Medical marijuana: What should policies be for Dayton businesses?

FILE

FILE

Business owners who still have questions about how medical marijuana will affect their drug-free workplace policies can get some answers at a workshop this week.

When Ohio’s medical marijuana program goes live Sept. 8, businesses can decide to recognize medical marijuana as a medicine or choose to still recognize it as violating their drug-free work rules.

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The workshop will from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Thursday at Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services. There’s a $20 registration.

Andrea Hoff, ADAMHS director of prevention and early intervention, said business owners have been asking for the training.

“Even more than that, we know that they absolutely need it,” Hoff said.

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Hoff said the workshop will have good information for any employer, but some of the industries they are targeting include the food industry and manufacturing. They are also targeting small and medium businesses, since large corporations typically already have decided on a policy.

“Your really large companies tend to already have sophisticated practices, but small and medium-sized businesses, not so much,” she said.

The workshop will be run by Working Partners, a company that consults on drug-free workplace programs. The workshop session will discuss the law through a business lens, share protections that employers have under the law, pose scenarios and give an outline how to make decisions on the businesses’ medical marijuana policy.

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Chris Kershner, Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce executive vice president, said the chamber is encouraging employers to review and update their workplace policies and communicate that updated policy to workers so they know early on what is expected of them.

“We have responsibility to our members to ensure they are aware of laws impacting their businesses,” he said. “Given the chamber’s direct involvement in defeating a bad marijuana proposal and crafting protections for employers in the current law, we want to ensure all of our businesses are aware of these changes.”

For questions contact Ashley Mack at 937-443-0416 or email amack@mcadamhs.org. Business owners can register online here.

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