October 15, 2019
Cannabis at Work
One Year Later
Globe and Mail Centre, Toronto
Presented by The Conference Board of Canada in partnership with The Globe and Mail
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The Conference Board’s Dr. Bill Howatt, Chief of Research, Workforce Productivity, will present brand new findings from Conference Board research on the impacts of cannabis use on employee productivity, engagement, and physical and mental health factors. Dr. Howatt will explore whether medical and recreational cannabis use have a positive or negative impact on these factors – or whether the relationship is more complex. He will also discuss the extent to which organizational readiness for cannabis legalization factors into these outcomes and set out some guidelines for organizations looking to reap any positive benefits and ensure minimal negative impacts of legalized cannabis.
Chief of Research, Workforce Productivity, The Conference Board of Canada
Senior Research Associate, The Conference Board of Canada
One year has passed since recreational cannabis was legalized, but what has changed? More importantly, where are we headed next with both recreational cannabis and cannabis for medical purposes?
Join Dr. Melissa Snider-Adler, Chief Medical Review Officer at DriverCheck Inc., as she outlines some of the shifts in the first year since legalization. She will walk us through some of the changes to come for the workplace—including the potential impact of edibles, concentrates, as well as topicals and ointments. Dr. Snider-Adler will then discuss some tangible solutions for managing employees authorized to use cannabis for medical purposes in the workplace, walking us through cases and providing a step-by-step process to deal with this unique challenge in your workplace.
Chief Medical Review Officer DriverCheck Inc.
In this moderated panel, HR and health and safety leaders from three Canadian organizations will participate in a facilitated discussion on some of the tangible workplace outcomes they have encountered in the year following recreational cannabis legalization. This panel will cover topics such as alcohol and drug (A&D) policy rollout and A&D testing, accommodation of medical cannabis use and substance use disorders, workplace practices around managing cannabis use at work-sanctioned social events, and other hot-button human resources and safety issues.
Prior to the legalization of recreational cannabis in Canada, employers quickly became aware that they had to navigate new rules and update workplace policies to ensure that cannabis consumption did not negatively affect employee health, safety and productivity. Now that we are one year down the road, and with the introduction of edibles, the discussion needs to be continued.
Join celebrated workplace lawyer, Lorenzo Lisi, as he looks back on the first year of legalized cannabis use and the impact it has had on the workplace and what we can expect in the future. Lorenzo will discuss recent case law as well as how to mitigate and manage the risks associated with employee cannabis use, both medical and recreational. Learn how forward-thinking workplaces have adapted over the past year.
Topics include:
Practice Group Leader of Aird & Berlis LLP’s Workplace Law Group
When it comes to the actions an employer can take surrounding the impacts of cannabis on the workplace, providing education is one of the simplest and most cost-effective strategies for mitigating negative repercussions. And yet, there is little available in terms of resources, courses and training programs for organizations to employ and build knowledge in their workforces. In this panel, we bring together experts to discuss the gaps in knowledge, the repercussions of ignoring these gaps, and strategies for improving Canadians’ understanding of cannabis’ impacts—both positive and negative.
Director of Research at the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA)
In some circles, medical cannabis has been hailed as a cure-all that will treat conditions from anxiety to chronic pain to insomnia—and more. In this panel, we bring together a group of experts to review the conditions for which cannabis has been hailed as a treatment. Our experts will help tease out the anecdotes from the scientific evidence and share details on which conditions have scientific support for cannabis as a treatment.
Join us as we bring together experts to discuss the medical cannabis space in Canada and the potential impacts of recreational cannabis legalization on the industry. We will bring together the medical, academic, and workplace perspectives on this important issue, and will discuss questions such as:
- How has the medical cannabis industry changed since recreational cannabis was legalized?
- Has there been a greater push for research in this space since legalization?
- What is the role of the physician? What is the role of the employer?
- Should more organizations consider covering medical cannabis as part of their health benefits plans?
The adult-use, recreational cannabis industry remains elusive to many organizations outside of the sector. Yet, the implications of cannabis use are far reaching, as-is the Canadian market. What myths and misinformation may still be driving stigma towards Canada’s most promising new economy? What should employers know about the dense, regulatory regime that governs the industry?
Join leading experts in the Canadian cannabis sector as they provide a crash course on insider information for employers, including:
- Packaging, marketing and branding regulations for legal cannabis products (i.e. know what’s legal when you see it)
- Stigma and cannabis-sector employees (expertise in the field and why to/why not to work in, or hire from, the industry)
- Executive retention and other cannabis-sector employment issues
- What is a “responsible-use framework” and why is it important to the cannabis sector and beyond?
While cannabis use is certainly not new and many employers have successfully navigated through year one of legalization, many unknowns still exist. One topic that will soon be top of mind is the advent of legal edible cannabis products—which will only be making their way into the market in the coming months. Join James G. Wigmore, forensic toxicologist and cannabis expert, as he walks us through an overview of cannabis edibles, including how they are processed in the human body, when and how they will be available, and what this could mean for the Canadian workplace. James will close by outlining some of the gaps in current research, and identify some of the biggest questions that remain related to cannabis use in Canada.
Forensic Toxicologist, RCU (Responsible Cannabis Use)
Health Columnist, The Globe and Mail
Practice Group Leader Aird & Berlis LLP’s Workplace Law Group
Vice President Health Solutions by Shoppers Drug Mart
Chief Medical Review Officer DriverCheck Inc.
Associate Scientist, Institute for Work & Health (IWH)
Leader, Pharmacy & Health Provider Solutions, Green Shield Canada
By registering for this event, you agree to have your name and job title shared with our event partners, The Globe & Mail, for convening purposes (e.g. creating name tags and tracking event-day attendance).
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