420 with CNW — Nevada Moves to Ease Cannabis Regulations for Police Recruits
More than 20 states now allow their residents to purchase recreational cannabis while dozens of states have launched medical marijuana markets. This has significantly expanded access to cannabis among the populace and allowed millions of Americans to purchase and consume marijuana legally.
But since federal law still considers cannabis a Schedule I controlled substance, certain individuals can face serious consequences for consuming state-legal cannabis. For instance, people employed by the federal government or in safety-sensitive positions can lose their jobs for failing cannabis tests.
In Nevada, authorities are proposing amendments to the state’s employment policy that would make it impossible to disqualify police recruits for being convicted of cannabis offenses that are now legal. The proposed changes were submitted by the Nevada Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission just a few days after members voted to keep the rulemaking period open for further potential reforms.
At the moment, individuals who are interested in becoming peace officers in Nevada are not eligible for employment if they received a conviction for an offense that involves the illegal sale, possession or use of a controlled substance. As a result, individuals who had prior cannabis-related convictions, such as possession, are unlikely to be employed as Nevada peace officers.
The commission is now looking to add language that would create an exception for applicants who received cannabis-related convictions that are “not prosecutable under the law” now that Nevada has updated its cannabis policies. Nevada legalized recreational cannabis in November 2016 while medical marijuana has been legal since 2000.
The proposed changes are meant to bring the state’s employment policies in line with the updated cannabis policies. However, while the changes will loosen restrictions on police recruits with prior cannabis-related convictions that are now considered legal, no recruits will be allowed to use cannabis after being employed.
POST’s administration manual states that there simply is no room for cannabis or other psychoactive drugs in the “policing profession” and encourages law-enforcement agencies in the state to prohibit the use of recreational and medical cannabis both on and off duty. In fact, the manual even prohibits people with state-issued medical marijuana cards from attending POST courses such as the Basic Training Academy.
The issue of cannabis use among employees is becoming increasingly more prevalent in recent years as the wave of cannabis reform has swept across America and left most states with some kind of cannabis market.
In 2019, a Las Vegas police officer lost his job after failing a THC test and sued the police department. The court ruled that the no-tolerance policy on marijuana use among peace officers was “untenable” and also acknowledged that state law protected an employee’s right to lawfully use cannabis while off duty.
As cannabis laws are eased further across more states in the country, the number of people using the substance is likely to grow, which could mean that even businesses such as Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) which don’t directly deal in marijuana benefit from the boom.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/ACTX
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW420, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer
More than 20 states now allow their residents to purchase recreational cannabis while dozens of states have launched medical marijuana markets. This has significantly expanded access to cannabis among the populace and allowed millions of Americans to purchase and consume marijuana legally.
But since federal law still considers cannabis a Schedule I controlled substance, certain individuals can face serious consequences for consuming state-legal cannabis. For instance, people employed by the federal government or in safety-sensitive positions can lose their jobs for failing cannabis tests.
In Nevada, authorities are proposing amendments to the state’s employment policy that would make it impossible to disqualify police recruits for being convicted of cannabis offenses that are now legal. The proposed changes were submitted by the Nevada Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission just a few days after members voted to keep the rulemaking period open for further potential reforms.
At the moment, individuals who are interested in becoming peace officers in Nevada are not eligible for employment if they received a conviction for an offense that involves the illegal sale, possession or use of a controlled substance. As a result, individuals who had prior cannabis-related convictions, such as possession, are unlikely to be employed as Nevada peace officers.
The commission is now looking to add language that would create an exception for applicants who received cannabis-related convictions that are “not prosecutable under the law” now that Nevada has updated its cannabis policies. Nevada legalized recreational cannabis in November 2016 while medical marijuana has been legal since 2000.
The proposed changes are meant to bring the state’s employment policies in line with the updated cannabis policies. However, while the changes will loosen restrictions on police recruits with prior cannabis-related convictions that are now considered legal, no recruits will be allowed to use cannabis after being employed.
POST’s administration manual states that there simply is no room for cannabis or other psychoactive drugs in the “policing profession” and encourages law-enforcement agencies in the state to prohibit the use of recreational and medical cannabis both on and off duty. In fact, the manual even prohibits people with state-issued medical marijuana cards from attending POST courses such as the Basic Training Academy.
The issue of cannabis use among employees is becoming increasingly more prevalent in recent years as the wave of cannabis reform has swept across America and left most states with some kind of cannabis market.
In 2019, a Las Vegas police officer lost his job after failing a THC test and sued the police department. The court ruled that the no-tolerance policy on marijuana use among peace officers was “untenable” and also acknowledged that state law protected an employee’s right to lawfully use cannabis while off duty.
As cannabis laws are eased further across more states in the country, the number of people using the substance is likely to grow, which could mean that even businesses such as Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) which don’t directly deal in marijuana benefit from the boom.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Advanced Container Technologies Inc. (OTC: ACTX) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/ACTX
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW420, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer
