Massachusetts lawmakers have advanced a pair of bills that would provide employment protections for marijuana consumers and expand the state’s medical cannabis program, in part by adding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and opioid use disorder to the list of qualifying conditions.
The legislature’s Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy reported the two measures out favorably on Tuesday.
Rep. Michael Soter (R) sponsored the medical marijuana expansion legislation, which would amend the existing state statute to include PTSD and opioid use disorder as conditions that could qualify patients for cannabis if recommended by a doctor.
Additionally, the bill would revise the statute to make it so military veterans who receive health care from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) could qualify for medical cannabis if they provide documentation “indicating a diagnosis of a debilitating medical condition.”
The other bill that moved through the joint committee, sponsored by Rep. Michael Kushmerek (D), would bar employers from refusing to hire, terminate or under-compensate a worker based on the presence of THC metabolites in a drug test, “unless reasonable suspicion exists that the employee was impaired by marijuana at the employee’s place of employment or during the hours of employment.”
Further, the legislation would
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