This year, Vermont joins several other states in legalizing recreational marijuana use, and the first state to do so through its legislature. Effective July 1, 2018, H. 511 allows adults over the age of 21 years old to possess up to one ounce of marijuana and cultivate their own marijuana plants.

Though the bill permits recreational use and cultivation of marijuana, it does contain specific limitations. For example, marijuana use is prohibited in any public place, defined as street, alley, park, sidewalk, public building other than an individual dwelling, or any place of public accommodation, and selling marijuana is still illegal.

Furthermore, employers can rest assured—the bill explicitly states that nothing in the new law requires employers to permit or accommodate the use, consumption, possession, transfer, display, transportation, sale, or growing of marijuana within the workplace. Employers are still permitted to implement and enforce substance abuse policies in the workplace.