Kentucky Legalizes Medical Marijuana
Effective: January 1st, 2025
Kentucky is one of the newest states to legalize the use of medical marijuana, a growing trend across the United States. However, the law does have extensive employer protections to continue prohibiting marijuana in the workplace. The employer is not restricted from creating and enforcing a drug testing policy or preventing on-duty usage of cannabis.
This is similar to other state policies. Colorado, for example, does not restrict employers from making employment decisions based on a positive marijuana result on a drug test, and they aren’t required to allow employees to use marijuana products.
While this means employers are not prevented from continuing to restrict marijuana, employers should reconsider their pre-employment drug testing policies. Some prospective employees may test positive for marijuana where they previously would not have. Since it is legal medicinally while off-duty, this may mean that businesses where marijuana use does not pose a safety risk should consider whether or not they want to limit their candidate pool based on a positive cannabis result.
Employers can find the law here.
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