Minnesota employers sprint to rewrite marijuana policies amid new law

The new marijuana laws in Minnesota are causing headaches for employers.

Take Paul Blom, who deals with the complexity of them as a member of his North Loop condo board and as chief executive of a home health care agency.

The state joins 22 others on Aug. 1 when it decriminalizes the recreational use of cannabis.

The shift is emboldening people to smoke marijuana in new places — even if not permissible under Minnesota's new law, Blom said.

At his condominium complex, he had to remind neighbors their smoke shouldn't infiltrate the common corridors.

In the workplace, a person's job determines whether they can be tested for THC before or during employment. For instance, Blom's employees can be tested because they are health care workers. It is also legal for any employer to have policies that limit the use of cannabis on-site.

Minnesota employment attorneys, human resource professionals and chambers of commerce all say they are getting bombarded with questions and are coaching employers to batten down work rules before the new law takes effect.

"You definitely have to have a policy for something like this," said Blom, CEO of Right at Home in Bloomington.

Some employers are asking how to deal with U.S. government contract work, since marijuana use is still illegal under federal law. Others want to know how to adjust drug testing, whether to abolish it or how to codify consequences for workers who are under the influence at work.

National cannabis law firm Vicente estimates that the number of Minnesotans who will use marijuana will jump from 445,100 in 2020 to 651,500 — or 15% of the adult population — next year. Because the drug can stay in a person's system for 30 days, attorneys say employers need to define for workers what is acceptable.

Teachers, caretakers of vulnerable adults, police officers, firefighters and truckers will also still need to stay clear of cannabis under the new law. So workplace policies need to match the legislation.

"If it is decriminalized, and [workers] are using it in their spare time outside of work hours, there's going to be confusion as to how that then translates over to the workspace," said Lauryn Schothorst, director of the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce's workplace management and workforce development policy. "You're not going to want somebody using marijuana over the weekend and thinking that this [new law] is a free pass to come to work high."

To help businesses navigate, the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has been hosting workshops in June for other local chambers and companies around the state.

In July, it's hosting a webinar on marijuana laws and policies for 6,300 member companies.

"We are pushing out a ton of information," Schothorst said. Given the timing of the law change, "We're concerned that those who are the least prepared do not have a long runway. Aug. 1 is the date we are preparing our members to have their workplace policies ready to go."

Legalizing cannabis feels higher stakes for many manufacturers, food processers and other employers who worry about workplace safety. Their employees deal with chemicals, fast-moving factory machines, forklifts and trucks.

Policies on use will need to rely less on random testing — given the new recreational use law — and more on behavior, said attorney David Waytz, a shareholder with Fredrikson & Byron's employment and labor group.

Some of his clients are getting rid of all testing. Others will still test for drugs but not for THC, the active ingredient of marijuana.

That's the approach being taken by Inside Edge Commercial Interior Services, an Eagan-based firm with 250 employees who install flooring for Target, Best Buy, Kohls, CVS and Walgreens stores nationwide, said Jes Kratzke, the company's human resource manager.

The company also will no longer base hiring decisions on past misdemeanor cannabis convictions that show up on applicants' background checks, Kratzke said. However, strict adherence to not using on the job will still be followed.

More than 60,000 of Minnesota's misdemeanor marijuana cases will be eligible for automatic expungement, according to estimates from the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Knutson Construction plans to treat marijuana use like alcohol use, said the firm's president, Brendan Moore. That might not involve changing any policy.

"We do conduct drug and alcohol tests on our projects. I don't anticipate the passing of the new law will change any of that," he said.

However, the company is still working with its legal team to make sure policies in Minnesota match those for its employees in other states.

"We just want to make sure that the safety and welfare of our employees remains paramount," Moore said.

The company has had projects in 30 states, including Illinois, which legalized recreational pot use in 2019.

"Obviously, Minnesota is not the first state to go through this process," Moore said.

Waytz and Schothorst both stress to employers that even with the new law, they can still ban its use for workers in "safety sensitive" positions.

"So for that chemical plant, if [you] were worried, you can absolutely continue to [ban intoxication and drug] test the way you did," Waytz said.

But clearly defining which jobs fall under that is key, he said, to avoid lawsuits in the future.

Do you have questions about cannabis in Minnesota? Please use the form below to submit them and we'll do our best to answer as many of them as we can in the coming months.