Canada: Petroleum Industry Begs Government Not to Legalize Marijuana

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While Canada works toward the total demise of marijuana prohibition across the nation, the petroleum industry is trying to persuade the government to reconsider this high idea due to concerns that it will turn negatively affect the workplace.

Earlier this week, the oil and gas industry safety association Enform fired off a letter to the Task Force on Marijuana Legalization, Regulation and Restriction begging the Canadian government not to go any further with the concept of legalizing marijuana because the group feels it would be a detriment to workplace safety. The group is concerned that with alcohol and drug use already so rampant on work sites, legal marijuana would do nothing but worsen the situation.

“The legalization of marijuana will have an adverse impact on workplace safety and on an employer’s ability to ensure a safe work environment,” Enform CEO Cameron MacGillivray wrote in a letter obtained by the Calgary Herald. “Enform respectfully submits that any legislation that is considered must address the obligations of employers to maintain a safe work environment and the workplace safety risks associated with marijuana use and abuse.”

Although Enform does not appear to be so naïve as to think that it has the power to put a wrench in the wheels of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s master plan to legalize the leaf in the northern nation, the group is lobbying for a set of rules, specific to its industry, which include prohibiting the sale, possession and consumption of cannabis products throughout safety sensitive work areas.

“If (employees) can start carrying it around in their shirt pocket like a pack of cigarettes and fire it up on their way to work and it’s perfectly legal? That’s definitely a concern,” said Mark Salkeld, president and CEO of the Petroleum Services Association of Canada. “Our members have a duty to ensure a safe workplace.”

The petroleum industry is hoping to get the government’s support in establishing strict regulations when it comes to the workplace safety aspect of allowing marijuana to be bought and sold in a manner similar to beer. Enform has requested a meeting with the nation’s marijuana task force in hopes of presenting its argument for why work-related prohibitions are necessary.

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  1. yah sure blah blah
    Or maybe they don’t want competition from Hemp Products !
    Eco friendly biofuels, plastics, fibers, etc.. It is estimated that over 50 thousand products can be manufactured from hemp. A great many of them can replace fossil fuel based products.
    Fossil fuel is just gonna have to bite on a bullet because the world can no longer tolerate their pollution done in the name of greed.

  2. Do people currently get drunk at work all the time? No, only in rare cases? Then why would it be different for pot right? The people that want to be stoned at work are all reday doing so…

  3. I hate to tell them but when I worked in the Gulf of Mexico people would come out there with a suitcase full of pot and work for a few months straight?

  4. Worked on a workover rig for years use to be able to smoke all the time no problem. Only had to quit when I was in the bakken. Do something about all the methhead operators, tripping pipe while being awake for three days is the problem

  5. So the ONLY time the oil and gas industry is willing to accept regulation is when it targets the users of a plant that could replace their products? They think they can do a fine job foregoing regulation for on-the job safety, industrial pollution, oil drilling and natural gas fracking but when it comes to a little cannabis they’re just unable to proceed without strict control?

    Astonishing.

  6. That’s a BS excuse…they know cannabis can replace a lot of what the petroleum industry offers at a much lower price and then gives them competition…time to level the playing field!

  7. The claims of the petroleum industry are seriously at odds with the conclusions of Canada’s Le Dein Commission of 1972. The commission’s report states, “insofar as the implications of the effects on psychomotor abilities are concerned, is that cannabis intoxication is still unrecognizable and undetectable. It is virtually impossible to tell whether a person is ‘high’ on cannabis unless he tells you”.

    It also states, “There is no evidence that the use of cannabis has been a significant cause of automobile accidents”. For more click: http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/ledain/ldc6a.htm

  8. News flash. The people who smoke have already been smoking on the job, ya mooks. Your stupid asses have never been able to tell the difference anyway. So what’s your concern, really?

  9. Cannabis Tip:

    Unlike narcotics, there is no lethal dosage threshold for THC, allowing someone to consume as much is needed for its palliative effects.

    One of the effects of CBD is that it moderates the effects of THC. It actually knocks THC off the CB1 receptor.

    If someone is experiencing THC intoxication, a strong dose of CBD can counteract those effects.

    Cannabis prohibition is a crime against humanity.

    Contrary to popular belief cannabis actually is good for people unlike the neurotoxin alcohol.

    The reason cannabis can help people with epilepsy and other conditions is because it has Cannabinoids that are Neuroprotective Antioxidants.

    Oranges have Vitamin-C which is an antioxidant and Cannabis has cannabinoids that are antioxidants and neuroprotectants that kill cancer and promote neurogenesis, alcohol doesn’t.

    People need and deserve Real Cannabis Freedom not Tyrannical Swindler laws of Babylon.

    People must be free to grow cannabis with no restrictions or license like any other plant.

    It’s time for people to stop being afraid of plants.

    De-schedule Cannabis and End the Hypocrisy.

    Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness !

    Legalize Cannabis Freedom.

    CBD and THC are Neuroprotective Antioxidants
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC20965/
    https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=236434

    Cannabinoids and Neurogenesis
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20565726

    This study suggests that long-term, high dose cannabinoid usage may not be as unhealthy as previously thought.

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16224541
    http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/644148-Cannabinoids-promote-neurogenesis-produce-anxiolytic-and-antidepressant-like-effect

    United States of America Cannabis Patents
    http://unitedpatientsgroup.com/united-states-of-america-cannabis-patents/

    Treating or Preventing Diabetes with Cannabidiol
    http://www.cannabisinternational.org/info/CBD-Prevention-Diabetes.pdf

    Cannabis and Neurogenesis
    http://planet.infowars.com/uncategorized/cannabis-and-neurogenesis

  10. BS. They just want to keep it illegal. If a worker were going to do dangerous work on an oil rig under the influence of any drug, the safest choice would it be weed rather than alcohol, coke or meth. But the truth is that oilfield workers suffer severely from fatigue and lack of sleep which causes more accidents than weed ever has. Besides that, Roughnecks have been smoking weed and working rigs for decades and few accidents are caused because they were high, they were caused because they were overworked but that’s why those jobs pay such high wages. Get over it Corporations, people are going to smoke pot whether its legal or not and whether you like it or not, just as they have for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

  11. ‘“If (employees) can start carrying it around in their shirt pocket like a
    pack of cigarettes and fire it up on their way to work and it’s
    perfectly legal? That’s definitely a concern,” said Mark Salkeld, president and CEO of the Petroleum Services Association of Canada. “Our members have a duty to ensure a safe workplace.”

    So how do you currently deal with this issue in regards to alcohol? Given that Cannabis is less debilitating and over 100 times less harmful than alcohol, I would think the industry would want more people to use Cannabis rather than the deadly poison alcohol!

  12. Now that’s some fine convoluted bs.
    They must’ve been drunk when they pulled that statement out of their asses.

  13. I call bullshit. They are just mad that EVERYTHING thats made using petroleum is much easier cheaper and safer to make with hemp

  14. So…it is 9:00 am in California and my husband and I are up drinking tea and talking about how YOU TUBE is killing it’s self with it’s new restrictions when my eyes light on this story and my jaw drops.

    Husband: What?

    Me: Read this headline.

    Husband: WTF XDLOL

    Me: I know right XDLOL

    Oh we laughed together, loved together.

    A good time

    Thanks for the LOL’s oil and gas industry safety association.

    Your idiotic lying about why you fear HEMP brought two people closer together.

    Enjoy your doom.

  15. File from the petrol board room conversation:
    Bob#1: Hey, Bob, if we let them go legal, we wont have the freedom robbing and power control leverage we have over our people that we have now. Can’t just keep giving up power, especially when the industry continues this declining trend.
    Bob#2: Yeah, Bob. On top of that, how will we know if they are stoned on the job? It’s kinda hard to tell. If it goes legal AND we can’t tell if they are users, then how do we bust them.
    Bob#1: Yeah, you just have to sniff and that will tell you. You know, “sniff, your fired. Sniff, you are OK.” We can’t pee test or we loose the entire staff.
    Bob#3: Did either one of you consider that regardless whether is goes legal or not, these roughnecks are and will be doing it. Maybe you could just get off your asses and observe your employees. You know, talk with them. If they are having performance problems, you should try and help them. It can only help our struggling business. Hiring and firing are much more expensive than some time spent and a program for job performance improvement.
    Bobs#1&2: HA, HA, HA.
    Bob#1: Ok, so if we do start observing performance, I am pretty sure will will have to let the CEO’s drunken nephew go and a few other experienced employees that like to extend the lunch hour occasionally. We can’t do that!
    All: Here, here. We all vote to do all we can to keep this illegal.

  16. “If (employees) can start carrying it around like Crown Royal whiskey and get drunk on the way to work and it’s all perfectly legal? That’s definitely a concern,” said Mark Salkeld, president and CEO of the Petroleum Services Association of Canada. “Our members have a duty to ensure a safe workplace.”

  17. My husband works in oil and gas industry. When it comes to safety that I believe trumps everything. There is no reason that a person could not work safe under the influence of medical marijuana. With a proper balance of cbd & tch it would work. For those who use for recreational should be screened no different than alcohol or other drugs.
    My point is if you need it for medical reasons you should be able to work. It is also up to the company to accomadate your needs. Do they let you work when you are popping pills like crazy? The side effects of those I would be more concerned with.

  18. Businesses are charged with the affirmative responsibility to ensure a safe work environment, not the government. If you can’t control your people, get new people, but the civil liberties of the population at large should not take a backseat to the interests of any business. The damage done in the interest of big oil is eclipsed only by that of the failed war on drugs.

  19. Enform CEO Cameron MacGillivray is spouting typical the sky is falling reefer madness nonsense claims and assumptions.
    Mark Salkeld takes the reefer madness a step further to a absurd level by questioning if employees “can fire it up on their way to work and it’s perfectly legal”….

    First both of these men that are in very powerful industry positions need to get their heads out of the sky and clouds of reefer madness smoke and be truly responsible leaders of their powerful industry. Start using the scientific term cannabis instead of the tired old racist reefer madness word “marijuana”. Stop comparing cannabis to alcohol and pharmaceutical drugs they are not at all the same on so many levels and the behaviours are not the same when consumed as well. Move on to spend the time and money to do some quality research based on scientific evidence and exclude the reefer madness biased assumptions and using the word “could” all to freely.

    It would not be hard or expensive to create a physical and mental impairment test everyone must preform before their work shift starts. This would easily weed out the people that are actually impaired and a safety concern for a lot larger number of reasons then just cannabis including alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs, not enough sleep, emotion stresses and more.

    Calgary Herald’s Amanda Stephenson writes Enform cites a 2003 study claiming cannabis consumers have a higher rate of hospitalization but she fails to include the name of the study cited by Enform. This would allow reviewing the study to see if it is actually has used scientific evidence and not just more typical reefer madness nonsense that sadly has been used all to often by all to many for over 90 years.

  20. Enter the current situation:

    “If (employees) can start carrying it around a mickey of whiskey like a thermos of coffee and drink on their way to work and it’s perfectly legal? That’s definitely a concern,” said Mark Salkeld, president and CEO of the Petroleum Services Association of Canada. “Our members have a duty to ensure a safe workplace.”

    ^ Fascinating that they think legalization will create inappropriate behaviour? Nowhere does the legalization state that people will be able to consume cannabis in a manner any different than alcohol.

  21. “If (employees) can start carrying it around in their shirt pocket like a pack of cigarettes and fire it up on their way to work and it’s perfectly legal?

    O.M.G.

    The horror.

    It’s OK for employees to diligently work on a case of cancer or lung disease, but clutch my pearls they would treat the devil weed [which isn’t going to contribute much toward that cancer] like a common cigarette.

    Meanwhile Big Pharma is noticing a 25% drop in the use of prescription opioid medications in legal states.

    I think these large corporations are a bit more preoccupied with profits than they are with anything else.

    Oh… and people have been getting high on the job for ages…. if it was a huge issue, we’d know already, wouldn’t we?

  22. Canada legalize !!! the work place safety is BS , Drug testing for cannabis does not test anyone being under influence , being in same room with smokers can render positive test , The test is voluntary however , waving your rights is no enough no employers want to BS you off the job not even on project , legalization is a liberty issue a work issue jobs will come , super conductors could used hemp fibers and make better batteries This alone is a billion dollar biz and the end of police harassment over this issue is worth the liberty issue for non as well as users VOTE out anyone who fights this save your embarrassment to those persons who make old issues and pointing your finger at those who rasie there foolish heads against this measure later when you profit form the many uses and gain back liberty

  23. They don’t want to legalize because it will be replaced with Clean energy use of Hemp. Same as the alcohol and tobacco and pharmaceutical industries. It all goes back to when it was made illegal, same groups of individuals that fought for things that were bad for us as a culture…aslinger, Nixon, etc hemp is our future to cleaner would.

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