Employment

A report issued this week by the Minority Cannabis Business Association claims the industry could generate more than 50,000 new jobs by 2030 if the federal government were to follow through on its cannabis rescheduling plan.

Oklahoma’s cannabis regulatory agency is laying off 10% of its workforce in response to the state’s shrinking medical cannabis industry. About 25-30 employees will be affected.

Dispensary workers at two Arizona cannabis stores, Zen Leaf Local Joint in Phoenix and the Zen Leaf in Chandler, voted on Tuesday to ratify union contracts with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 99.

A Vermont man who was fired for using medical cannabis is appealing the decision to deny a portion of his state unemployment benefits to the state Supreme Court.

Per a recent Connecticut Appellate Court ruling, employers in the state have the right to fire employees who come to work while impaired by medical cannabis.

The annual Vangst Jobs Report found that U.S. cannabis jobs increased by over 5% in 2023, with the industry currently supporting 440,445 “full-time equivalent” positions.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill to protect state employees including firefighters, emergency service providers, teachers, and civil servants from medical cannabis-related discrimination.

California lawmakers may look to undo employment protections covering legal, off-duty cannabis use by law enforcement-related positions including police officers, dispatch, animal control, and coroners.

The police chief for Montgomery County, Maryland said a state rule that bans police recruits from having used cannabis for at least three years before applying is bad for the state’s law enforcement recruitment opportunities.

Next year, California-based employees who consume cannabis will have new protections against getting fired or penalized by their employers over their cannabis use.

The family of the woman who died last year while working at a Trulieve cannabis facility in Holyoke, Massachusetts has filed a lawsuit against the company and the people who worked on its HVAC system.

Workers at the Home State Dispensary in Kansas City, Missouri voted this week to join the Teamsters Local 955, making them the first cannabis workers in the city to unionize.

The city of Bridgeport, Connecticut this week agreed to pay a settlement to a former police officer who says he was wrongly suspended for being a medical cannabis patient

The public safety director for Jersey City, New Jersey has filed a federal lawsuit against the state for allowing police officers to consume cannabis while off duty.

City officials in Anchorage, Alaska are considering a proposal to prevent the termination of most city employees who test positive for cannabis; instead, the city would offer counseling and addiction treatment.

The majority of government employees in Michigan are no longer subject to pre-employment drug testing for cannabis under new rules that took effect over the weekend.

The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability last week advanced a bipartisan measure to let cannabis consumers qualify for security clearances and become federal employees.

Three Rise dispensaries in Illinois recently saw workers ratify their first collective bargaining agreement following a “protracted fight.” Rise is a subsidiary of multi-state operator Green Thumb Industries.

A bipartisan U.S. House proposal seeks to end the consideration of prior or current cannabis use when assigning security clearance for federal employment.

The Teamsters Local 777 union has reached tentative agreements for cannabis consultants and agents-in-charge at Zen Leaf dispensaries in Chicago.

The Michigan Civil Service Commission voted unanimously this week to allow hiring individuals for most state employee positions even if they fail pre-employment drug tests for cannabis.

Rhode Island dispensary Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center has filed a lawsuit over labor peace agreement provisions in the state’s cannabis legalization law, arguing it was “coerced into entering an oppressive collective bargaining agreement.”

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) signed a bill to increase banking access for the state’s cannabis industry; the bill also adds new fingerprinting and background check requirements for cannabis industry employees.