Workers' new right to pot off-the-clock won't extend to all
ALBANY — Medical buildings crowd the blocks south of Albany’s Washington Park, where Albany Stratton VA Medical Center and Albany Medical Center face each other across New Scotland Avenue.
The road between the two is a conduit for sick patients and supplies, but also a frontier between federal and state jurisdictions. For the rare moments when New York and federal law disagree – which now include the legality of recreational and medical marijuana – that border matters.
“If there’s drug testing involved, then the federal law is the primary law that we follow,” said Peter Potter, the VA Medical Center’s spokesman. For federal employees on his side of the road, cannabis use is still illegal in all cases and won't be prescribed by VA doctors for medical purposes.
The state's recently enacted Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), which legalized recreational cannabis use for adults, includes a provision preventing employers from disciplining or discriminating against their workers for using the drug on their personal time “off of the employer’s premises and without use of the employer’s equipment or property.”
Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Workers-new-right-to-pot-off-the-clock-won-t-16137551.php
(Albany Times Union)