My husband worked for a public utility. Marijuana use was not permitted and you could and employees were terminated for using.
Husband said that it didn’t matter what was legal in our state or not. Employers can dictate what their employees can or cannot use. Drug testing could be required at any time when on the job.
I think what is problematic is that testing for being under the influence of marijuana is not as straightforward as those for being under the influence of alcohol. You can tell how much alcohol is in the bloodstream by testing. To my knowledge, testing for marijuana just reveals whether or not it has been used in a certain timeframe … so the person may well not be impaired just because they test positive. I assume certain jobs ban the use of marijuana because the employer wouldn’t be able to know for sure if the employee was under the influence of marijuana in case of an accident. Just my guess, but seems logical.
Apparently, more & more companies are leaving cannabis out of their employee drug testing policies.
Same for the military. It’s illegal at the federal level, state law is irrelevant. No use allowed whatsoever. Full stop.
However, I think it’s extremely naive to believe that people in the military don’t use cannabis products, acquired legally or not.
It’s naive to believe that people in every occupation everywhere don’t use. I was responding to policy not behavior.
I think there are certain professions where cannabis use is going to be difficult to ever be allowed. Due to the nature of testing right now.
I don’t want anyone who has to operate heavy machinery on the job. Or have any responsibility for our national security. Among other responsibilities. Just can’t have it.
If they want to partake, they can find another job. It’s quite easy to make that decision. And it’s within an employers discretion to decide what rules they want their employees to follow.
Some people also need to take polygraphs to be hired, or to stay employed.
Polygraphs are inadmissible and not terribly reliable.
You should mention that to the FBI.
I’m driving home and the driver of the car 2 cars ahead of me is smoking skunk weed. Welcome to legalized marijuana.
The FBI, NSA, and CIA all use polygraphs before and during employment.
Still doesn’t mean they are accurate. They aren’t accepted in court for that reason.
Polygraphs are accepted in court under certain circumstances, but that has nothing to do with the fact that the federal alphabet agencies screen prospective, and current employees with polygraph tests.
My son had to take 4 different pre-acceptance polygraph tests for different law enforcement agencies during his senior year of college. He had to answer several questions about drug use.
They usually aren’t admissible but you have to pass one to obtain security clearance and continue to pass them to maintain your clearance.
Whether they’re admissible in court doesn’t seem to matter to the feds.
To bring it back around to marijuana, I know that within the last 10 ish years, one of the questions on that polygraph was about marijuana use. Anyone know if they still ask that?
They do still ask it, but they’ve loosened the acceptable abstinence window. In the past people had to be completely drug free for 3 years. Now it’s only 1 year generally.
The only place I’ve seen polygraphs used in court is tv court shows " couples court with the Cutlers" or whatever its called 
it does seem to be rather dramatic and out of a bad cop show, but I guess they’re pretty accurate for most people. I know someone who would have panic attacks before hers and they were even always ok in the end.
I would decline one since they aren’t considered reliable enough, if the situation ever arose. Lie Detector Admissibility | LawInfo
“In short: Lie detector tests have questionable reliability and are generally not admissible as evidence in court. They can be used in some investigations and for decision-making when applying to some federal employment positions.”
I assume you mean they cannot have a cannabis prescription under any circumstances, not just that they cannot smoke on the job. Would you make a similar comment about alcohol, medications with a common side effect of drowsiness (Ambien, many allergy meds), or the many other groups of medications that should not be taken while operating heavy machinery? Or is it only cannabis?
