New Mexico’s Largest County Reaches Deal With Firefighters To Stop Random Drug Testing For Marijuana

After leaders of New Mexico’s most populous county voted late last year to stop punishing most government employees for off-hours marijuana use, the county has reached a revised employment settlement with the native firefighters’ union.

Approved by the Bernalillo County Board of County Commissioners (BCC) on a 5–0 vote on Tuesday, the brand new memorandum of settlement (MOA) with the Albuquerque Area Firefighters IAFF Local 244 displays the brand new coverage of removing cannabis from the county’s Drug and Alcohol-Free Workplace Policy’s definition of illegal drugs “when used legally off-duty for medical or recreational purposes.”

Under the brand new coverage, solely staff required to hold firearms or maintain a business driver’s license are to be administered random or pre-employment drug exams for marijuana.

Bernalillo County is believed to be the primary native jurisdiction in New Mexico to replace its public employment coverage to permit off-duty hashish use for the reason that state adopted a marijuana legalization law in 2021—a milestone famous by the coverage’s lead sponsor, fee Chair Eric Olivas.

“We will be the first organization in the state at a municipal level, or county level, that is allowing medical cannabis use [for a] first responder group like this,” Olivas stated earlier than the vote at Tuesday’s assembly. “And I think that really puts us in the vanguard in a good way, in a good place, standing behind our people that stand up for us.”

County workers and representatives for the firefighters’ union reached a tentative settlement on the brand new contract late final month, however the plan bumped into delays over considerations that its provisions may trigger the county to lose almost $1 million in annual funding.

According to a county abstract, adopting the MOA “may result in the New Mexico Department of Transportation [NMDOT] determining that Bernalillo County Fire ambulances violate their random testing rules for Motor Carriers,” which “may result in the loss of the motor carrier license under NMDOT, which may result in yearly losses of up to $900,000 or more yearly (according to last year’s data).”

“In doing our research, we found inconsistent information coming from the New Mexico Department of Transportation,” defined County Manager Cindy Chavez, who employed late final yr, after adoption of the brand new employment coverage. “If there is any risk financially, I felt obligated to bring it forward to sunshine that.”

“I want to say to all of you that I think the risk is very very low. It’s minimal,” she added, “but we are obligated to be transparent, both with the public and especially with our commission.”

Chavez stated that if the state Department of Transportation have been to increase considerations in regards to the change, “we would work with the union to get the rules changed so that they are aligned with the direction we’re taking.”

Commissioner Adriann Barboa, the physique’s vice chair and a medical hashish affected person herself, stated she was grateful to county firefighters and union management for what she described as “a bold move that’s not always easy to take.”

“I just want to say, these are our heroes,” Barboa said. “They’re speaking boldly and proudly for our future heroes. And this is a big step towards decreasing the shame and stigma.”

She added that she felt the change could possibly be “a true model” for the remainder of the state and nation.

Union President Michael Tittman thanked fee members, telling them: “It takes a lot of guts to do something like this.”

He famous that firefighter representatives have raised the matter with town of Albuquerque, Santa Fe metropolis and county and the state legislature, “and we’re getting stonewalled every place we go.”

Earlier this month, a New Mexico House committee permitted a separate proposal that may protect medical marijuana patients from being penalized at work for off-duty use of cannabis. That measure is from House Majority Floor Leader Reena Szczepanski (D), who beforehand labored on the reform group Drug Policy Alliance.

“Our first responders are dealing with stress, chronic pain, insomnia, and PTSD,” Szczepanski instructed Marijuana Moment on the time. “Barring them from using medical cannabis on their own time to manage symptoms is incredibly harmful and unnecessary. It’s time to make a change.”

Paul Walton, a firefighter within the state and one of many lead proponents of the brand new Bernalillo County coverage, instructed Marijuana Moment in a separate assertion that the native change “made history” and “will help thousands of lives in New Mexico, the lives of firefighters and their families.”

“Firefighters deserve to have the same rights and freedoms of every other New Mexican,” he stated in an e mail. “This has been a long journey with many struggles, but we have finally come to the future of medical cannabis for first responders in New Mexico. Firefighters and first responders experience a lot of traumas from the job. This will be a safe medication to better manage the stressors of the job.”

Walton instructed Marijuana Moment forward of Bernalillo County’s adoption of its new drug coverage that he’d been working to enact the change in New Mexico for nearly two years, since initially being impressed by a presentation from a Pittsburgh division that touched on discrimination round marijuana use by registered medical sufferers.

While the change hadn’t but been adopted by any jurisdictions in New Mexico, Walton on the time pointed to Pittsburgh; Phoenix; Prince William County, Virginia; New York City and different areas across the nation which have relaxed THC-related drug testing following legalization, for instance eliminating random exams.

Walton stated that regardless of considerations about irresponsible, on-duty use, consumption of marijuana whereas away from work can really be therapeutic for a lot of firefighters.

“Firefighters have a higher risk of pain and injuries” than typical staff, he defined. “They have a higher risk of cancer, higher risk of PTSD, higher risk of anxiety and higher risk of sleeping disorders.”

A report final yr from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarded 5 years of well being survey knowledge to find out which industries and occupations were most likely to self-report marijuana use, discovering that these within the meals service and hospitality industries are among the most typical customers, together with these in arts, design, leisure, sports activities, media and building and extraction.

The report inspired employers and workers to “work together to ensure that workplace impairment resulting from cannabis use does not result in injuries.”

“Examples could include outlining expectations around cannabis use in proximity to work generally, establishing a list of high-risk job tasks that should not be done at any level of impairment, or establishing a level of workplace trust and security so that workers can voluntarily opt out of performing certain tasks if they do not think they can do them safely,” the research stated. “The primary goal for both employers and employees should be to limit the risk of injury while maintaining productivity.”

The evolving authorized panorama round hashish within the United States has difficult drug testing requirements, particularly in federally regulated sectors, and has inspired employers and policymakers alike to rethink when and the way individuals are screened for marijuana.

Numerous states have already handed laws that limits or prevents drug testing of workers for marijuana. Last yr, for instance, new worker protections took effect in both California and Washington State.

And final month, a Florida Democrat launched state laws that would protect medical marijuana patients from discrimination in government jobs by stopping companies from punishing public staff primarily based solely on their authorized use of hashish.

In California, employers at the moment are prohibited from asking job candidates about previous hashish use, and most are barred from penalizing workers over lawful use of marijuana exterior of the job. The Washington State legislation, in the meantime, protects staff from going through employment discrimination through the hiring course of over their lawful use of hashish. It doesn’t defend present staff from self-discipline or firing for out-of-work use, nevertheless.

In New Jersey, the state’s coverage in opposition to drug testing public workers has spiraled into lawsuits over whether or not police in Jersey City might be fired for testing optimistic for THC. The state’s lawyer basic has suggested departments not to test officers for off-duty cannabis use following legalization, however Jersey City’s mayor has publicly defied that coverage—a transfer officers declare is motivated by the mayor’s political ambitions.

As marijuana legalization began to take effect in Ohio last year Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb (D) introduced that the city has “modernized” its drug testing policies for applicants for city jobs, eliminating “antiquated language around pre-employment marijuana testing that has previously hindered hiring efforts.”

A Washington, D.C. legislation went into impact final July that bans most personal workplaces from firing or otherwise punishing employees for marijuana use throughout non-work hours.

Michigan officers additionally approved changes to the state’s employment policy final yr, making it so candidates for many authorities jobs will not be topic to pre-employment drug testing for marijuana.

New York additionally offers broader employment protections for adults who legally use cannabis throughout off-hours and away from work.

At the federal stage, nevertheless, officers have reiterated that “despite changes in state laws,” marijuana use is still a factor when considering a job applicant’s eligibility for presidency employment.

Earlier this month, Elon Musk additionally called it a “great idea” to mandate drug testing of federal employees as a part of his push to make large cuts to authorities companies and spending.

The situation can be widespread within the personal sector, particularly in areas the place state-level legalization collide with the continued federal prohibition of marijuana. The battle arose in a latest federal court docket case from Alaska Airlines, for instance, through which the corporate sought and did not overturn an earlier arbitration order reinstating the employment of an aircraft maintenance technician whom the company fired over a positive test for THC.

In August, Marijuana Moment printed a doc behind a call by Home Depot, one of many largest employers within the United States, to remove cannabis from screening panels entirely and stop pre-employment drug testing of most of its workers.

In 2021, company behemoth Amazon introduced that it could stop testing many of its workers for marijuana—and in addition start lobbying the federal authorities for hashish legalization.

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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.