Brian Greenspan, an employment lawyer with Hummingbird Lawyers LLP, has a wealth of knowledge regarding the legalization of marijuana in Canada. He weighed in on how workplaces may have to include marijuana into their prescription programs.
“It’s a new frontier. In terms of benefits, and whether or not it currently covers medical marijuana, I think we are slowly seeing a transition over its coverage,” Greenspan said. “It has gained traction within the last year or so and more companies and more insurers are starting to consider it more of a legitimate medication.”
Currently, there is still much debate regarding marijuana as a medication. “It is a little different from a typical medication because it is not, per se, a prescription, because it doesn’t have a DIN number. [A DIN number] is a medical authorization that a doctor will give you, not necessarily a ‘prescription.’”
Greenspan continued to explain why workplaces may need to change their prescription policies once legalization occurs. This explanation is based on the numbers of medical marijuana use, and its projected use to come.
“As society as a whole is becoming more liberal in terms of marijuana use and the stigma around it, workplaces at the same time are starting to become more conservative and cracking down on what they are going to allow in their workplace.
“This is because they are seeing the numbers. Fairly recent numbers have shown that there are over 75,000 patients registered under Health Canada with access to cannabis for medical purposes. They are anticipating that by 2024 there will be over 500,000.
“That is a huge jump and a large number. If you think about that number: approximately two-thirds of the Canadian population is employed, and one-third of those individuals are working in safety-sensitive industries.”
With this expected jump alone, it seems workplaces will need to amend their existing policies regarding prescriptions to include medical marijuana once legalization occurs. With amendments needing to made, many more policies within Canadian workplaces will need to be reworked across multiple work environments. Come legalization it will be interesting to see just how much the Canadian workplace is changed.