A Maryland Senate committee has approved a bill to protect for fire and rescue workers from being penalized for off-duty use of medical marijuana.
The legislation from Sen. Carl Jackson (D) advanced through the Senate Finance Committee in a 8-2 vote on Thursday.
Under the proposal, state law would be amended to codify that firefighters and other rescue workers who are registered medical cannabis patients could not be penalized over their participation in the state-legal program or for testing positive for marijuana.
Employers could not “discipline, discharge, or otherwise discriminate against the fire and rescue public safety employee with respect to the employee’s compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment” based solely on a positive screening for THC metabolites.
They also could not “limit, segregate, or classify its employees in any way that would deprive or tend to deprive the fire and rescue public safety employee of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect the fire and rescue public safety employee’s status as an employee,” the bill text says.
However, employers could continue to set zero-tolerance policies for on-duty impairment from cannabis.
Prior to advancing the bill, the panel adopted an amendment.
Initially the bill said that employers
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