Marijuana Ballot Initiatives Pass in Five States this Election Day

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Voters in Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota accepted legal guidelines to legalize marijuana on Election Day 2020. Leisure marijuana was accepted in Arizona, Montana, and New Jersey, whereas Mississippi voters accepted medical marijuana. South Dakota voters accepted each medical and leisure marijuana poll initiatives.

Medical Marijuana

Mississippi – Mississippi Poll Measure 1 handed, with 68% voting “sure” and 32% voting “no.” Poll Measure 1 requested voters to typically forged a vote for “both measure” Initiative 65 or Various 65A, or towards each measures. Voters who forged a vote for “both measure” had been then required to forged an extra vote for his or her most popular measure. Mississippi voters handed Initiative 65 with 74% voting for it and 23% voting for Various 65A.*

Initiative 65 permits the medical use of marijuana by sufferers who are suffering from qualifying medical situations. Certified medical marijuana sufferers could possess as much as 2.5 ounces of medical marijuana. The brand new legislation doesn’t allow a qualifying affected person to be “topic to legal or civil sanctions for using medical marijuana.” Nonetheless, it doesn’t require “lodging for using medical marijuana or require any on-site use of medical marijuana” in anyplace of employment. It additionally doesn’t have an effect on any “current drug testing legal guidelines, rules, or guidelines.”

The Mississippi State Division of Well being has the authority to implement, administer, and implement the legislation. It’s required to difficulty closing guidelines and rules relating to medical marijuana by July 1, 2021. The Division should start issuing medical marijuana identification playing cards and therapy heart licenses no later than August 15, 2021.

South Dakota – South Dakota’s Initiated Measure 26 handed, with 69% voting “sure” and 31% voting “no.” The brand new legislation permits the medical use of marijuana by sufferers who are suffering from a debilitating medical situation. Medical marijuana card holders could possess as much as three ounces of marijuana and domesticate marijuana vegetation. The legislation goes into impact July 1, 2021, however it could take as much as a yr earlier than medical marijuana is offered within the state.

Below the brand new legislation, medical marijuana cardholders are entitled to “all the identical rights underneath state and native legal guidelines” because the particular person could be afforded in the event that they had been prescribed a pharmaceutical remedy because it pertains to: (1) any interplay with an individual’s employer; (2) drug testing by an individual’s employer; and (3) drug testing required by any state or native legislation, company, or authorities official.

The brand new legislation requires the South Dakota Division of Well being to difficulty rules relating to medical marijuana inside 120 days after the legislation goes into impact (October 29, 2021) and to start issuing registry identification playing cards to qualifying sufferers inside 140 days after the legislation goes into impact (November 18, 2021).

The brand new legislation doesn’t apply to employers to the extent it will battle with the employer’s obligations underneath federal legislation or regulation or if it will disqualify an employer from a financial or licensing-related profit underneath federal legislation or regulation.

Though employers could self-discipline workers for ingesting marijuana within the office or for working whereas underneath the affect of marijuana, employers could not think about a qualifying affected person to be underneath the affect of marijuana solely due to the presence of metabolites or elements of marijuana that seem in “inadequate focus to trigger impairment.” Employers in South Dakota ought to pay attention to this language as a result of there isn’t a universally accepted focus of marijuana that proves “impairment.”

Leisure Marijuana

Arizona – The Good and Secure Arizona Act handed with practically 60% voting “sure” and 40% voting “no.” Below the Good and Secure Arizona Act, people 21 years of age or older could lawfully use and buy lower than one ounce of marijuana (besides, no more than 5 grams could also be within the type of marijuana focus) and will domesticate as much as six marijuana vegetation for private use on the people’ main residence (topic to sure restrictions). The brand new legislation doesn’t embrace a delayed efficient date, however it’s going to doubtless be a number of months earlier than Arizonans should buy leisure marijuana.

The brand new legislation requires the Arizona Division of Well being Providers to start accepting purposes for marijuana institution licenses from “early candidates” starting January 19, 2021 by March 9, 2021. Licenses might be issued to certified candidates inside 60 days of receiving an utility.

The brand new legislation doesn’t prohibit the rights of employers to “preserve a drug-and-alcohol free office” or stop employers from having office insurance policies “limiting using marijuana by workers or potential workers.” It additionally doesn’t require employers to “permit or accommodate the use, consumption, possession, switch, show, transportation sale or cultivation of marijuana in a spot of employment,” nor does it prohibit employers from prohibiting or regulating marijuana use that happens on or of their properties.

Arizona handed the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act in 2010, prohibiting employers from discriminating towards medical marijuana sufferers. The leisure marijuana legislation expressly states that’s it not meant to restrict any privilege or proper of a qualifying affected person underneath the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act.

Montana – Montana’s Initiative 90 and Constitutional Initiative 118 each handed with roughly 57% voting “sure” and 43% voting “no” for Initiative 90. Efficient January 1, 2021, people age 21 or older could possess, use, or transport one ounce or much less of marijuana, and develop as much as 4 mature marijuana plans and 4 seedlings on the grounds of a personal residence. The Montana Structure supplies that an individual 18 years of age or older is an grownup for all functions, besides {that a} completely different authorized age could also be established for buying, consuming, or possessing alcoholic drinks. Efficient October 1, 2021, the Montana Structure will equally allow a distinct authorized age (i.e., 21 years of age or older) to be established for the acquisition, consumption, or possession of marijuana.

Sure provisions of the brand new legislation go into impact on October 1, 2021, which is the deadline for the Division of Income to difficulty guidelines and rules associated to licensure of adult-use marijuana suppliers and dispensaries. The Division should start accepting purposes from dispensaries, suppliers, and producers on or earlier than January 1, 2022. Nonetheless, for the primary 12 months, the Division will solely settle for such purposes from suppliers and dispensaries licensed underneath Montana’s medical marijuana statute.

The brand new legislation doesn’t impose restrictions on employers. It states that’s is probably not construed to: (1) require an employer to allow or accommodate leisure marijuana use (or another conduct permitted by the legislation) in any office or on the employer’s property; (2) prohibit an employer from disciplining an worker for violation of a office drug coverage or for working whereas intoxicated by marijuana; (3) stop an employer from declining to rent, discharging, or in any other case taking adversarial motion towards a person with respect to rent, tenure, phrases, situations, or privileges of employment due to the person’s violation of a office drug coverage or intoxication by marijuana whereas working.

Montana has had a medical marijuana legislation since 2004.

New Jersey – New Jersey’s Query 1 handed with 67% voting “sure” and solely 33% voting “no.” Efficient January 1, 2021, the New Jersey Structure might be amended to legalize leisure use of marijuana for adults ages 21 and older. The constitutional modification supplies for the Hashish Regulatory Fee to control leisure marijuana and topics all retail gross sales of leisure marijuana merchandise to state gross sales tax.

The Hashish Regulatory Fee and New Jersey lawmakers will tackle the regulatory points that can decide the quantity people can possess legally, the necessities for working dispensaries on the market of hashish, and taxation by state and native authorities. This course of is predicted to take as much as roughly one yr.

New Jersey has accepted using medical marijuana since 2013. Below 2019 amendments to the Jake Honig Compassionate Use Act, employers will not be permitted to discriminate towards those that use hashish for medical causes.

South Dakota – South Dakota’s Constitutional Modification A handed with 53% voting “sure” and 47% voting “no.” Efficient July 1, 2021, the brand new legislation permits people 21 years of age or older to own and use one ounce or much less of marijuana and to develop as much as six marijuana vegetation on the grounds of a personal residence.

No later than April 1, 2022, the South Dakota Division of Income is required to difficulty guidelines and rules associated to the business sale, cultivation, and testing of marijuana. The brand new legislation additionally directs the legislature to go legal guidelines regulating the cultivation, processing, and sale of hemp and medical marijuana by April 1, 2022.

The brand new legislation doesn’t require employers to allow or accommodate conduct approved by it. It additionally doesn’t have an effect on an employer’s potential to limit using marijuana by workers.

Subsequent Steps

Employers ought to evaluate their drug and alcohol insurance policies – particularly drug and alcohol testing insurance policies – for compliance with relevant state legal guidelines.

Whereas marijuana stays a Schedule I drug underneath the federal Managed Substances Act, the pattern within the courts over the past three years is to ignore marijuana’s standing underneath federal legislation and to implement state legal guidelines as an alternative (aside from federally regulated workers comparable to these regulated by the U.S. Division of Transportation).

Employers have to be aware of the marijuana legal guidelines within the states the place they function earlier than taking employment actions towards those that use marijuana.