iStockphoto / Tunatura
Oh, Nevada, you pioneering bastards.
Where would we be without the visionary debauchery of Nevada? Who knows if you’d be able to lose hundreds of dollars to your bookie every week if it weren’t for the path forged by Las Vegas? Where would you and your buddies go for a quick two-day bachelor party to relive the glory days?
And now, after spearheading the gambling industry for decades, Nevada is once again setting the status quo, this time when it comes to marijuana laws.
Just this week, Nevada recently ratified AB 132, a bill that makes it “unlawful for any employer in this State to fail or refuse to hire a prospective employee because the prospective employee submitted to a screening test and the results of the screening test indicate the presence of marijuana.”
The bill — which was signed into law by Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak on Wednesday, June 5 — effectively makes it pointless for businesses to test for marijuana, as doing so and denying a prospective employee a job because of the results would be against the law.
Additionally, the bill also states that “if an employer requires an employee to submit to a screening test within his or her first 30 days of employment, the employer is required to accept and give appropriate consideration to the results of an additional screening test to which the employee submitted at his or her own expense.”
The passing of bill AB 132 makes Nevada — who first voted to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana back in 2016 — the first state in the union to pass legislation regarding drug screening tests.
Nevada is currently one of ten states in the country that has legalized medical and recreational marijuana, joining the likes of Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Illinois, Vermont, Massachusettes, and Maine. Additionally, 33 states have legalized the sale of medical marijuana.
AB 132 will officially go into effect in the state of Nevada in January 2020.