I wasn’t trying to pass a bill that said you could be stoned while at work, because that would have been crazy.
By Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator
The Louisiana House Labor Committee approved a bill on Thursday to protect employees who use marijuana for medical purposes from losing their unemployment benefits.
House Bill 351, sponsored in New Orleans by Rep. Mandie Landry (D), barely passed on a vote of 6-5. Several committee members agreed to support the legislation based on Landry’s promise to reach a compromise with Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.
Landry said that she introduced the bill as the state had neglected to protect consumers despite the legalization of medical marijuana and the regulation of growers and vendors.
Landry explained that “the Louisiana resident purchases the product and then loses his job, which means he no longer has money to purchase the product the state claims was legal. We are in a strange circle with the government being bad at selling marijuana.”
Landry presented the bill with Rep. Joe Marino (I-Gretna). Marino, the chair of the Medical Marijuana Commission of California, convinced Landry to not defer the bill. They agreed to continue working on the bill until it is voted on by the House.
In committee, the bill has been amended to remove provisions which would have offered protection for workers’ compensation claims. LABI was still concerned, even without these provisions.
LABI member Wayne Fontana informed the committee that the language of the bill states that a qualified medical marijuana patient receiving a recommendation will not be disqualified from unemployment benefits. “So, if someone is impaired and gets fired because they hurt themselves or others, they would still be able get unemployment benefits,” Fontana told the committee.
Landry described these concerns as being misleading.
Landry explained that he was not trying “to pass a bill that said you could be stoned while at work, because that would be crazy.”
Rep. Larry Frieman (R-Abita Springs), a workers’ compensation attorney, was also against the bill. Frieman acknowledged that there was a problem with medical marijuana users at work, but he said he did not have a solution.
Frieman told an interview that if he knew the solution to the problem he would have proposed an amendment to fix it in the committee. It’s going to take a lot more than just bringing experts from the business world and labor lawyers together at the table.
Landry’s bill builds on previous work she did regarding labor protections for cannabis medical users. She sponsored a bill in 2022 to protect state workers from being terminated and protect prospective employees against being discriminated for their legal use of medical marijuana.
Landry set up an taskforce last year to investigate medical marijuana use, and to make recommendations for workers’ protection. The committee approved recommendations that were opposed by LABI’s representative.
The original publication of this story was by Louisiana Illuminator.
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The article Louisiana Lawmakers approve bill to protect medical marijuana patients’ unemployment benefits first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
