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ASSOCIATED PRESS
A bill to prohibit employers from discriminating against workers with prescriptions for medical marijuana who test positive for using cannabis has resurfaced in the final weeks of the legislative session, and was unanimously approved by the state Senate.
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The opposition to basic employment protections for registered medical cannabis patients is resting on a molehill of misperceptions. Contrary to contentions that House Bill 673 will lead to workplace safety issues, it will help alleviate them (“Employers wary of bill protecting medical pot cardholders,” Star-Advertiser, April 21). Instead, the bill would help ensure that employees who need this form of medicine use it responsibly without being arbitrarily punished for doing so.
To continue pushing them to instead use addictive and dangerous opioid painkillers, or forsake relief altogether, would be cruel and unusual.
With medical cannabis dispensaries open in all four counties, regulated medicine is available that can truly help these patients. Further, provisions of the legislation underscore that impairment in the workplace will not be tolerated, nor should it be.
Hawaii should adopt these common-sense protections, and join the numerous other states where both employees and their employers are thriving, far removed from the stigma of yesteryear.
Carl Bergquist
Executive director, Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii
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