CAS Legal Mailbag ' 2/9/23

• Jurisdiction: Connecticut,United States,Federal
• Published date: 15 February 2023
• Subject Matter: Consumer Protection, Food, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Cannabis & Hemp, Education, Food and Drugs Law
• Law Firm: Shipman & Goodwin LLP
• Author: Mr Thomas B. Mooney
• topic: Constitutional Law,Employment Law

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Originally appeared in the CAS Weekly Newsletter

Dear Legal Mailbag:

As an HR director for a Connecticut school district, I read with interest your response last week to the security guard who caught a teacher lighting up a marijuana cigarette in the school parking lot.

Given what I learned last week, I will be proposing to the Superintendent that she recommend that the Board of Education adopt a policy prohibiting employees from using marijuana on or off the job. We want our employees to be sharp and straight-edge so that they can focus appropriately on work without being hungover or fuzzy in their thinking.

Such a prohibition, however, carries its own complication - how on earth would we enforce the prohibition? Accordingly, I have a follow-up question. If the Board adopts a policy prohibiting marijuana use on or off campus, can we go ahead and require that employees submit to random drug testing?

If the Board adopts this prohibition against marijuana use, we should enforce it, and I can't think of a better way than drug testing. I just want to make sure that I am on solid ground if I take this next step and initiate random testing for marijuana.

Signed,

Eager to Test

Dear Eager:

Looking only at "An Act Concerning Responsible and...