Employers say legalising cannabis poses health and safety concerns

Legalising of recreational cannabis could increase health and safety risks for the primary sector, say wary employers.

The sector already has one of the highest workplace accident and death rates in the country, and leaders say it could be another risk if the referendum gets support on October 17.

Chris Lewis, from Federated Farmers, said while the organisation doesn’t have a stance on the referendum it does have concerns about the health and safety implications if the bill is passed into law.

He said farming already had a high accident rate around livestock and machinery, and workers needed to be aware of what was around them without being impaired.

‘‘One of those things is you have to be sober and have no drugs in your system,’’ Lewis said. ‘‘You could cause injury to yourself, injury to animals and injury to your workmates.

‘‘Farmers, alongside the rest of the country, take health and safety very seriously, so if this does pass we would like to see the Government not make it a hard task to get rid of it out of the workplace.’’

According to Worksafe New Zealand’s data centre, 23 people died in a workplace death in the agricultural sector between July last year and June this year; and more than 2000 people required more than one week off work because of an injury between January last year and December.

The most common accidents causing injury involved vehicles.

Employees in his sector drive large machinery on and off roads in dangerous places, and the idea of someone driving while impaired from cannabis was simply frightening, Roger Parton, chief executive of the Rural Contractors Association, said.

Parton said there needed to be a lot of thought by government and the wider sector about how it could affect employers if it was passed into law.

‘‘This is what is not clear, because it’s not just a case of smoking cannabis, it’s a question of impairment. Because cannabis stays in the system for several days,’’ he said.

Chief executive of the Forestry Industry Contractors Association Prue Younger said the forestry sector had zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol. However, she said planning now was essential so the industry could manage any potential change alongside the cannabis referendum authority, if the legislation was passed.

National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) president Chris Fowlie said the way workplaces tested for cannabis was a failure for workers’ rights. –RNZ