Last week, Bernalillo County commissioners voted unanimously to approve a policy change that allows most of its employees to use cannabis during their off-hours without being punished. The reform reportedly makes Bernalillo County the first government entity in New Mexico to take such a progressive stance on cannabis policy.
The policy change removes cannabis from the county’s list of prohibited substances without changing the county’s “drug- and alcohol-free workplace” policy.
From now on, the county will treat cannabis use more like alcohol use. Employees can consume weed when they’re off the clock, but they can’t come to work while under the influence. Drug testing will continue, but labs won’t be looking for weed.
The policy change aims to strike a balance between employee rights and public safety. By focusing on off-duty use, the county’s policy would mirror approaches taken in other areas that have legalized marijuana.
But the new policy doesn’t apply to all county employees. A key aspect of is the introduction of a tiered classification system for employees. Workers will now be divided into three tiers based on their job roles and responsibilities:
Tier 1 employees are those who are required to have a commercial driver’s license or carry a firearm as part of their duties. Tier 2 includes those whose roles carry significant responsibilities for public health, safety and well-being. Tier 3 involves all other employees.
Employees in Tiers 1 and 2 will be subject to more stringent testing requirements, including pre-employment and random drug testing. They will also be required to pass a drug and alcohol test before returning to work in the event of a workplace incident. Workers who self-report substance use issues will be temporarily removed from Tier 1 and Tier 2 roles.
The tiered system is meant to address the different levels of safety required in various roles and allow employees whose jobs don’t directly impact public safety a little leeway when it comes to leisure activities.
Workers in positions that are funded by federal money won’t be benefiting from the change either, since federal law requires them to adhere to “drug-free workplace” guidelines, which prohibit weed use.
“That ensures that employees know that they’re expected to be alert, they’re expected to be safe—that is number one when we’re dealing with the public and risks and the jobs that our employees do every day,” Commission Vice Chair Eric Olivas said during last week’s administrative meeting. He went on to say that the county has to trust its employees and recognize that they have the freedom to do whatever they enjoy during their time off, “whether they like hiking or they like having a beer or they want to use cannabis.”
Olivas has framed the reform as a matter of fairness and equity, arguing that blue-collar workers deserve the same rights as white-collar employees, who are often not scrutinized for their off-duty drug or alcohol use. He has pointed out that firefighters are trusted to save lives but face stricter drug-testing protocols than doctors and surgeons.
Ahead of last week’s vote, Olivas also highlighted the necessity of allowing county employees like firefighters and emergency dispatch to access medical cannabis as a treatment for PTSD. “These are folks that are seeing and hearing a lot of traumatic things,” Olivas told his colleagues. “They’re experiencing things that most of us don’t experience once in a lifetime, and they’re dealing with it day in and day out.”
He said the change would allow those employees to work with their physicians “to find the best medicine for them to treat any conditions or any traumatic events that they’re dealing with.”
Following the vote, some of the other county commissioners made comments about the policy change.
“I think this is so important, especially for the medical cannabis use,” Ccommissioner Adriann Barboa said. “I’m just thankful.”
“Medical cannabis and recreational cannabis can be used for PTSD and it’s a helpful legal substance so we needed to update our rules and regulations on that and I think this does that,” Commissioner Barbara Baca said.
“I agree with this, and I think it’s high time,” Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada said. “That was a joke,” he added.
The rule change is a significant and historic move made by a New Mexico government entity, but it follows a trend happening in all sectors of the nation’s workforce as companies contend with the impact of cannabis prohibition on employment.
The federal ban on marijuana creates inconsistencies between state and local policies as cannabis legalization at the state level expands. With recreational weed legal in 24 states and medical marijuana legal in 14 more, finding potential employees who can pass a THC test is becoming much harder.
Complicating matters further, current urine analysis methods aren’t sensitive enough to determine how much time has passed between use and test time, and users can produce positive results for up to 90 days. That means applicants have to abstain from using a legal drug for up to three months before being able to pass pre-employment drug screening for some companies.This is a serious problem for businesses looking for good employees in the midst of a nationwide hiring crisis. According to a report from business consulting firm Mercer, 48% of HR leaders say that skill shortage is the top threat to their businesses. As companies become more desperate to find applicants with the required skills to perform their duties, they’re becoming less concerned with whether those applicants use cannabis legally. In recent years, mega retailers like Home Depot and Amazon have done away with pre-employment weed testing, and many others are likely to follow as the nation sheds the negative stigmas associated with the drug.