CASEY: Do Local Government Medical Marijuana Policies Conflict With State Law?

Rikki McConnell, 44, received her begin in well being care as a paramedic years in the past. Later, she earned a university diploma and in 2014, grew to become a nurse practitioner working underneath a doctor. At this time, McConnell owns and operates The Hybrid Clinic in Vinton.

Most of her sufferers — they quantity greater than 5,000, she stated — are looking for prescriptions for medical marijuana.

That’s been authorized in Virginia since 2021, and McConnell has prescribed hashish to many. With a prescription, sufferers can legally purchase medical hashish at Virginia’s licensed RISE dispensary on West Principal Avenue in Salem.

However not all of McConnell’s sufferers are essentially equal within the eyes of employer human useful resource insurance policies, she famous. These range extensively, and a few haven’t stored tempo with more moderen modifications in state regulation. Amongst them are native authorities insurance policies.

McConnell’s needed to struggle battles on behalf of some sufferers, notably law enforcement officials and firefighters who devour medical hashish off responsibility, to deal with nervousness, ache or different illnesses.

Though authorized requirements and on-the-spot exams exist to find out intoxication by alcohol, that’s not the case with marijuana.

Although its use may be detected by a urine display, these exams are ineffective in figuring out intoxication. Marijuana’s intoxicating results final for a number of hours. However its metabolites are detectable in urine days or perhaps weeks later, when an worker could also be utterly sober.

One in every of McConnell’s sufferers — this goes again a few years — is a Roanoke firefighter. After medical hashish grew to become authorized, he examined optimistic for metabolites of THC on a urine display due to off-duty use. Though he had a prescription for hashish, the man spent 5 months on paid administrative responsibility whereas Roanoke officers discovered the way to deal with the problem.

A small variety of different Roanoke firefighters who subsequently examined optimistic for metabolites of prescribed hashish have been placed on administrative responsibility for shorter intervals, stated Capt. Duane Noel, president of the Roanoke Firefighters Affiliation. All are again on responsibility now.

“It was a protracted course of,” Noel stated of a coverage town of Roanoke finally adopted.

The underside line for metropolis of Roanoke staff is, these with a prescription for medical hashish “can use off responsibility” with out worry of dropping their jobs, Noel stated. However they’re not allowed to make use of marijuana on the job, or be underneath its affect whereas working.

Firefighters can’t use medical hashish inside 10 hours of starting a shift, Noel famous.

“The coverage prohibits use or possession of alcohol and/or managed substances/medication on the job in addition to, being inebriated and/or managed substances/medication whereas on the job,” stated Angelia Vernon, town’s director of human assets.

“As an employer we adhere to the regulation and make mandatory affordable lodging for workers who’ve a sound marijuana card,” Vernon added, “Our coverage applies to all staff.”

The town of Roanoke modified its coverage in August 2022, following the enactment of one other 2021 state regulation. That’s titled “Worker protections; medicinal use of hashish oil.” (The statute’s textual content makes clear it applies to all types of medical hashish.)

That state regulation says: “No employer shall discharge, self-discipline, or discriminate towards an worker for such worker’s lawful use of hashish oil pursuant to a sound written certification issued by a practitioner.”

The lone exception is employers within the “protection industrial base sector” — the regulation doesn’t apply to them. The regulation additionally states any employer can self-discipline staff for “any work impairment induced by way of hashish,” or for on-duty possession.

Roanoke’s coverage seems to dovetail the state regulation. So, apparently, does a personnel coverage on the Botetourt County Sheriff’s Workplace. That was adopted in 2014.

It prohibits Botetourt sheriff’s personnel from “the use or having a detectable presence of medication in a single’s system.” But it surely carves out this exception: “An worker could proceed to work although taking a authorized drug, if decided after consulting with medical personnel that the worker doesn’t pose a risk to his or her personal security or the security of colleagues and that the worker’s job efficiency won’t be affected by the authorized drug. In any other case, the worker could also be required to take a go away of absence or adjust to different applicable motion.”

Roanoke County’s normal coverage, which additionally covers police and the county sheriff, is considerably much less scrutable, referencing three federal legal guidelines.

“The County will totally adjust to the necessities of the Drug-Free Office Act, the Drug-Free Colleges and Neighborhood Act, the Omnibus Transportation Worker Testing Act of 1991, and some other relevant legal guidelines concerning managed substances within the office. The County shall implement drug testing for workers whether it is decided that ‘affordable trigger”’ exists for drug/alcohol testing and it’s mandatory to establish an worker’s health for responsibility.”

The Roanoke County Hearth and Rescue coverage is extra particular, however not essentially much less complicated.

It particularly prohibits “possession, use or being underneath the affect of medical hashish on-duty.” However then it notes “the lawful possession or use of prescribed medicines or over-the-counter treatments is excluded from this prohibition.” That seems contradictory.

McConnell stated a few of her sufferers employed by town of Salem are frightened of dropping their job for reliable use of medical marijuana.

Mike Stevens, Salem’s public data officer, forwarded me two worker drug and alcohol insurance policies.

One, final revised in 2018, is 9 pages and covers Salem police. The opposite, adopted in 2005, is 41 pages and applies usually to 164 totally different listed job classes in Salem, from low-level positions similar to meter reader and assistant chef to division director. Salem staff are topic to random testing.

The police division coverage bans the on- or off-duty use of any managed substance “that has no medicinal benefit and is classed as a ‘scheduled drug’ underneath the U.S. Drug Enforcement Company tips.”

Though Virginia and greater than 30 different states have acknowledged medical use of hashish, marijuana stays a “scheduled drug” that has no acknowledged medical utilization underneath federal regulation.

“Maybe the easiest way to explain the coverage because it at the moment exists is to say it’s a zero-tolerance coverage with random testing,” Stevens stated. Stevens himself has been randomly examined as a result of he drives a metropolis automobile for work, he added.

“They’re going by a coverage in 2005 — the usage of marijuana was unlawful again then,” stated Betty McBride, president of the Salem Skilled Firefighters, IAFF Native 3478. And Salem’s present insurance policies are troublesome to interpret as a result of they’re “like studying textual content that’s been obscured with mud,” McBride added.

Salem is at the moment working with a marketing consultant to overview these insurance policies and probably revise them, Stevens added.

McConnell stated she’s been listening to that for years. Previously, she’s sought to deal with the Salem Metropolis Council on the matter. However she wasn’t allowed to enroll to talk, McConnell stated. That’s as a result of the council’s assembly tips restrict public audio system to Salem residents or house owners of companies within the metropolis.

Stevens stated McConnell is free to contact metropolis council members individually; their cellphone numbers are revealed on Salem’s web site.

When and if she does, McConnell stated she’ll make sure to remind them that they permitted the area’s solely medical marijuana dispensary to open in Salem two years in the past.

“They put a dispensary of their metropolis, and so they’re not permitting their very own staff to devour,” McConnell stated.

Dan Casey (540) 981-3423