Nevada passe marijuana drug-test bill, could Colorado be next?

The state of Nevada made history this month becoming the first state to ban employers from rejecting an applicant based on a failed marijuana drug test.

Governor Steve Sisolak signed the bill into law on June 5th, but it won’t go into effect until January 2020. Nevada legalized marijuana in 2016, and Sisolak said this new law follows suit with what was already passed.

Now people in Colorado are asking, could that happen here?

Colorado legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, but hasn’t tackled a similar law.

As of right now, there isn’t a law in the books that directly addresses marijuana drug testing, essentially leaving it up to individual employers.

KRDO asked Democratic State Representative, Marc Snyder, who represents District 18 in El Paso County, what he thought of the legislation grabbing attention in our state.

He said, “I was skeptical. I’m still skeptical.”

He explained, it is a hard topic to address because he sees the interests of both parties.

“I think there’s two compelling interests here, and they’re kind of competing, like an employer right to hire quality individuals who can do the job safely and then at the same time we have people consuming a legal product and it seemed kind of unfair for them to be denied employment,” he says.

Even though, marijuana has been legal for the last few years, Snyder says the state is still navigating how to address these issues.

“I think we need to be careful of a law with unintended consequences is always present and I think in this particular area, it’s even more prevalent,” Snyder explains.

He says a similar law hasn’t been discussed among legislators at the Colorado State Capitol.

The Nevada law has exemptions for certain employees, like federal workers, those operating heavy machinery or others that might hurt an employee or a consumer.

Read the full text of the law here.