How Marijuana Affects Worker Rights, Workplace Safety

By BOB SALSBERG | December 5, 2016

  • December 5, 2016 at 7:29 am
    Michael Milburn says:
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    I wanted to let you know that I have developed an app for the iPad (coming soon for the iPhone), now in the Apple App Store, that measures impairment from marijuana and other sources.  The app is called DRUID (a riff on “DRiving Under the Influence of Drugs”), and it measures reaction time, decision making, time estimation, hand-eye coordination and balance, and takes just 5 minutes. Our website is wwwdotdruidappdotcom.

    The DRUID app can be modified to measure impairment at work. What this country needs is impairment testing, not drug testing.

    I have been a professor of psychology at UMass/Boston for 39 years, specializing in research design, measurement, and statistical analysis.

    Best,

    Michael Milburn, Ph.D.
    Professor of Psychology
    UMass/Boston 

  • December 5, 2016 at 3:57 pm
    Brian Cohen says:
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    Oh please, spare us!

    If prohibitionists are going to take it upon themselves to worry about “saving us all” from ourselves, then they should be up in arms, protesting the legality of booze.

    Many more workers end up calling out of work or in a stupor because of alcohol than marijuana.

    Why doesn’t alcohol concern you prohibitionists much more than relatively benign marijuana? It should.

    Legalizing Marijuana will not create a massive influx of marijuana impaired employees in our workplaces.

    It will not create a huge influx of professionals (doctors, pilots, bus drivers, etc..) under the influence on the job either.

    This is a prohibitionist propaganda scare tactic.

    Truth: Responsible workers don’t go to work while impaired on any substance period!

    Irresponsible employees already share our workplaces, and they will work while impaired regardless of their drug of choice’s legality.

    Therefore, legalizing marijuana will have little to zero impact on the amount of marijuana impaired employees in our workplaces.

    Responsible people do not go to work impaired, period. Regardless of their drug of choice’s legality.

  • December 5, 2016 at 4:52 pm
    Chris Poulos, CIC says:
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    If states can selectively nullify federal laws that make marijuana illegal, enforcement of workplace restrictions will suffer when contested in the courts. The defense bar will litigate the ambiguity of state and federal laws and make enforcement too costly. The ultimate result will manifest itself into increased workers compensation claims with subsequent rate increases.



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