Canadian employers are already coping with approximately 75,000
Canadians authorized to use medical marijuana. Health Canada
expects that this number will increase to about 450,000 by
2024.
Employers know that medical marijuana is a psychoactive drug
prescribed to deal with medical conditions and accordingly, since
many of those medical conditions constitute a disability (which
employers are bound to accommodate to the point of undue hardship)
medical marijuana typically necessitates an assessment and
accommodative approach.
The next challenge facing Canadian employers will come with the
federal government's promise to introduce legislation in the
spring of 2017 to legalize marijuana. The Task Force led by former
Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan has circulated a discussion
paper entitled "Towards the Legalization, Regulation and
Restriction of Access to Marijuana".
