CLEVELAND — 3News is answering your questions since the recreational use of cannabis is now legal.
Can employers drug test workers? Since Issue Two has passed, it does not come with or include protections for Ohio employees who use marijuana.
We looked into the ballot's language and found where it clearly states, "An employer is not required to accommodate an employee's use, possession, or distribution of adult use of cannabis."
Meaning the passing of Issue Two does not give employees a free pass to go to work under the influence of marijuana. Issue Two also does not prohibit an employer from "refusing to discharge, disciplining, or otherwise taking an adverse employment action against an individual because of that individual's use, possession, or distribution of cannabis."
Akron Attorney at Law and former Assistant Attorney General Adam VanHo tells 3News, that with recreational marijuana use now legal, certain professions will likely be under even more pressure like healthcare professionals and law enforcement.
"You're going to see a lot more testing in medicine and law enforcement. In medicine, you'll see more testing because of the fact that there's going to be constant questions if something goes wrong on an operating table or medications aren't prescribed correctly," VanHo said.
He added, " In law enforcement because you have officers carrying weapons and traditionally those haven't been areas that have been tested in the past, but I expect them to be tested more in the future."
Another question with the passing now of Issue Two -- What will the new law look like for drivers and what possible penalties those could face for getting behind the wheel under the influence?
VanHo tells us, the legalization of marihuana will not change Ohio law when it comes to being pulled over. In fact, more citations are expected once the law goes into effect roughly 29 days from now so we can also expect an uptick in accents and DUIs. The concern is -- more people may think it is okay or safe to use marijuana and operate a vehicle.
While law enforcement will likely gear up to crack down on OVIs, VanHo says the state will need to retrain officers to better detect high drivers and upgrade drug testing equipment. That could include roadside, express urine testing and other advanced field sobriety tests.
"There's been a lot of scare tactics out there trying to say that this new law is going to make it harder for police to stop people. I think the exact opposite going to happen where we are going to have officers being better trained in the detection of people who are high and you're gonna have people who maybe slipped through it before being pulled over and asked to give a field sobriety test. "
Since the technology for this type of speedy roadside testing isn't perfect and/or fully developed yet -- VanHo says, prosecutors and police officers will likely ask courts to issue search warrants for impaired drivers to give urine or even blood samples in the near future.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol gave the following statement to our Isabel Lawrence on the passage of Issue 2:
"Currently, the Patrol has been training our troopers for many years on the detection of drug-impaired driving. Our troopers are Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) certified and we also have troopers who are Drug Recognition Experts (DREs). The Patrol requests urine samples from those arrested for suspected drug-impaired driving and those samples are then sent to our Crime Lab for processing.
"We are still reviewing the initiated statute that was approved yesterday according to unofficial election results. We will have guidance on any changes in the near future."
