CLATSKANIE, Oregon (STPNS) --     Should Oregon employers be required to accommodate medical marijuana cardholders?

    Dan Harmon, chair of the Drugfree Workplace Legislative Work Group, believes that is an unreasonable request and informed approximately 30 persons at a Clatskanie Together Coalition-sponsored employer forum Sept. 20, of legislative efforts to protect employers and establish drugfree workplace standards.

    Those attending ?Medical Marijuana in the Workplace: A Legislative Update? also heard from State Senator Betsy Johnson who was in attendance, and State Representative Dave Hunt, via telephone.



    Forum co-sponsors were Boise, Kaiser Permanente, Columbia Emergency Planning Association (CEPA), and WorkDrugFree Oregon.

    ?I actually support the use of medical marijuana,? Harmon told those in attendance, saying he voted for the passage of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act (OMMA) in the November 1998 general election.

    Harmon remarked that a segment of Oregon?s population does ?have very serious illnesses? and truly need the relief of suffering they receive from marijuana.

    ?My problem is, it?s not a small group that?s using it (marijuana), it is a very large group that?s using.?

    Harmon later told attendees that the people of Oregon ?were led down the path to vote for medical marijuana? as they viewed television commercials of ?very seriously ill people.?

    He believes the ?wrong message? was sent by the passage of the act and proponents who seek the legalization of the drug. He also indicated he is disturbed by the fact that businesses are being told they must accommodate medical marijuana in the workplace.

    Harmon is executive vice president and general counsel for Hoffman Construction Company of Oregon, which is based in Portland and has had a drug and alcohol testing program in effect since 1986. At Hoffman, the drug test failure rate correlates with its accident rate and in the past 10 years, 90 workplace accidents have involved marijuana use.

    According to the web site of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP), a state registry, the number of cardholders has grown from 500 in April 2000 to 14,868 as of July 2007, with almost 2000 applications pending. The OMMP is part of the state?s Department of Human Services.

    The medical marijuana act provided for Oregonians with debilitating medical conditions to benefit from the use of medical marijuana, using small amounts of the drug with their physician?s approval and as a registered patient with the OMMP.

    While the act exempted employers from accommodating medical marijuana cardholders, Harmon cited two cases brought before the Oregon Supreme Court, ?Washburn vs Columbia Forest Products? and ?Emerald Steel Fabricators, Inc.,? in which employees and cardholders charged they did not receive reasonable accommodation for use of medical marijuana before they were terminated.

    An Oregon court later determined that Washburn was not disabled and therefore the ?company was not obligated to make reasonable accommodations,? said Harmon.

    In the second case, the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) stated that the complainant, a temporary employee, was not disabled, but said the ?employer (Emerald Steel Fabricators, Inc.) should have entered in reasonable discussion? and that the complainant was due back pay. The case is being heard by the Oregon health board, with an oral argument to be heard in the near future, said Harmon.

Efforts Thwarted

in State Legislature

    For the past year and half, Harmon has chaired the Drugfree Workplace Legislative Work Group and he presented the group?s research and legislative efforts in a PowerPoint presentation at Thursday?s forum.

    According to the work group?s findings, 10.6 percent of the Oregon workforce has drug and alcohol abuse problems, with more than 37,000 Oregonians unable to work or find employment because of their substance abuse issues.

    Oregon and Washington?s drug test failure rates have tripled in recent years from five to 15 percent and marijuana is the most prevalent reason for failure.

    During the last legislative session, the work group supported a four-part effort in senate bills (SB) 690, 465 and 797 and treatment funding in house bills (HB) 2347 and 2535.

    SB 690 would have established drugfree workplace (DFW) standards and protected employers if they met the standards. The bill did not receive a hearing and ?died? in committee when the legislature adjourned, said Harmon.

    SB 465 would have re-confirmed that employers are ?not obligated to accommodate medical marijuana in any workplace regardless of where the drug use occurs,? Harmon noted.

    It also would have made it clear, he said, that while the ?state may choose to waive criminal sanctions, employees should not be obligated to accommodate that in the workplace.?

    While SB 465 passed overwhelmingly in the Senate, 23-5, it was referred to the House Elections, Ethics and Rules Committee, where Chair Diane Rosenbaum opposed the bill.

    Although it had a hearing, the bill was ?trapped? in committee and failed to be pulled out, by a 30-30 vote, he said.

    ?A tremendous amount of action? surrounded SB 465, noted Harmon, naming legislators who actively supported the bill: Senator Rick Metsger, Senator Ginny Burdick, Senator Betsy Johnson, Representative Dave Hunt, Representative Linda Flores and Representative Dave Edwards.

    While the house bills for treatment funding failed, the work group is working on another funding treatment bill to include monies for a worker treatment program.

?A Very, Very

Serious Problem?

    ?From our group?s perspective, we?re not done,? said Harmon, who said the bills will be reintroduced in future sessions.

    ?This is a very, very serious problem for the state of Oregon. What?s happening out there has major human consequences - it has major economic consequences.?

    ?We need more workers,? he noted, stating that when 150,000 Oregonians, 10 percent of the population, have substance abuse problems, there is an ?impact on services that they and their families require.?

    ?Imagine if they were employed and paying taxes, what would happen on the revenue side??

    Another future ballot initiative, being put forth by a different group and described as a ?crime fighter?s initiative,? would repeal Oregon?s medical marijuana act and freely dispense a replacement drug, Marinol, to marijuana patients. Harmon indicated he had some ?reservations? about the initiative.

    Following his presentation, Senator Johnson told the audience, ?I just find the concept of reasonable accommodation drug use in the workplace an absolute anathema.?

    As a licensed helicopter pilot, Johnson said she found it ?inconceivable? that in her industry ?some people would not be at the top of their game...I work in an industry with zero tolerance.?

    ?There are those narrow bands of people who are seriously ill when using marijuana...but those people should not be driving school bus? or performing many other jobs which Johnson described. She encouraged marijuana use to be separated from the ?professional lives? of those in Oregon?s workforce.

    She said she ?very happily supported? 465 and ?will do so again.?

Workplace Safety -

?The Preemptive Concern?

    ?The biggest challenge,? in passing the bills, said Representative Hunt, is that ?some folks see any changes on the law as an attack on the measure.?

    He stated that proponents are ?not trying to attack or undermine the core issues that voters were voting on, they?re trying to both protect workplace safety for all co-workers, and actually the people themselves? as well as have an ?attainable policy? that employers can enforce.

    He also noted, however, that the ?legitimate need has gone far beyond need and what voters intended.?

    Hunt remarked on the importance of having workplace safety as the ?preemptive concern.?

    He said he hoped that in the future the state might establish a similar test for marijuana use as the 0.08 blood alcohol level testing that is accepted for determining impairment, with a ?zero tolerance? exception for ?strategically important? jobs.

    Hunt encouraged constituents to write their legislators, stating ?this is not a choice between supporting the legitimate use of marijuana...we can have both.?

    Speaking from the audience, Sandee Burbank, founder and executive director of the Portland-based Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse (MAMA), a Portland-based group, advocated for businesses to ?accommodate medical users with simple impairment testing? to determine if an employee is working while ?impaired? by a substance. Burbank was one of several from MAMA in attendance at last week?s forum.

    As chair of the state?s Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana, which helped write the Oregon medical marijuana program, she noted that the committee was not ?invited to participate in any of these conversations.?

    In response to Burbank?s suggestion of ?impairment testing, Harmon said ?extensive testifying? in the House and Senate indicated that type of testing ?does not exist.?

    ?I?m not sure it answers the bigger question - should we have zero tolerance in the workplace or some other standards??

    Harmon said he would like to see Oregon adopt a medical marijuana program similar to the state of Colorado.

    Colorado?s ?almost identical program? is ?different in key ways? as it requires medical marijuana cardholders to have a ?bonafide relationship with the prescribing physician? and allows use of the drug for medical conditions only if there is scientific evidence to prove that marijuana has a ?positive affect? on the condition. Consequently, there are only 1800 cardholders in Colorado versus the nearly 18,000 in Oregon, he said.

    Robin Fouché, CTC executive director, asked Harmon and Johnson about maintaining the effectiveness and legality of their workplace policies while the provisions of the medical marijuana act are still in effect.

    Johnson stated that her federal partner, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is ?zero-tolerant.?

    Harmon concurred that the federal government has a drugfree workplace act and that Hoffman Construction has clearly stated in its policies that it will not accept a medical marijuana card, if the cardholders tests positive for use.

?A Clarion Call -

Be An Informed Voter?

    ?There is a huge problem in the state trying to find qualified workers,? commented Columbia County Commissioner Rita Bernhard, citing a recent incident in which 90 applicants to a company all failed a drug test.

    ?We have the companies who want to come into this state, who want to hire folks.

    ?We?re desperately in need of jobs,? she remarked, emphasizing the duty to ?make sure we provide qualified workers for these companies.?

    ?The soundbites that drive these initiatives are so often not the reality of these initiatives,? said Johnson, adding that it is a ?clarion call to all of us - don?t listen to the ?gobbledygook? on TV. Study literature, be an informed voter - they are never as simple as they seem.?

    ?It is a clear call for us to exercise the franchise of voting and go to the polls informed.?