Cannabis Study House - NORML Weekly News in Audio 2007.2.1

http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6650

Weekly News in Audio

February 1, 2007

NORML Teams With Leading Corporate Software Maker To Draft First-Ever 'Enlightened' Employee Marijuana Policy

Marijuana Use Prevalent Among Sickle Cell Patients

Washington, DC:
NORML Teams With Leading Corporate Software Maker To Draft First-Ever 'Enlightened' Employee Marijuana Policy

NORML and business software designer JIAN have partnered together to draft corporate guidelines recommending employers treat workers' off-the-clock cannabis use in a manner similar to alcohol. The policy will be included in the forthcoming edition of JIAN's "Employee Manual Builder," a popular, commercially available software program designed for corporate Human Resource (HR) managers.

The suggested employee guidelines discourage employers from implementing random and/or "pre-accident" urine screening for cannabis, noting that the test is not suitable for detecting employee impairment or determining recent drug use.

"The company understands that there is a difference between 'substance use1 and 'substance abuse,' and that 'use' isn't necessarily 'abuse,'" the guidelines state. "Employees are free to make their own lifestyle choices when not in the workplace or otherwise on company time. However, such choices must not be allowed to interfere with job performance."

They add: "Among the reported 75 million Americans over age 26 who report having used cannabis, more than 70 percent are employed full-time. ... Overall, however, there exists little evidence that cannabis use is associated with lower productivity and/or elevated health costs among full-time employees. Like alcohol, moderate use of cannabis by employees during non-work hours should be of little concern for most employers."

The guidelines affirm that employees who report for work under the influence of alcohol or other intoxicants, including cannabis, may be sanctioned and/or subject to varieties of performance and/or "post accident" testing.

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said that the guidelines are science-based and appropriately reflect the prevalence and relative safety of marijuana use among working-age Americans.

"In the past few years, more and more companies large and small have contacted NORML wishing to implement a more tolerant and enlightened workplace drug policy, especially for those employees who may use cannabis off-the-clock for medicinal or recreational purposes," he said. "Targeting and punishing responsible employees who choose to use cannabis in their off-hours is a poor use of company resources. Moreover, this policy is arbitrary, discriminatory, and inherently unfair in an American workforce replete with alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical consumers."

Full text of NORML's model employee guidelines are available on NORML's website at: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7160.

Kingston, Jamaica:
Marijuana Use Prevalent Among Sickle Cell Patients

Marijuana smoking is far more prevalent among Jamaicans suffering from sickle cell disease (SCD) than among the general population, according to survey data published in the current issue of the West Indian Medical Journal.

Investigators at the University of the West Indies in Kingston surveyed the cannabis smoking habits of 145 men and women with SCD. Researchers questioned patients' use patterns in 2000 and then conducted a follow up survey in 2004.

Among those surveyed in 2004, 19 percent of women and 65 percent of men with SCD reported smoking cannabis. By contrast, among the Jamaican population, only ten percent of women and 37 percent of men report having ever smoked marijuana.

Though Jamaicans with SCD used cannabis in greater numbers, authors did not attribute this increase exclusively to symptom management noting that only six percent of those surveyed associated their usage with combating the disease. "There was no suggestion that smokers and non-smokers had different pain profiles ... [and] there was little difference between smokers and non-smokers in the median number of pain events," authors concluded.

Investigators did not assess whether there existed a possible link between the frequency of cannabis use and the amelioration of SCD complications among those surveyed.

Anecdotal reports of SCD patients using cannabis therapeutically have been noted in the scientific literature. Most recently, a study published in the British Journal of Haematology found that 36 percent of SCD patients reported having used cannabis in the past 12 months to relieve symptoms of the disease including pain, anxiety, and depression.

Sickle cell disease is a chronic condition that targets the body's red blood cells and is characterized by episodic pain in the joints, fever, leg ulcers, and jaundice, among other symptoms. In the United States, SCD affects about one in 650 African Americans and about half as many Latin Americans.

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