Can a California employer act on off-duty cannabis use?

This is the California employment change most likely to be missed by a business that has run the same drug-testing policy for a decade, because nothing about the policy looks different — the test is the same test, and the result means something new.

The section makes two things unlawful. Discriminating in hiring, termination or any term of employment because of a person's use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplace. And relying on a test result that detects non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites in hair, blood, urine or other bodily fluids.

The metabolite point is the whole mechanism. Non-psychoactive metabolites can persist for weeks after use and indicate nothing about present impairment, so a standard urine screen tells an employer about somebody's weekend rather than about their shift. Tests that identify current impairment, or psychoactive cannabis compounds, remain available.

What has not changed matters just as much. An employer may still prohibit possession, impairment and use during work hours and on the premises, and the protection does not apply to employees in the building and construction trades, or to positions requiring a federal background investigation or clearance. Federal contractors and safety-sensitive roles governed by federal testing rules also remain subject to those rules.