Legalization of marijuana worries contractors

While the government seems to be focused on rules related to distribution and the sale of pot, the impact on workplace safety seems to fall to the contractors. They have a lot of unanswered questions. Current drug testing is limited to pre-job and post-incident and, for the most part, focuses on determining whether someone has used cannabis, not the extent of impairment. In addition, Canadian courts have allowed random testing only if there is a well documented drug problem that is causing serious accidents. A blood test is the only reliable way to test for impairment and that brings up a whole world of issues. With all of this falling on contractors’ shoulders, the first step would be to create solid policies to deal with drug, and specifically, marijuana use. MCA Canada is researching this problem, and has set up a dedicated web page which already contains some sample documents. We will continue to build out this webpage as the deadline for implementation approaches. Please visit https://mcac.ca/cannabis-legalization.