Legal Pot And Holiday Parties – Who’s Responsible
And how will insurance companies deal with pot-impaired driving?
The holiday season is fast approaching.
That means parties…at work and at friend’s homes.
Drinking and pot-smoking perhaps.
As is the case with alcohol, Darryl Singer at Diamond and Diamond Lawyers says the boss and the host of the house party will need to be careful,
“With the law that says I can go outside of the venue with the smokers and I can toke up there’s a concern now that people might get high outside of the employer’s control but because it takes place at a work function if that person subsequently gets injured at the event or on the way home that’s going to create an additional liability for the employer.”
Singer says the same responsibility would apply to the host of a house party.
He’s expecting to see a few lawsuits in that regard.
And with no clear way to determine the level of pot impairment when driving, he’s also expecting an influx of cases involving insurance claims.
“There’s concerns that people are going to be charged in certain instances and that’s going to give the insurance companies an opportunity to, sort of, dig in their heels. Insurance companies tend to operate on the principle of deny first and then your responsibility is to find a lawyer and fight it.”
Singer says at least with alcohol you know the lay of the land.
With pot, he says it could be months, even years before there’s an accurate way to measure impairment.
