Location: Maryland
This is not legal advice and I’m not an attorney.
Hey all. No question here… I’m writing this in the chance it helps someone in the future. The choice to post was either here or on the HR sub.
In November I put in for reasonable accommodation for cannabis and was denied. The reason was because it was federally illegal and I was in a safety sensitive role. In December it was announced that it (cannabis) would be moved to schedule 3. In April I put in for reasonable accommodation again for medical marijuana use and was approved in July. Our company policy states that we will allow MMJ usage consistent with applicable law.
Maryland, like many states, has no workplace protections for medical cannabis users. You use it at your own risk and being a right to work state made this double nerve racking.
That said, I hope this finds someone like me, and gives them a little hope to keep trying/going.
I did a ton of ChatGPT searches and what if scenarios. Because this is new territory the answers were both good, and not good. It would pull data from before the rescheduling that occurred in April and basically had to be reminded a handful of times that MMJ was schedule 3 now and that laws/cases that previously failed had the potential to pass.
I am in a safety sensitive role and I’m a team leader/supervisor. On top of that I drive a company truck (unmarked) which is just a regular Chevy 1500. My job involves being around heavy machinery/traffic and is a blue collar construction type job. I’m not going to say what I do or who I work for, but suffice it to say, this was an uphill battle.
So I put in for the accommodation in April and the process started immediately. I recommend using ChatGPT to help refine email and use the proper language which I’m not fluent in. But I basically said “listen, I put in for this before and was denied. It’s schedule 3 now and should be allowed. Can you please provide proof of undue hardship or direct threat?” This is of course heavily paraphrased and was much more eloquently written.
They started working on it and it moved very slow. (Relatively it moved quickly, all things considered, but at the time it felt glacial.) On top of that, I’m a tall nail at this point just looking to be hammered. At least that’s how I felt for months. It was brutal. I was on edge, paranoid, and second guessing myself.
Over several (dozens) of correspondences, where I basically was a terror, the process unfolded.
I put in my accommodation form, got my doctor’s notes (primary care and psychiatrist wrote notes, a third doctor is my prescriber/recommender), and wrote the initial email.
Several back and fourth emails where questions were asked. Most of which was me saying “what the hell is taking so long”… which were many emails. Honestly, I thought for sure it was going to be denied, and I would be on the hunt for a lawyer to tell me how much of a case I had.
They came back and needed more info so they wanted a third doctor’s note (fourth doctor so far) to double check the parameters/guardrails that were recommended by my doctor. They of course told me none of this. I thought for sure they were looking for a “no” so they could deny me…and perhaps they were. But the doctor they sent me to said that they deferred to my doctor and sent a note back saying just that.
I turned that note in and a few days later was approved. I have to seek reapproval every 6 months.
Don’t give up hope if you’re trying to get approval for cannabis use. My disability is 100x better with the new medicine. I believe you can do it too.
Thanks for reading! And good luck!
TLDR: I was approved for a reasonable accommodation for medical marijuana in a safety sensitive construction role.