MEDICAL MARIJUANA INITIATIVE PUTS EMPLOYERS AT RISK

Editor:

Proposition 203, the medical marijuana initiative, is a 35-page
document. Employers should be urged to read page 27. They will learn
that employers may not discriminate against a person in "hiring,
termination or imposing any term or condition of employment" because
the employee is a medical marijuana cardholder.

Further, an employee may test positive for marijuana while on the job
and, unless the employer can prove the employee was impaired, the
employer cannot discriminate or terminate the employee. Goodbye to
drug-free workplaces!

In Michigan, a medical marijuana state, a lawsuit against Wal-Mart is
pending over its firing of an employee who tested positive for marijuana.

Wal-Mart's concern - a concern any employer would share - is for the
safety of its employees and customers. That was the reason for the
firing. Yet Prop. 203 allows for employees to test positive. There is
no way to measure marijuana impairment as there is for alcohol; thus,
impairment becomes subjective. The liability and risk that this places
on the employer is huge.

Allowing an employee to test positive for marijuana raises many issues
and questions for employers in their hiring and firing policies. It
affects policies for operating machinery or vehicles. It means that
delivery truck drivers, pilots or large equipment operators may test
positive.

Is this what Arizonans want? I sincerely hope not. Prop. 203 is really
just trying to legalize marijuana in our state, and I sincerely hope
that Arizonans will vote "no" on Prop. 203.

Merilee Fowler

Camp Verde