Employers grapple with workplace drug policies as legal marijuana use draws nearer

BELVIDERE, Ill. (WTVO) — Local employers learned how legalized marijuana could impact the workplace during a symposium on Tuesday.

The Belvidere Chamber of Commerce hosted the breakfast talk at the Keen Age Center, at 2141 Henry Luckow Lane.

Experts say workers can still be tested for drugs, but under the new law, employees can’t be discriminated against for off-site and off-work time usage of marijuana.

That leaves a lot of unanswered questions for businesses.

“If you’re not regulated at the federal level, then it becomes that question of, ‘all right – I can have a zero tolerance policy. I can have a drug free workplace policy, and yet it’s now a legal drug’,” said Samuel Castree, the Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Staff Management, Inc. “How do those two concerns meet? What can an employer do? I think we need a little more guidance on that.”

Adult use of recreational marijuana is set to become legal in Illinois in the new year.

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