Dive Brief:

• Marijuana is now legal in Colorado, but the reasons for contractors to forbid its use by employees and to do drug tests for it are not based on whether it's legal, and they are getting advice not to change anything.
• Drug or alcohol impairment is a safety issue in an inherently high-risk business, and lawyers are advising Colorado contractors to keep carefully crafted anti-drug policies – adding that pot remains illegal under federal law, which could bolster employers' positions on it.
• Washington state will follow with pot legalization, raising the same challenge for contractors there, and several other states may take up the issue in the near future.

Dive Insight:

Gene Commander, who is a lawyer in the Polssinelli law firm's Denver office, said, "Colorado still has a lawful off-duty-conduct statute that makes it OK to test." From the contractor's viewpoint, Haselden Construction's safety and health boss, Rick Reubelt, says the risk of having a worker who's not on top of his game because of off-the-job pot use is too big for any contractor.