APRIL 2008: AROUND THE STATE
Pot bill
fails, new one in the works
SALEM
Of the business-related legislation that died in this
year’s special legislative session, it was a workplace
medical marijuana bill that may have had the most mixed support
from Oregon’s business community.
Backed by the Oregon-Columbia chapter of the Associated General
Contractors, the bill was a pared-down version of bills
restricting medical marijuana in the workplace that died in
previous sessions. That failed legislation encompassed all
businesses. But the 2008 special-session bill stated that only
companies with workers who performed potentially hazardous
duties — for example, using explosives or construction
equipment, logging, roofing, operating power tools or a car
— would not be required to accommodate employees who used
medical marijuana.
Even with its narrow focus, the bill was opposed by civil
liberties groups who felt it impinged on the state’s 1998
medical marijuana act. But it was also opposed by Associated
Oregon Industries. And by The
Oregonian, which ran an editorial titled
“Don’t make a bad marijuana law worse.”
The fear was that by only focusing on one class of worker, the
bill implicitly gave tens of thousands of other workers in
non-hazardous jobs the right to use medical marijuana on the
job.
Richard Meneghello is a partner at the Portland office of
Fisher & Phillips, which represents employers in labor
cases. “It would have been very easy for someone to
torture the [bill’s] language and end up there. I think
we would have had numerous lawsuits that would have probably
gone in favor of medical marijuana advocates” he
says.
That was one of AOI’s biggest concerns, says J.L. Wilson,
vice president of government affairs for AOI.
With 2008’s failure for businesses and organizations
working to limit medical marijuana in the workplace, the focus
turns to the 2009 legislative session.
Ryan Deckert, president of the Oregon Business Association,
says internal subcommittees are looking at marijuana in the
workplace and the group as a whole will take a position later
this year.
AOI and the Associated General Contractors are already
collaborating on a new bill. Wilson thinks that a possible
change in House leadership following the November election will
cement support.
“There were only a few legislators who derailed the
process [for a bill in 2007],” he says. “This time
it won’t be an
issue.”
ABRAHAM HYATT
Have an opinion?
E-mail feedback@oregonbusiness.com
