Issue link: http://psai.uberflip.com/i/1147735
W EEKLY EDITION JULY 24, 2019 Legal Marijuana: HR Policy Issues for the Portable Sanitation Industry – Part 2 of 2 By Karl een Kos, PSAI Executive Director "My company is subject to [federal law], but if we obeyed it in the strictest way we'd lose half our staff. We couldn't be in business. Our drivers don't use [marijuana] on the job, but we can't control what they do in their time off." Another operator from a state where medical marijuana is legal had this to say, "Right now, the com mon tests for marijuana all flag the drug but not the form. In some cases, the medical marijuana product does not contain ingredients that have been shown to contribute to potential impairment. Until there is a shift in testing across the board for what is in someone's system that came from a marijuana plant, I'm going to treat each instance on a case - by - case basis. "Now, having said this, the military base we serve, the power companies we serve, the two chemical plants we serve, and the two mines we ser ve have all been very clear – they have a zero tolerance policy, and if they test one of my drivers and the test is positive, fines will be imposed AND that employee is no longer allowed on the property. The military base and power companies do not do rand om tests of contractors but the mines and chemical plants do." Companies not subject to FMCSRs face dilemmas too. Only a small number of states have stated in statute what level of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC – the chemical in marijuana) in the blood constit utes impairment. Even if your driver is not impaired, how much THC is an acceptable risk for your company and your insurer? How do you monitor behavior and enforce your policy? A good policy covers the basics. For this article I checked with the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) and portable sanitation companies around the United States to get their take on the situation and see what policies they have in place. It's clear that portable sanitation is not alone in this dilemma; no industry or company has it all figured out. We can see, though, some themes in how companies are approaching these issues. P AGE 7 CONTINUED ON PAGE 8