Workplace Privacy Counsel

The 2012 elections placed a number of marijuana initiatives before state voters around the United States, ranging from efforts to legalize the sale and use of marijuana for recreational purposes to further expansion of the "medical marijuana" laws that currently exist in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Voters in Colorado and Washington passed initiatives directing their states to decriminalize the possession of marijuana by adults for recreational use. Oregon voters, in contrast, rejected a ballot initiative that would have legalized marijuana for recreational use. Massachusetts has adopted a "medical marijuana" law that decriminalizes the use and possession of marijuana by state residents with debilitating medical conditions. Montana voters appear to have authorized amendments to that state's existing medical marijuana law that narrow who is eligible to use marijuana for medical reasons. To learn more, please see Littler's ASAP, Marijuana Laws Liberalized in Colorado, Washington – But Effect on Workplace Policies Likely Small, by Nancy Delogu and Chris Leh.