society of Safety Engineers, urged legislators to pass an
even tougher law.

The state's medical marijuana law has "morphed into a get out of jail
free card for the indiscriminate use of marijuana," he said. "I urge
you, as representatives of Oregon employers, to help maintain safe
workplaces by outlawing acceptance of marijuana use by employees."

Currently, more than 20,000 people in Oregon hold medical marijuana cards.

Advocates, some who appeared before the committee in wheelchairs,
argued that there's no evidence that the state's decade-old law has
led to increased on-the-job injuries.

"All of us need our jobs right now," said Madeline Martinez,
executive director of the Oregon chapter of the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "All we're asking is to be treated
with dignity and respect."