THE QUESTION

I work at a big-box retail store as an overnight stocker and am on medical marijuana to relieve severe stomach pain. I am afraid of being terminated for using the marijuana, so I have not informed my employer and do not use it while at work. However, often I have to leave my shift early due to pain, citing sickness. I do not know my legal rights. How would you suggest that my employer should react to my situation, if I reveal the marijuana usage?

THE FIRST ANSWER

Katherine Poirier Partner at Borden Ladner Gervais LLP, Montreal

Cannabis legalization is coming in Canada and with it is coming a new business sector. Economic growth, tax revenue and job creation are the exciting upside of this emerging industry. What does this mean for jobs?

Let's look at a U.S. example. Colorado is one of four states with recreational cannabis sales and made $996-million dollars in tax revenue in 2015. That's almost a billion dollars, people! Along with that came a budding job market and a decreased unemployment rate.

Types of Jobs

Like other businesses, the cannabis industry will have a need for traditional roles in areas like finance, marketing, human resources, operations and IT.

Shaleen Title is the co-founder of THC Staffing Group, where she and co-founder Danielle Schumacher connect cannabis companies with high-quality job candidates who represent a diverse cross section of America. Four years ago, she helped legalize cannabis in Colorado as an organizer for Amendment 64. Now based in Boston, Title works with legalization campaigns in other states to include language that creates opportunities for diverse communities and people of color. Leafly spoke with her recently about the challenges of those initiatives and the opportunities for cannabis companies to expand diversity within their own ranks. 

$50,000 to go to top rated companies at its pitch events Companies to receive more help before pitching 

OAKLAND, Calif., March 1, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, The ArcView Group announced the launch of a Winner's Fund that will deploy $50,000 into a top-rated company at each of its upcoming pitch events and the hiring of a Chief Mentor who will spend hours helping each company prepare to pitch ArcView's 500+ high net worth investor members. 

As legal cannabis business grows larger, states are realizing standards need to be set.

In the latest step toward standardizing cannabis cultivation, the Washington State Department of Agriculture released formal recommendations called the “Worker Protection Standards (WPS): Requirements for Marijuana Growers.”

Standards in the regular world of agriculture are created by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). However, USDA inspection or certification of cannabis is prohibited because USDA employees must abide by federal laws. Over half of U.S. states have legalized medicinal or recreational marijuana use, but since the USDA cannot get involved, there are no set standards for cannabis cultivation.

Medical cannabis is becoming a more common treatment option. Employees who require it may never need to use during work hours. However, some employees, like those with a motion disorder, may need to use cannabis during their workday to manage their symptoms. If you need to use cannabis in the workplace, keep these tips in mind.

People burning to work with marijuana are flocking to California and other states with an established pot culture to work as "budtenders" in smoke shops and cafés or as entrepreneurs in operations developing the latest cannabis products.

There is a "record exodus" of workers from corporate America to an "expanding, legal $5.4bn-and-growing weed country," reports California's East Bay Express.

Meet the rabbi and former hospital administrator who now run a pot dispensary.

Marijuana enthusiasts around the world are celebrating 4/20,  a code-term that refers to cannabis consumption, and one’s ‘membership’ in the cannabis sub-culture.  4:20 is actually the time of day a group called the “Waldos” would meet outside of a California school in 1971, to go in search of a cannabis field they learned about. The Waldo’s never found the field.   An article in theHigh Times magazine, however, and a lit

A Los Angeles based career institute makes its way to Austin. More than a dozen people signed up for the seminar, many entrepreneurs, looking to learn about the possibility of capitalizing off of cannabis.

The Cannabis Career Institute has representatives that travel all over the United States. They were at The Hampton Inn & Suites in Austin this weekend for a class to help people with possibly finding their next career in the medical marijuana field. “We're helping people find their next career in the cannabis industry,” said director Jeff Riedel. “A lot of people who don't understand the industry may think that it's growers or sellers. There are so many other options that you can do,”