BUSINESSES NOT HIGH ON PROP. 19

Workplace: Pot Legalization Causes Jitters for Management.

Some business leaders and groups are taking a stand against
Proposition 19 which would legalize marijuana for recreational use,
saying the state ballot measure could lead to high workers, new
demands by cannabis smokers and potential financial losses to businesses.

The California Chamber of Commerce, or CalChamber, released a report
last month that has raised alarm in the business community. The
chamber's legal analysis of the proposition argued that vagueness in
its language could lead to various negative outcomes.

Those outcomes could include, the chamber said, higher levels of
workplace accidents, which could ramp up workers' compensation costs;
the inability of employers to use positive marijuana drug test results
to make employment and other workplace decisions; and the possibility
that businesses could lose federal grants and contracts for not
aligning with federal law, which considers marijuana an illegal drug.

The chamber also says the language of the proposition could even give
workers the right to demand certain accommodations for medical use,
such as the right to smoke marijuana at work in designated areas or
the right to take more breaks for consumption of the drug.

The analysis was performed in recent months by the chamber's team of
in-house labor and employment legal employment experts over the past
couple of months, said Erika Frank, the chamber's general counsel.

The legal analysis has concerned Douglas Morton, senior vice president
of corporate development at Bobrick Washroom Equipment, Inc., a
manufacturing company based in North Hollywood. Morton is also a board
member of the Valley Industry & Commerce Association, or VICA.

"The primary safety concern would be in manufacturing. We are using
machinery and we are using vehicles," Morton said, adding that if the
measure passes, a positive result for marijuana on a drug test would
no longer be enough to prove fault by the employee.

"The concern, as indicated by CalChamber, is this is going to put a
much larger burden on us to prove actual impairment, and we are
concerned that the general safety of our workplace will decline
depending on how the courts in California will interpret this law," he
added.

VICA Neutral

Morton was disappointed when VICA's board of directors recently
decided to remain neutral on the issue, he said.

"We came down to it not being enough of a business issue, in our
opinion," said Greg Lippe, co-chair of VICA's government affairs committee.

Lippe said that while supporters of Proposition 19 say passage of the
ballot measure would benefit the state through tax revenues and
opponents say its passage would lead to workplace chaos, the extents
of both outcomes appeared to be uncertain.

"There wasn't clear evidence to us that it was definitely going to be
either," Lippe said.

The chamber's report stated that businesses could be subject to
demands for on-site smoking because of a lack of definition of a
"non-public place," where marijuana consumption would be allowed if
the measure passed. The chamber also referred to wording that
indicates that no person can be discriminated against or denied any
"right or privilege" to lawfully engage in conduct permitted by the
act, leading to the group's conclusion that businesses will not be
able to use drug tests in the same way they do now and will have to
concede to the needs of medical cannabis smokers. The chamber also
pointed out several other terms and phrases it determined ambiguous.

For Lippe, the evidential ties were not strong enough.

"I think the laws exist that would allow you to protect your
workplace, but others are concerned that maybe there isn't adequate
protection," he said.

On Front Burner

Brendan Huffman, executive director for the Chambers of Commerce
Alliance of Ventura & Santa Barbara Counties, said he is seeing more
chambers starting to respond to the proposition, which he calls a
major business issue.

"I think most of the business groups were ignoring Prop 19 until
recently," he said, adding that CalChamber's report has created more
awareness about the issue. "Chambers and business groups are taking a
second look."

Chambers of Commerce Alliance of Ventura & Santa Barbara counties,
Moorpark Chamber of Commerce and Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce
are among chambers in the region that have officially opposed the
proposition.

Other chambers, such as the Greater San Fernando Valley Chamber of
Commerce and the Woodland Hills-Tarzana Chamber of Commerce, plan to
discuss the issue in future meetings.