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* This Crain’s article reads like an advertisement for Peter Bensinger’s company…
Can a business ingest cannabis for medicinal purposes without any side effects?
Illinois soon will become the 19th state to legalize medical marijuana if Gov. Pat Quinn signs recently passed legislation as expected. While designed to insulate employers from issues that medical marijuana creates for the workplace, the 221-page bill raises questions about hiring and firing, special protections for firms with federal drug-testing requirements and the use of a federally controlled and still-illegal substance in hospitals, nursing homes and hospices.
“It doesn’t allow the Illinois business community to continue what it’s doing today,” says Peter Bensinger, former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and a harsh critic of the trend by states to decriminalize marijuana. “You’re going to have litigation, and you’re going to have accidents” at workplaces.
Ack!!!
Doom!!!
* And the solution? Hire Bensinger, of course…
Recognizing that many companies don’t use drug testing, the bill also allows employers to discipline registered marijuana patients if they show up to work “impaired” by marijuana.
But impairment has to be based on “specific and articulable” symptoms related to things such as speech, dexterity, coordination or behavior, and there must be a “reasonable opportunity” for the employee to contest that determination.
“For employers, this is going to be a problem,” says Mr. Bensinger, whose Chicago-based consulting firm, Bensinger DuPont & Associates, manages drug-testing and employee assistance programs. “How can you prove impairment? Historically, by drug tests.”
At minimum, Mr. Bensinger and other experts say that provision and others would require additional management training and employee communications to make it clear that having a permit for medical marijuana is not a defense against testing positive or a finding of impairment, if the bill becomes law.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 12:38 pm
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It is going to create some interesting situations for management and will probabaly require some type of training but if it reduces a person’s suffering from a debilitating disease or condition I’m all for it. Some things don’t boil down to money.
Comment by Stones Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 12:42 pm
sign it, Gov. Quinn!
and, then, Hemp for Victory… which is actually the name of a 1942 government video in case you have not seen the encouragement from the Feds to grow hemp for rope during W.W. II. great crop.
Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 12:53 pm
What we need are politicians with backbones to stand up to those who continue to profit from the drug war. The ‘politicians with backbones’ part might be the most tricky part of my plan.
Comment by b Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 12:58 pm
I respect Peter Bensinger personally but having publicly debated this issue with him numerous times, I have to say that he is so rigidly entrenched in outdated thinking on the war on drugs that it is almost impossible for him to be objective on any aspect of the issue.
Comment by Hon. John Fritchey Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 1:29 pm
Not a fan of the bill, but I don’t see the problem. You should have procedures in place for people on narcotics for medical purposes. This is the same issue, you have a simple questionnaire that asks if you are taking any medication.
Look, we are not selling pot in vending machines here. I am not for legalizing pot, but I think an extra puff before the give may do some folks a bit of good.
Comment by the Patriot Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 1:29 pm
Lets get real. Drug testing should only occur in cases of safety sensative jobs upon hiring, during a probationary period, and then for just cause. Unfortunately no one has scientifically set a standard for how much THZ creates an imbibed state, sucha at the .08 for alcohol.
Comment by "Edge" Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 1:38 pm
and this is any different then employees coming to work impared by Vicadin, Oxycodone etc because???
Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 1:47 pm
Rich–thank you for identifying Mr. Bensinger’s professional role in the industry. For years Mr. Bensinger has been a strident voice for continued criminalization of pot. Shame on me for not realizing that his income depends on continued criminalization. Was he instrumental in formulating policy while at the DEA? Does he have interests in the prison industrial complex as well?
Very tired of this public service model.
Comment by anon Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 1:50 pm
He seems like another consultant, with a solution, looking for a problem.
Comment by Endangered Moderate Species Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 2:09 pm
It’s all right there in section 50 of the bill. Everything he is saying is just false. You have a zero-tolerance policy and you want to keep it? Fine. You want to drug test your employees and fire anyone with marijuana in their system, even if they’re a patient? Fine. You fired your employee b/c you thought he was high, but it turns out he wasn’t? No worries; no cause of action and no liability if your belief was reasonable. Your employee was high and hurt someone? No liability unless you knew he was high.
There’s just no story here, aside from the one Peter Bensinger is making up. I don’t understand why this was even written.
Comment by Dan Riffle Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 2:11 pm
And thus the real reason why the most vocal opponents will continue to spread half truths and old propaganda - there is too much money for them to make keeping people locked up/ in rehab and in random drug testing. I guess once many of those folks pass on things might finally get in the proper perspective and we will just treat weed like we do alcohol and tobacco ( which of course are much more harmful health wise and to society in general)
Comment by Roadiepig Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 2:13 pm
I support legalization of Marijuana, but the think there will not be further litigation concerning this is just being plain naïve.
The trial lawyers have to love this bill.
Comment by Downstater Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 2:27 pm
Talk about a mess.
If I need medicinal marijuana for medical treatment, how can you tell me not to take my medicine before coming to work? Can you imagine telling someone not to take their lipitor before work as well?
Not in a million years.
But if you work in an industry such as construction, for example, how can you trust the heavy machine operator under the effects of marijuana with your life?
Messy, messy, messy. Welcome to Illinois.
Comment by Formerly Known As... Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 2:51 pm
===But if you work in an industry such as construction, for example, how can you trust the heavy machine operator under the effects of marijuana with your life?===
Um, what would be the case with Oxycontin?
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 2:53 pm
It’ll be a mess for heavy equipment operators, people with CDL’s, law enforcement, etc. Total mess. Either we’ll be paying disability pensions because these people can no longer work due to their marijuana scrips or employers will end up sued because something bad happened on the job and a test will show an employee positive for THC.
I am not saying it’s bad to have it legalized for those in need, but there is no doubt it will cost employers one way or the other.
Comment by Shemp Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 3:26 pm
It’s insane.
The War on Drugs should be against Big Pharma and the morally compromised pill-pusher doctors who are killing people with the Vic and the Oxy.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 6:08 pm
PROBLEMS WITH “speech, dexterity, coordination or behavior” is my GAME — sent my resume in to Bensinger after reading this — he must have had a ___ roommate at Exeter — FINALLY my ticket! — THANKS RICH!!!
Comment by 21st State Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 9:11 pm
Until such time as USC Title 21 Section 856 excludes Marijuana as a Schedule 1 Narcotic, this industry is going nowhere fast.
Comment by Just Say Maybe Tuesday, Jun 11, 13 @ 9:54 pm