The newly legalized status of recreational cannabis is causing a stir among some Rhode Island employers that are wrestling with developing workplace policies and figuring out how to deal with employees potentially coming into the workplace impaired.
“What we’re finding is that regardless of the size of a company, whether it’s one or two, or 1,000 people, they’re going to face the same issues,” Kelly Wishart, chief operating officer at Coastline EAP in Warwick, said during one of two panel discussions during Providence Business News’ 2022 Business of Cannabis Summit at the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick on Sept. 15.
Though state lawmakers codified employers’ ability to create workplace policies on recreational cannabis earlier this year, state Sen. Joshua Miller said companies shouldn’t anticipate a need for dramatic shifts in their policies.
“The only minor change [in state law] was getting more restrictions for those who were federal contractors and certain categories of workforce,” said Miller, D-Cranston, who was another panelist at the PBN event. “But beyond that, what you have is a safer product, a product that is already consumed by this backset of about 100,000 Rhode Islanders on a daily basis for a few decades now. So what the law does is codify an employee’s responsibility and an employer’s responsibility that has historically existed in Rhode Island.”
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Panelist Kelly Wishart, Coastline EAP executive.
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Still, the legalization has raised questions among employers, Miller said, noting that the state codified the existing policy to quell concerns expressed by business owners, some of whom feel that the state’s legalization of recreational sales has placed a new onus on employers to create and enforce their own company-specific recreational cannabis use policies.
Panelists agreed that there’s no clear protocol for how employers can address the issue of cannabis use.
State law places significant limits on how much say employers have over cannabis use outside of the office, with a limited subset of employers, such as those in the construction or manufacturing industries, permitted to drug test employees.
But panelist Benjamin L. Rackliffe, a partner at Pannone Lopes Devereaux and O’Gara LLC, noted that no test exists to prove whether an individual is under the influence of cannabis when the test is conducted.
“Until there’s something scientifically effective for that purpose, I’m not sure there’s much else you can do other than continue to enforce a quality employment policy,” Rackliffe said.
But some want to see a clearer, statewide guidance providing a standard to determine if someone is impaired.
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CANNABIS CONVERSATION: Several hundred people attend PBN’s The Business of Cannabis Summit on Sept. 15 at the Crowne Plaza Providence-Warwick.
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“You have to make a standard, and you have to make a protocol,” Miller said, adding that the R.I. Department of Business Regulation and R.I. Cannabis Control Commission will both have the power to set a standard.
That’s the case in New Jersey, where the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission advised employers to “establish evidence-based protocols for documenting observed behavior and physical signs of impairment to develop reasonable suspicion, and then to utilize a drug test to verify whether or not an individual has used an impairing substance in recent history.”
Different industries may also differ in their need for a standard, Wishart said, noting that a protocol for determining intoxication may be more in demand among employers in labor-intensive industries or ones that require driving vehicles, compared with desk jobs.
Miller suggested that Rhode Island can follow the lead of other states that are further along in managing such challenges.
But some industries will face barriers that arise from the substance still being illegal at the federal level, said Kristyn Glennon, vice president and Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering compliance officer at BayCoast Bank.
Federal cannabis laws can interfere with lending at banks, Glennon said, and credit card companies have placed restrictions on using their services for cannabis-related transactions.
Glennon advised banks to establish strong boards and resources and encouraged businesses to stay in touch with the state as they navigate the obstacles.
“Banks that start to get into [the industry] have to partner with government, have to partner with the [Cannabis Control Commission] and [the DBR],” Glennon said.
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A BANKER’S TAKE: Kristyn Glennon, right, BayCoast Bank executive, participates in the panel discussion at PBN’s The Business of Cannabis Summit on Sept. 15. Looking on is Benjamin L. Rackliffe, a partner at Pannone Lopes Devereaux and O’Gara LLC. /
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Many business owners have reservations about recreational cannabis regulation, but Miller suspects that the majority of Rhode Islanders aren’t concerned with the substance’s newly legalized status.
While most communities have chosen to let voters decide whether recreational cannabis can be sold within their city or town, rather than automatically opting in, Miller expects that voters in almost all of the 31 municipalities will OK recreational cannabis sales in their communities.
“We feel that at the end of the day, there might be three or four communities that oppose it,” Miller said. “But I think it will be widespread.”
While there are many uncertainties ahead, panelists said state legislators and industry leaders have a good idea of what to expect in terms of demand when the first retail cannabis shops open in December.
“We know basically right now what demand is going to look like,” Rackliffe said. “I think that many folks in this room know that whether or not it’s on the regulated or unregulated market, or in Rhode Island or outside of Rhode Island, marijuana use is not new here. It won’t be new Dec. 1, and it will not be new in 2023.”
Rhode Island, which in May became the 19th state to legalize reactional cannabis sales, can benefit from this relatively late entry into the legalized recreational cannabis market, Rackliffe said.
“Massachusetts has the demand but lacked the supply, and it obviously has an effect on pricing and availability of products,” he said. “We’re in a unique position where we’re really ready to meet the demands of adult use.”