Employers Can't Discriminate Against Weed Use According to New California Laws

California will soon have a lot of new laws that go into force in the new year. Two of these laws stop employers from discriminating against workers and job applicants because they use marijuana.

Both acts, Assembly Bill 2188 and Senate Bill 700, add to the California Fair Employment and Housing Act. This act, as its name suggests, protects people from being discriminated against because of their age, religion, gender, disability, and other factors. There are different parts of marijuana use dealt with in each bill, especially pot use while not at work.

California New Weed LawsPhoto byAOL

AB 2188 is directly about firing people because they use marijuana. It would be against the law for an employer to refuse to hire someone or change any other job conditions because they use marijuana at work or because they failed an employer-required drug test that looked for nonpsychoactive cannabis byproducts. Metabolites that are not psychoactive are what are left in a person's body after THC has worn off.

These changes were made to AB 2188 because "when most tests are conducted for cannabis, the results only show the presence of the nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolite and have no correlation to impairment on the job."

The other law, SB 700, says that employers can't ask job applicants about their past cannabis use. They also can't use information about a job applicant's cannabis use that they got from a criminal background check to make hiring choices.

These rules don't affect people who work in the building and construction trades or in jobs that need a background check from the federal government. Also, they don't stop employers from making choices based on tests for other drugs, and they don't have any power over state or federal laws that may apply to different types of businesses.

Both rules take effect on January 1, 2024.

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