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SHELBY –As home to the Pioneer Vocational School and North Central State, the City of Shelby is centered around skilled workplace development. Both schools serve as catalysts helping to enhance the skill set of the area workforce. With the recent legalization of recreational marijuana, the City of Shelby is trying to stay ahead of the game. After all, it is difficult to have successful businesses when your employees are high on drugs.
There is no question local businesses selling cannabis will increase positivity rates in an area workforce. The downside is, high employees hurt themselves and their co-workers. In order to prevent their city from going down the tubes, Shelby City Council unanimously voted to pass an ordinance prohibiting commercial cannabis.
Local clergy gave accolades to the Shelby City Council after passage of the prohibition ordinance went seamless with a 5-0 vote. “We appreciate the Shelby City Council has the foresight to see that the cannabis industry adversely impacts other existing industries in our city,” says Bishop Anthony Cooper. “Most importantly, cannabis adversely impacts our families and the ability for breadwinners to earn income. As the Bible says, ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Studies show employees who use marijuana have 75% higher absenteeism. It is already difficult to recruit and retain workers, and find ones who can pass a drug test. Legalizing recreational marijuana only exacerbates the staffing problem for employers who have to make up for lost time from failed drug tests.
Ohio employers should prepare for an influx of workplace accidents and injuries that will come with more employees using cannabis. Quest Diagnostics found the number of marijuana-positive drug tests performed after workplace accidents soared 204% from 2012 to 2022, coinciding with the trend of more states legalizing recreational use of marijuana.
“We appreciate the Shelby City Council has the foresight to see that the cannabis industry adversely impacts other existing industries in our city. Most importantly, cannabis adversely impacts our families and the ability for breadwinners to earn income. As the Bible says, ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Bishop Anthony Cooper
Daily testing of all employees can be expensive, operationally burdensome, and can capture marijuana usage as far back as thirty days. On top of that, employees face the reduction or even elimination of workers’ compensation benefits.
In addition to absenteeism, workplace injuries, workplace theft to support drug habits, and the sale of drugs by one employee to another are all issues employers face because of illicit drug use. Moreover, cannabis has measurable effects that impair reaction time in critical situations, slowing reaction time, and decreasing attention. Studies further show a 55% increase in workplace accidents in states that have legalized recreational marijuana, and an 85% higher injury rate for workers who tested positive for marijuana.
Pastor Art Kennard says the cannabis industry not only impairs the workforce, it can also invigorate organized crime. “The Bible talks about the sluggard who does not work. ‘A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man,” the Shelby Pastor said. “It is one thing to malign the work force, it is another to enable criminal enterprises. Right now the City of Denver is fighting organized crime networks burglarizing cannabis dispensaries.”
The ordinance passed by the Shelby City Council states, “The sale of adult-use cannabis does not promote or provide public peace, health, safety, convenience, comfort, prosperity and general welfare to the residents in city limits.” Previously in 2018, Shelby City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting the processing, cultivation, and retail distribution of medical marijuana in city limits.
With other communities in North Central Ohio also prohibiting commercial cannabis, faith and civic leaders hope the local workforce keeps their nose to the grindstone.
The Bottom Line:
The Bible says in Proverbs Twenty-Nine, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
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