“I’ve had to deal with legal off-duty alcohol consumption and its impact on the workplace, so I figure I’m ready as I’ll ever be for the legalization of recreational-use cannabis.  Impairment is impairment.”  If you hear your employer say this, run!  No, just kidding.  But in all seriousness, speak up.  Don’t be afraid to inform them otherwise – because it’s the safety of you and your co-workers on the line.

Maybe it’s that both alcohol and cannabis weathered a prohibition era or maybe it’s that they are familiar substances to a large swath of people (40% of Canadians have used cannabis – prior to legalization).  But whatever the case may be, there seems to be this stubborn idea – shared in pockets of the collective mind-space – that there aren’t enough differences between the two substances that insist the need to assess what considerations may be necessary to defend against potential workplace pitfalls and cover one’s liabilities with the oncoming legalization of cannabis.

This ill-informed idea is a disturbing trend given what we know about cannabis, and maybe even more importantly, what we have yet to understand.  Cannabis stays in a person’s system much longer than alcohol and a precise measurement or timely testing method for determining impairment by cannabis is still being studied.  This means, come legalization-day +1, a specific test for impairment resulting from cannabis-use will remain undetermined – just the whim of some soon-to-be famous scientist in the back of a lab.  That leaves you, the employer, up river without a paddle.  Especially since there are strict limitations on drug testing in this country.  However, from what we’ve heard through the grapevine, you do have a card to play – one that may not resolve the issue but will allow you to protect your organization, so it can survive to see what the future may hold.  Training – yes, good old training.  Online training to be exact.  Providing your workforce with an easy-to-disseminate resource that educates them on the info we know and builds awareness for those topics yet to be understood is key in meeting your OHS due diligence responsibilities.

Your workforce has a legal “Right to Know” about potential and actual workplace hazards.  Do cannabis and alcohol both cause impairment – yes.  But that may be the only commonality they share.  A boat and a car both have engines, but we grant them different interpretations and considerations.  It’s no different here – cannabis is unique and will require a new approach.  Make the right choice and protect your people by empowering them through education.