Radican project to ban discrimination in employment against medical cannabis patients

Representative Jesús Manuel Ortiz spoke this week in the Chamber of Deputies Project 152, which prohibits employers from discriminating against employees who are registered patients and authorized to use medicinal cannabis.

“As in Puerto Rico as in the United States, there are state laws that allow the use of medicinal cannabis in authorized patients and certified debits by the State. However, in all jurisdictions there are no labor protection lawsuits to protect employees or aspirants to discriminate against positive cannabis and to resort to any medication necessary to meet their conditions. “It puts patients in a vulnerable situation in order to be discriminated against and risk losing their jobs,” said Ortiz González in a press release.

The project, which unites as co-authors Rafael “Tatito” Hernández, Héctor Ferrer, Ramón Luis Cruz and Orlando Aponte, will establish registered patients who will be considered a protected category and all employees in Puerto Rico. “The patient’s condition regarding his medical cannabis conditions could not be excused in order to be discriminated against in the workplace. Our objective is to protect the employees from being penalized by providing a medical treatment that can be the only form of living available for their respective conditions, ”Ortiz said.

Asimismo, the representative explained that, although Ley 42-2017 allows the use of medicinal cannabis, it does not protect employees who use it to be penalized for treating them. Therefore, with this medium, the right state can be tempered to protect the patient.

‘The approval of this project will give the employee the benefit of receiving cannabis medical treatment without delay in being penalized and almost forfeited. Including, the media protects the patient from the recruitment and contracting process. The patient will be treated according to his conditions with medical cannabis and can not be excused for being discriminated against in the workplace “, added the representative gewild.

To finalize, Ortiz hizo hincapié in which the media incorporates certain exceptions to the protection of the patient-patient if the employer logs try that the use of medicinal cannabis represents duty or interfere with its work functions; put at risk a certification or permit issued by the federal governor; or the employee ingests the drugs in laboratory hours without authorization, among others.