Multiple media outlets reported on NJBIA’s continued urging of the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission to take appropriate action for employers to better ensure workplace safety.
While recreational marijuana sales began on Thursday, the CRC has yet to propose or adopt standards for the training and certification of Workplace Impairment Recognition Experts, or WIREs, to determine an employee’s impairment from marijuana.
Those WIREs are required by law to officially determine whether an employee is under the influence of cannabis, because that drug can be found in a person’s systems weeks after consuming it.
NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Ray Cantor told NJ Spotlight News’ correspondent Joanna Gagis that New Jersey businesses now find themselves “in a precarious position.”
“With someone working in a chemical plant, someone working in a power plant, someone operating a crane in an urban environment, there is an issue of someone being harmed,” Cantor said. “That’s the real concern. We don’t want people to die first before we do what we need to do.
“And if someone does get injured, now we’re in situation where people are going to argue that the employer should have taken more action when they’re legally not able to take more action,” Cantor told Gagis.
NJBIA’s advocacy for workplace safety was also covered by Politico, The Wall Street Journal, NJ101.5 News and NJ Spotlight News’ Business Report.
