On April 25, Councilmember David Grosso, joined by Councilmembers Robert White, Brianne Nadeau, Charles Allen, Vincent Gray, and Trayon White, sent a letter to Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Kevin Donahue and Department of Corrections Director Quincy Booth requesting that the DOC immediately comply with instructions that allow for employment-related drug testing exceptions for enrollees in medical marijuana programs.
“We are writing out of deep concern for the Department of Corrections’ current practices in regard to employees, or candidates for employment, who are participants in the District of Columbia, or another state’s medical marijuana program. We ask that you immediately bring the DOC into compliance with Department of Human Resources District Personnel Manual Instruction No. 4-34,” they wrote.
The D.C. Department of Human Resources specifically sets out an exception for government employees enrolled in medical marijuana programs in DPM Instruction No. 4-34, similar to exceptions for other prescription drugs.
“…[O]ur concern is not about recreational use of marijuana but rather medical use, a topic that the District of Columbia government experts in human resources have considered,” the councilmembers wrote. “The result of that consideration is DPM instruction No. 4-34, and the DOC should follow that expert advice, or have a very compelling reason for deviating from it.”
The councilmembers also requested that DOC reverse any adverse personnel actions toward employees or candidates for employment which were based solely on their status as a patient enrolled in a medical marijuana program and a positive THC test.
The letter sent yesterday represents the latest inquiry on the topic after Director Booth failed to explain the DOC’s policies in his January response to a letter Councilmember Grosso sent in November 2018 asking whether or not DOC was taking into account employees’ enrollment in medical marijuana programs as part of such testing.
“If an employee, for example, is undergoing treatment for cancer and is prescribed medical marijuana by a doctor to help with the side effects of treatment, it seems unreasonable and inappropriate that the employee would be penalized, or even subject to termination, because of seeking such medical care,” Grosso wrote in November.
Director Booth laid out DOC’s practices and procedures and its adherence to District law. However, the response sidestepped a question specifically aimed at how DOC treats employees enrolled in the medical marijuana program, instead focusing on how DOC complies, as other D.C. agencies do, with the impact of Initiative 71.
Initiative 71 dealt with recreational, not medical, marijuana.
Read Councilmember Grosso’s letter and DOC’s responses below.