The cannabis danger you can't see on the shop floor

Cannabis recently became legal to possess and use in Canada, but that use remains out of sight of the public.

For those who feared they would be swallowed by clouds of pot smoke while walking down the street, local governments appear to have minimized the possibility. Conspicuous consumption in public places, just as it is with smoking tobacco, is limited if not altogether banned in many jurisdictions.

Since cannabis is more accessible, the concern over workplace impairment due to pot use, as told in this feature story by Roseann Danese, is well founded. Should it elicit wide-spread panic in the industry, though? Fear of the unknown usually does, but possibly not for the reasons anyone might think.

A government employee who works in the field of addictions told me that people who do not smoke at all are unlikely to suddenly light up to give cannabis a try. Very roughly translated, impairment problems in the workplaces are already there. The fact cannabis is now legal has served to awaken businesses to the issue, and it’s a good thing that they’re now searching for policy answers and processes to identify impairment that was likely pre-existing.

MORE SUBTLE WAY

But there’s a far more subtle way for people to use cannabis: edibles. The classic joke about pot brownies is no joke when an entire industry of edibles, from cooking at home to infused candy, will be easily accessible and easy to conceal, even within the workplace.

Nonsmokers — the majority of Canadians — would need to make a significant lifestyle change to take up smoking pot, not the least of which is being able to smell it on their clothing and in their hair. By contrast, sampling edibles might seem more appealing to them and perhaps even appear harmless.

A Dalhousie University survey backs up that notion. It found that a whopping 46 per cent of Canadians would like to give edibles a shot. That opens up a whole new jar of candy. Literally. How can people who have never tried pot possibly know the effects any edible might have on them, which depends on the concentration of cannabis and of course the amount consumed. With alcohol, most people know the effects of one or two drinks, but what are the effects of one or two edibles when they have varying pot properties? Cannabis might be legal, but unlike alcohol, it’s mostly unregulated, which should be cause for real concern.

Whether safety-sensitive businesses can actually regulate what people do in their private lives seems impossible, and in Roseanne Danese's story Unifor says it intends to challenge any notion of that, but addressing the issue takes facts and policy. Unfortunately, both appear, at least on the surface, to be in short supply.