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Kentucky · Snapshot 09/05/2026

KRS 218B.040: Employer not required to permit or accommodate use.

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Where this section sits in the code
  1. KRS Chapter 218B

(1) Nothing in this chapter shall:

(a) Require an employer to permit or accommodate the use, consumption,

possession, transfer, display, transportation, distribution, sale, or gro wing of

medicinal cannabis in the workplace;

(b) Prohibit an employer from implementing policies promoting workplace health

and safety by:

1. Restricting the use of medicinal cannabis by employees; or

2. Restricting or prohibiting the use of equipment, mac hinery, or power

tools by an employee who is a registered qualified patient, if the

employer believes that the use of such equipment, machinery, or power

tools by an employee who is a registered qualified patient poses an

unreasonable safety risk;

(c) Prohibit an employer from including in any contract provisions that prohibit

the use of medicinal cannabis by employees;

(d) Permit a cause of action against an employer for wrongful discharge or

discrimination;

(e) Except as provided in KRS 218B.045, prohibit a person, employer,

corporation, or any other entity who occupies, owns, or controls a property

from prohibiting or otherwise regulating the use, consumption, possession,

transfer, display, transportation, sale, or growing of medicinal cannabis on or

in that property;

(f) Prohibit an employer from establishing and enforcing a drug testing policy,

drug-free workplace, or zero-tolerance drug policy; or

(g) Prohibit an employer from exercising his or her ability to determine

impairment of an employee who is a cardholder. Good faith determinations of

impairment permitted under this paragraph shall include behavioral

assessments of impairment and a secondary step of testing an employee who

is a cardholder for the presence of cannabis by an established method. If an

employer determines, pursuant to KRS 218B.015(2)(c), that an employee who

is a cardholder is impaired by the use of cannabis from the behavioral

assessment and testing, the burden of proving non -impairment shall shift to

the employee to refute the findings of the employer.

(2) An employee who is discharged from employment for consuming medicinal

cannabis in the workplace, working while under the influence of medicinal

cannabis, or testing positive for a controlled substance shall not be eligible to

receive benefits under KRS Chapter 341, if such actions are in violation of an

employment contract or established personnel policy.

(3) An employer shall not be penalized or denied any benefit under state law for

employing a cardholder.

Collected 2026-09-05T20:52:31Z. Source file · JSON

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