Hey Art, I have no idea how this one will play out, but there are several angles that have to be considered when thinking about employment in this case.
1. If a person is using Medical MJ, they have a reason for that. If that reason is something like lower back pain, then their reason for using Medical MJ would disqualify them from jobs that require a strong, healthy lower back. They can't do one and have the other. "Oh it only hurts at night" probably won't cut it with a potential boss.
2. Jobs that require insurance to cover their product, like most manufacturing jobs, the insurance company is who demands that drug testing be included as hiring criteria. If an employee is hired without a drug test, then the insurance company won't ever cover any problems that involve that employee and would leave the employer at a loss. Most employers won't go near that one.
3. Jobs that have inherent danger or require absolute mental attention like jobs involving active flames, projectiles, crushing, lifting heavy objects, etc. will always involve drug testing for the same reason as #2 above.
I've never heard of a business that doesn't have insurance coverage in case of accidents to the structures, employees or products. This insurance is what drives the drug testing, not the employer in most cases.
Insurance companies are the bane of our existence. Over the decades, the insurance companies have developed statistics that show the likelihood of payout due to every conceivable occurrence that exists. Tens of thousands of different types of causes. Within those causes, drug use has shown itself to be an almost constant cause of a major portion of claims relating to damages. The insurance companies are covering their proverbial butts and wallets. You really can't blame them.
Look at how many times you've read or heard of cases where "the primary in the case has been tested and marijuana was found in his/her system".
I'm not saying that the MJ was the cause, but the insurance companies will ABSOLUTELY say that it is and THAT is what drives their requirement for drug testing on covered businesses.
It's damn hard to find a job that doesn't require it. If you ask those employers, most will tell you that their insurance requires it.
Best scenario is to lay off the MJ for a month, take the test, pass the test, get the job and then smoke all you want. I believe that this is what is done in a very, very high (no pun intended) percentage of all the jobs out there.
If you do that and then cause an accident that requires a drug test and are found to have MJ in your system, the employer is no longer at fault and damage claims can then be directed to you.
In real life, we all know that about a tenth of the population gets high on MJ pretty often. The ones who never cause problems and have never been "caught" are the vast majority, (like me).
It's another of life's games.
