Kentucky has enacted legislation (Senate Bill 47) that will allow adults to use medicinal cannabis for certain medical conditions beginning in 2025. The law also addresses employers’ rights regarding medicinal cannabis.
The details
Beginning Jan. 1, 2025, adults who obtain a state registration card will be able to use medicinal cannabis for certain medical conditions.
The law doesn’t:
- Require an employer to permit or accommodate the use, consumption or possession in the workplace.
- Prohibit an employer from implementing policies promoting workplace health and safety by:
- Prohibit an employer from including contract provisions that prohibit the use of medicinal cannabis by employees;
- Permit a cause of action against an employer for wrongful discharge or discrimination under the medicinal cannabis law itself;
- Prohibit an employer from establishing and enforcing a drug testing policy, drug-free workplace, or zero-tolerance drug policy; or
- Prohibit an employer from exercising their ability to determine impairment of an employee who is a cardholder.
Good-faith determinations of impairment permitted under the law include behavioral assessments of impairment and a secondary step of testing an employee who is a cardholder for the presence of cannabis. Under the law, considering a registered cardholder under the influence of cannabis solely because of the presence of tetrahydrocannabinol metabolites is prohibited.
If an employer determines that an employee who is a cardholder is impaired by the use of cannabis from the behavioral assessment and testing, the burden of proving non-impairment then shifts to the employee to refute the findings of the employer.
An employee who is discharged from employment for consuming medicinal cannabis in the workplace, working while under the influence of medicinal cannabis, or testing positive for a controlled substance is ineligible to receive unemployment benefits if such actions are in violation of an employment contract or established personnel policy.
Next steps
Kentucky employers should review policies and procedures to determine if changes should be made in light of Senate Bill 47.
Have questions?
Please contact your ADP Service Representative with any questions.