Bill Text: NY A03487 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Excludes volunteer firefighters and emergency medical services employees from the permissive use of marijuana.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 13-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - referred to labor [A03487 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-A03487-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          3487

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                   IN ASSEMBLY

                                    February 3, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  M.  of  A.  DeSTEFANO,  J. A. GIGLIO,  BRABENEC, BYRNES,
          LEMONDES, SMITH, MIKULIN, MANKTELOW, ANGELINO,  J. M. GIGLIO  --  read
          once and referred to the Committee on Labor

        AN  ACT to amend the cannabis law, in relation to excluding firefighters
          and their operational members from the permissive use of marijuana

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1. Section 3 of the cannabis law is amended by adding two new
     2  subdivisions 25-a and 25-b to read as follows:
     3    25-a. "Exempt fire agency" means a fire department of a city,  munici-
     4  pality,  village,  town  or other governmental subdivision that provides
     5  fire and emergency services or other safety sensitive tasks  to  provide
     6  public safety to a community.
     7    25-b.  "Exempt  employee"  means  an  employee,  paid or unpaid, of an
     8  exempt fire agency whose work responsibilities are tasks that impact the
     9  safety of a mitigation effort or the safety of other  employees.  Activ-
    10  ities  may  include,  but shall not be limited to, driving and operating
    11  fire apparatus, operating in immediately dangerous to life  atmospheres,
    12  establishing  and  operating hose lines, performing all manner of rescue
    13  activities, and  delivering  emergency  medical  care  to  the  sick  or
    14  injured.
    15    § 2. Section 127 of the cannabis law is amended by adding a new subdi-
    16  vision 7 to read as follows:
    17    7.  (a)  For the purpose of assuring the safety of other firefighters,
    18  the public and the protection of their greater community,  this  section
    19  shall not apply to an exempt employee of an exempted fire agency.  Addi-
    20  tionally, an exempt fire agency shall be entitled to take all reasonable
    21  measures  to  be  assured there is no risk of cannabis impairment of its
    22  exempt employees, including but not limited to,  preemployment  testing,
    23  random  drug tests and testing for cause for the presence of evidence of
    24  cannabis use by the member in accordance with current federal standards.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD08003-01-3
        A. 3487                             2

     1    (b) Any exempt employee of an exempt fire agency  that  is  prescribed
     2  cannabis  for  medical  purposes shall be required to immediately report
     3  their prescription to the exempt fire agency who shall consult with  the
     4  exempt  fire  agency's  medical  director to make a determination of the
     5  exempt  employee's  fitness  for  duty  and  a  need  to  be  placed  on
     6  restriction.
     7    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.