This is so long overdue.
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Drinking on the job when my husband was employed wasnāt allowed. Fireable offense.
Since you canāt test for cannabis the same way you can test for alcohol consumption, then itās not allowed.
I donāt make the rules, the company does. They can make any rules they want. Itās in the employee handbook and itās a condition of staying employed. Being paid and have great benefits. If you donāt want to do that, you can get a job somewhere else.
This isnāt difficult. I donāt really care. But rules are rules. And if you want to break them, then you get to find a job somewhere else.
As far as a medical prescription, Iām not sure. Iām sure HR did.
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Iām guessing that your husband didnāt regularly have to take breathalyzers. When there is employer drug testing, it is far more common to use urine testing, which can also be used to test for cannabis.
Companies cannot make whatever rules they want. They have to abide by a variety of state and federal regulations. For example, I live in CA, which has the following regulations for employers. Other states have different rules. Federal jobs and jobs with federal security clearance also have different rules. The reclassification could impact the federal regulations, but would be unlikely to impact the CA state rules below.
(a) It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a person in hiring, termination, or any term or condition of employment, or otherwise penalizing a person, if the discrimination is based upon any of the following:
(1) The personās use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplaceā¦
Note that the proposal listed in the original post is to classify cannabis as a potential medical prescription drug, rather than a drug with highest abuse potential and no medical uses, like heroin.
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My employer is similar to @deb922
Nobody said you could have a prescription, you canāt use it! Lol but one big difference between marijuana and alcohol, allergy meds, etc. those stay in your system for hours, dayā¦ marijuana can be detected up to a month after use. So unlike alcohol, you canāt have a āfunā friday/saturday night and be ready to work on Monday.
I have to take a drug/alcohol class for supervisors every year. They have been stressing this point heavily.
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It depends on the test. Some types of tests can theoretically detect for as long as a month after usage for a frequent user with high body fat, as you note. Others can only detect for a few hours after usage. If the claim is that there is no way to know whether the employee is high during work or smoked once a month ago, that isnāt true.
The urine tests we use for my job detects it up to a month and they will fire you if positive, and thatās what matters if you want to stay employed. They go over this every year and you sign a statement saying youāve read and understand the policy
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Go work in California
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Youād have to drag me kicking and screaming to live in California, but since I work in the building and construction trade, the law would likely be exempt for me anyway.
Not to mention Iāve never smoked a cigarette in my life, nor have an ever taken an illegal drug. I have less than zero desire to ever smoke marijuana myself.
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My kids live in CA and we love visiting them there. They work for a FAANG and said, tongue in cheek I think, that they donāt bother to drug test new hires anymore as so many would not pass 
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For the jobs they do, it may not matter. A different outcome if there are lives at stake, such as pilots or doctors, for example.
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Or tractor trailer drivers.
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Yes, any type of commercial driver or transportation official ( RR workers too). Or any job involving public welfare or safety.
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I said it was tongue in cheek. But yes, for many, (but perhaps not all) the employees in their company, public safety is not an immediate issue.
Likely a non-issue.
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This seems off topic to the issue of declassifying cannabis for medical purposes. People should not be driving when on narcotic pain meds, sedatives, under the influence of ETOH, etc.
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Weāre entering that slippery slope to federal legalization.
Donāt think so. That would likely be a long way off.
Good.
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Seems like there is need for this kind of test to detect current intoxication:
https://www.aaas.org/news/rapid-marijuana-saliva-test-detects-immediate-use-within-minutes