Left to right are: Becky Robbins, Rotary Club of Jamestown program chairwoman, Nellie Brown, Workplace Health and Safety Program Director of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations; Carrie Weider, licensed social worker on staff with the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at ECMC/WNY, a clinic funded by the state Health Department, and Marion Beckerink, president of the Rotary Club of Jamestown.

Becky Robbins, Rotary Club of Jamestown program chairwoman, introduced the club’s recent guest speaker, Nellie Brown, who also spoke to the members in late November about how to take care of themselves.

She returned recently to speak to club members about Cannabis in the Workplace. Brown is the Workplace Health and Safety Program director of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She is a certified industrial hygienist and provides expertise for the Cannabis Workforce Initiative. Brown provides industrial hygiene services for the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at ECMC – WNY, a clinic funded by the state Department of Health. With Brown again was Carrie Wieder, a licensed social worker, who has been part of the center’s clinic for the past six years.

Wieder opened the presentation by providing details about the ECMC center, explaining it is part of a New York State network of occupational health clinics. There are nine in the entire state, and New York is the only state in the country with this type of clinic network. The center’s goal is to keep employees safe and healthy at work. The center also serves as a worker compensation clinic, and staff also travels to all companies within the center’s catchment area to work with both employers and employees on the subject of workplace safety. The center covers Chautauqua, Catauragus, Allegheny, Erie, and Niagara counties.

. Brown began her presentation by explaining that the Cannabis Workforce Initiative is a collaboration between Cornell University and the Workforce Development Institute. She presents two different programs on cannabis – one presented to Rotary that explains cannabis in terms of its effects on safety and health in the workplace on workers. She also provides another program that deals with the occupational safety and health of the cannabis industry, where she speaks about the hazards of the cultivation, the processing extraction, the dispensary, all of that from the workplace point of view.

Brown said the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis is THC, and if the plant has more than three-tenths of a percent of THC, then it is considered to be marijuana, whereas less than that is considered hemp. She said when people are under the influence of THC, they are not perhaps in the best control of their bodies and brains, which can make it a workplace hazard due to the risk of adverse events, such as accidents, injuries, mistakes, errors, and various kinds of effects on productivity. Because of this, employers had historically avoided hiring anyone who tested positive for using cannabis. But because traces of cannabis use can remain in a person’s body for up to a month and a positive result from traditional testing doesn’t necessarily indicate recent use, the government has either prohibited or limited drug testing unless it’s required for a job by either a state or a federal regulation.

Because of this, employers are now seeking alternative testing methods to help determine if someone is under the influence of cannabis while at work. Brown then provided examples of various tests that are available to help make that determination.

She also provided information on the conflict that arises with cannabis use when it is legal at the state level, but illegal at the federal level. She said cannabis, even when used for medical purposes, hasn’t gone through the regulatory process of the FDA as it would for other federally legal drugs. This means the federal government is still unable to regulate the drug and so it remains illegal at the national level, although some effort is being made in Congress to finally legalize and regulate it. Until then, it is considered illegal and as a result, creates a complicated situation for states like New York that have legalized its use.

The guests took time fielding several questions from Rotary members.