Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER MAY 2018 NEWS 15 is individual responses are hugely varied." " e amount people use, the way they use it, the eff ects that it has are enormously variable and this is very diffi cult to capture in simple, clean terms." Type of cannabis, the context in which it is ingested, and indi- vidual response each play a role in the drug's eff ect, clouding what constitutes impairment, accord- ing to Ware. Further confusing the discus- sion is the fact that impairing ef- fects of THC can reside within the human body for anywhere from six hours to 28 days, he said. Cannabis versus alcohol Comparing cannabis to a drug like alcohol is a mistake, said Dan Demers, senior manager for stra- tegic business development at CannAmm Occupational Testing Services in North Bay, Ont. While alcohol's eff ects on the human body can be accurately predicted and timed, the same linear patterns don't exist with marijuana, he said. " e lingering eff ects of canna- bis — the hangover — is one that sort of sticks around far, far longer than alcohol." "It's like comparing an apple to a hubcap," said Demers. "It's so diff erent. Alcohol presents itself in a way that is clearly impairing. People have diffi culty annunciat- ing. eir fi ne and gross motor skills kind of go out the window. It's pretty obvious after two drinks that somebody's been drinking." "It's more subtle with marijua- na. Marijuana aff ects diff erent re- gions of the brain and functions in an entirely diff erent way. It's more diffi cult… to identify on the job. You can talk to somebody who's high and they're going to be able to annunciate just fi ne. ey may even be able to walk the shop and you have no idea… It presents it- self diff erently, which is one big piece that people are missing." With legalization on the near- horizon, Canadian employers should expect consumption to increase across the board — in both administrative and safety- sensitive roles, he said. Cannabis is a "more subtle drug in terms of the symptoms that people would see," said Scott MacDonald, assistant director of research at the University of Victoria's Canadian Institute of Substance Use Research. "I'd be much more concerned about somebody drinking on the job than smoking a joint. Alcohol is by far the worst drug there is in terms of safety, outstripping all the other drugs combined." Employers are putting a ma- jor emphasis on cannabis, with reasons based on morality rather than science, he said. "We should be looking at what are the major causes of accidents and focusing on those issues, not spending 90 per cent of our atten- tion on illicit drugs when they're rarely used in the workplace," said MacDonald. " ere's all sorts of reasons for accidents in the work- place... alcohol and drugs only count for a very tiny proportion of all types of accidents." e nature of marijuana means there is no equivalent breath- testing device to determine im- mediate impairment, said Barry Kurtzer, medical director of Driv- erCheck, a workplace drug testing company based in Ayr, Ont. As such, employers cannot sim- ply rely on a drug test as a stand- alone tool to identify workplace impairment, but must create a more meaningful assessment pro- gram that sees tests run parallel to documented events with multiple eyewitnesses, he said. More research and court direc- tion are necessary before work- place drug testing will be con- sidered "a benefi cial tool versus a punitive witch hunt," said Kurtzer. Legal considerations With defi nitions of impairment and appropriate testing still up in the air, HR practitioners will have several issues to consider if faced with a scenario of suspected can- nabis usage, said Lisa Stam, em- ployment lawyer and founder of SpringLaw in Toronto. If the employee in question has declared an addiction, or if the us- age is deemed medical in nature, the situation could require work- place accommodation, she said. "Your hands are very tied if it's medical marijuana," said Stam. "You've got privacy and human rights law that are going to really impact what you can do." Testing is an option for workers in safety-sensitive environments, but not in offi ce settings, she said. And without a safety-sensitive job, obvious behaviour or clear perfor- mance impact, employers cannot force staff to disclose usage. "When it comes to marijuana, we're all going to be like awkward teenagers about it for a while… and have very diff erent, inaccu- rate, non-scientifi c perceptions of whether someone's impaired, so there's going to be quite the learning curve in most workplac- es," said Stam. "Avoid the moral judgment of whether someone should or should not be consum- ing marijuana, which is shortly going to be a legal thing. I think that's going to be one of our big- gest cultural shifts that everyone's going to have to get over." Safety-sensitive employers looking to implement a fit for duty standard need to balance interests of safety and cut-off lim- its with human rights and labour legislation, said Demers. is type of policy can include compliance standards such as pre-employ- ment, post-incident and reason- able suspicion testing. "Using cannabis on your own time is not acceptable in those occupations that are inherently dangerous and complex," he said. "What that means is that what you do on your own time now be- comes your employer's business." While a policy is not an ob- ligation for all employers, they should, at the very least, refl ect on their business activity and need for workplace standards, said Demers. "Any organization would ben- efi t from a policy that addresses substance use in the workplace, whether they're safety-sensitive or not," he said. Post-legalization, employees who spend time in the United States still won't be able to cross the border while possessing the drug, according to Kurtzer. "Policy is going to be very im- portant as we take this on." Advice for HR Going forward, policy should shift towards the impact a drug could have on an employee's ability to do their job, said Stam. "What will be tricky is that you used to be able to have more of a zero-tolerance policy approach, because it was an illegal sub- stance, and you could hang your hat on that," she said. "You can't do that anymore… Tying it to the job description itself is probably one of the safest things to do." "Zero-tolerance policies are always fairly dangerous because you don't distinguish between that recreational and medical is- sue. Anytime it bumps up against human rights, there has to be an individual analysis." Extending workplace drug poli- cies to include cannabis alongside alcohol remains a solid starting point, however, said Stam. " en you probably have your- self largely covered off , other than the impairment testing issues. And for that, we have to wait for science to catch up, frankly." Policies should start conserva- tively, but be fl exible, said Carnide. "It's a very tricky thing to really make a fi rm, clear-cut decision on at this point," she said. " e safest thing to do in the absence of knowledge is really to be as con- servative as possible... We have a long way to go before we under- stand what's actually happening in Canadian workplaces." Employers would be wise to call upon occupational health special- ists and other experts to write and review policy, as there can be dif- ferent approaches — depending on the province and collective agreements, said Kurtzer. "Sometimes, having an external set of eyes from an expert on these things is very important, especial- ly in these early days," he said. In the absence of research, training and education of both supervisors and staff are crucial, said Carnide. "Educating workers about the potential risks, if any, on work- place outcomes is absolutely es- sential," she said. Conservative but fl exible policies recommended "Avoid the moral judgment of whether someone should or should not be consuming marijuana, which is shortly going to be a legal thing." MARIJUANA < pg. 1 Health effects of cannabis Short-term effects of cannabis on the brain can include: • confusion • sleepiness (fatigue) • an impaired ability to remember, concentrate, pay attention • anxiety, fear or panic • a reduced ability to react quickly. Effects can be felt within seconds to minutes of smoking, vaporizing or dabbing cannabis. These effects can last up to six hours or longer. If a user eats or drinks cannabis, effects can occur within 30 minutes to two hours and can last up to 12 hours or longer. Source: Government of Canada Credit: Miss Nuchwara Tongrit (Shutterstock)

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