Drive Change campaigner and lawyer Mat Henderson has hit back at an article in The West Australian which questioned the ability of medicinal cannabis patients to function effectively in the workplace.
Writing on the Drive Change website, Henderson describes the article by Michael Stutley, a partner at workplace law firm Kingston Reid, as a “business development exercise that deserves a swift rebuttal from Drive Change”.
He takes particular exception to Stutley’s claim that while impairment is “a vexed issue… there really is no safe level of THC” and that pathology laboratories “have no way of differentiating between medicinally prescribed THC or illicit sources”.
“It’s grossly unfair to question the origins of the THC in a positive workplace drug test where a prescription is provided,” Henderson writes.
However, he does agree with Stutley about the difficulties employers face when provided with medical certificates by employees, particularly in an era of telehealth consultations.
“Medical certificates involving a tick ‘n’ flick done over the phone or online?” he writes. “Fair to query what kind of employer would accept that at face value without something else to provide a more fleshed out expectation about what the overall WHS (work health and safety) risk would be.”
