Employers are facing growing concerns about employees who are under the influence of cannabis while at work. But they say there is nothing they can do about it.
The former director general of the Malta Employers’ Association, Joe Farrugia recently raised the alarm over the country’s growing “drugs problem”, saying that the association was getting many members calling about employees who could be under the influence of cannabis while at work.
We can all agree that, in the vast majority of cases, job performance will suffer if a person is under the influence of any drug or alcohol.
The risks are higher in some cases – such as workers who operate heavy machinery, drive vehicles and work with children.
The MEA has produced data showing that individuals who test positive for marijuana have 55% more industrial accidents, 85% more injuries and 75% more absenteeism.
More recently, we heard how Mater Dei Hospital’s emergency department is experiencing a new trend in admissions of patients with persistent severe vomiting due to long-term use of cannabis.
Clinical toxicologists said these patients would have been smoking multiple joints a day for at least a few months.
This trend was rising since the drug was liberalised in December 2021 ‒ with Malta ranking the highest in Europe for the number of presentations for synthetic cannabinoid emergencies.
Farrugia has long warned that when Malta became the first EU country to legalise the cultivation of cannabis for recreational use, it started the process of the normalisation of the drug use.
While the general attitude to soft drugs has changed, the fact remains that drugs are mind-altering substances. Caritas director Anthony Gatt recently called the lack of enforcement of the cannabis law “a crying shame”.
The MEA has produced data showing that individuals who test positive for marijuana have 55% more industrial accidents, 85% more injuries and 75% more absenteeism
The law states that cannabis cannot be consumed in public and in front of children. Meanwhile, safety regulations prohibit the use of mind-altering substances at work, especially when driving or operating machines.
While most workplaces have policies in place prohibiting the use of alcohol and drugs at work, they do not have legal tools to enforce this – unless they catch someone red-handed actually smoking a joint or taking any other form of drug at work. This could lead to disciplinary action.
Employers have long called for random drug-testing of workers but it was not allowed.
The solution is not that simple. Because, as things stand right now, random tests are not accurate. New testing technologies might change this in future. The problem centres around the fact that cannabis can take a long time to metabolise in the body and, in some people, it can keep on showing in urine tests weeks after being consumed.
Testing would show presence in the blood but the drug could have been taken the weekend before, that morning or an hour ago.
So, we have a law that allows people to smoke the drug without time restrictions but does not allow people to operate under the influence.
Everything in between is grey and leaning on the side of drug use, as opposed to leaning on the side of caution.
Employers have gone on record saying they do not want to criminalise smoking a joint. And we are in no way advocating it.
But when it comes to potential work issues – the risks could be massive.
Who would be legally responsible if something went terribly wrong at work because a worker was under the influence?
There needs to be a discussion and a government policy review on this issue that must include the options of introducing employee testing in some cases and a possible zero-tolerance policy to any presence of drugs in the case of jobs that can impact people’s safety or people’s lives.