[420 Girl]

The Berrien County Board of Commissioners this week approved a resolution that updates employee policies in light of the state's recently-passed medical marijuana law. For decades, the county has had a Drug-Free Workplace rule on the books, but the new state law making it legal for some people to use marijuana to treat certain medical problems had commissioners wondering how such local rules should be amended. Berrien County Corporate Counsel Mac Elliot says that the goal of policy revisions approved on Thursday is to integrate the state law with local employee guidelines in a way that respects both priorities. Basically, he says the new policy states that no county employee may use, or be feeling the effects of, marijuana while on the job. Elliot said that having a medical marijuana card from the state does not give someone a right to put the public interest at risk, and the revised policy makes that clear. However, he also noted that most patients who might be granted permission to use medical marijuana probably wouldn't be in a good enough condition to work, anyway...and added that home use of the drug isn't a concern of the county's, unless it affects workplace performance. Elliot said that Berrien County leaders wanted to be ahead of the curve in adjusting to the new medical marijuana statute, and he suspects that the local rules will have to be reviewed at some point. The Board of Commissioners' action on Thursday came just hours before the Michigan Department of Community Health announced over ten thousand applications have been received in Lansing for the Michigan Medicinal Marijuana Program, with nearly six thousand having been approved. Copies of the revised county policies will now be sent to the various department heads for distribution to their employees.

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