Kentucky lawmakers introduced legislation that would amend state law to exclude certain levels of marijuana in the blood from the presumption that a worker’s injury was caused by drug use.
H.B. 529, introduced Monday, would eliminate the presumption that employees who sustained workplace injuries and had detectable levels of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in their systems were injured as a result of the drug, as long as the workers had no other unprescribed substances in their bodies and the amount of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol measured in the workers’ bodies through scientifically reliable testing was less than 5 nanograms.
The bill has been referred to the committee on committees.
A Kentucky appellate court affirmed the state’s Workers Compensation Board’s decision to award workers compensation benefits to a man who was injured when he fell off a ladder, even though he tested positive for cocaine.