Marijuana Is Now Legal. Is It Time To Rethink Your Current Policy?

Marijuana is now legal in many states. Is it time to rethink your current policy?

- Bob Diddlebock and Emily Canal

Once demonized, criminalized, and the target of billions of dollars of ultimately failed law enforcement, marijuana is now a legal recreational drug for people 21 and older in 10 states, as well as Washington, D.C. New Jersey is ready to roll. People like pot, apparently. They also need it. Medically prescribed cannabis is permitted in 33 states, with Utah and Missouri the latest to approve it, in November.

For businesses, particularly multistate ones, this legal and societal shift is forcing a rethink about the zero-tolerance attitude that prevailed just a few years ago. Such a policy may now be a competitive disadvantage, especially in an ever-tightening labor market.

This new reality demands that employers “closely examine current policies, or their absence, tied to marijuana usage, update or change them as they see fit, and relay as much detail as possible,” says Dan Rowland, a Denver-based marijuana-policy industry consultant. That, ideally, should include educating yourself on the subject and sharing your views with staff on how their off-duty access to pot might play out at work. While you’re at it, says Rowland, use the change in marijuana laws as a rationale to review all your office policies.

Here are some points to consider.

1 YOU CAN STILL JUST SAY NO