Nevada legislation requires some employers to make accommodations for employees who engage in off-duty use of medical marijuana. But there are still many unknowns as to the interpretation and stability of the law, including for those employers who have zero-tolerance policies.

Nevada’s lack of a wrongful-termination precedent leaves it unknown, at this point, as to whether state or federal law will prevail in cases where employees contest being fired for using medical marijuana during off-duty hours.

“There’s one view where people would say, ‘I don’t care what the new law says, it’s illegal under federal. I don’t think the new law is going to hold up.’ You have another one that says, ‘No, I think that the state law is going to hold up because you have to reasonably accommodate them,'” said Brett Sutton, owner of Sutton Hague Law Corp. “We don’t really know — not until courts rule on them. And there will be challenges.”

The state law does seem to enhance the rights of employees who use medical marijuana with protections such as requiring employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for an employee’s medical needs, as long as they carry a valid registry identification card and an employee’s use doesn’t create a dangerous situation to others or property, along with not imposing an undue hardship for the employer. Another stipulation says use can’t impede an employee from being able to function or succeed at their job. [Read more at the Las Vegas Business Press]