American Jurisprudence    

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The American Jurisprudence Track examines how courts, judges, attorneys, and law-enforcement professionals are navigating the rapidly evolving legal issues surrounding cannabis, hemp, impaired driving, workplace disputes, civil liability, and constitutional criminal procedure. Sessions emphasize case law development, evidentiary standards, litigation strategy, forensic science interpretation, and real-world courtroom and field-enforcement challenges.

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High Stakes on the Road: Cannabis, Psychedelics, and Driving in an Era of Legal and Scientific Uncertainty    

As cannabis legalization expands and psychedelic substances move toward regulated medical and therapeutic use, driving law has emerged as one of the most unstable intersections of science, public safety, and constitutional doctrine. This session examines how contemporary drug policy outpaces the scientific tools used to assess driving impairment, creating significant challenges for lawmakers, courts, and enforcement agencies. Unlike alcohol, neither cannabis nor psychedelics presents a reliable biological proxy for real-time impairment. THC may remain detectable long after psychoactive effects have dissipated, while classic psychedelics raise fundamentally different questions involving episodic use, dosage variability, and context-dependent effects. Existing per se and zero-tolerance driving regimes were not designed for substances whose pharmacology does not correlate neatly with functional impairment behind the wheel. This presentation analyzes the scientific limitations of current toxicological testing, the evidentiary consequences for impaired-driving prosecutions, and the constitutional risks posed by overinclusive enforcement. Particular attention is given to how emerging psychedelic therapies—often administered in supervised clinical settings—fit within existing DUI statutes and post-treatment driving restrictions. The session also addresses the growing tension between public-safety rationales and due-process protections when impairment determinations rely on presence rather than performance. Grounded in current research and legal doctrine, this session provides a structured framework for understanding how driving law must evolve in response to cannabis legalization and the re-emergence of psychedelics in medicine and research. Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of where doctrine is breaking down—and what scientifically defensible, constitutionally sound approaches may look like going forward.

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Pharmacokinetics and Toxicology of Cannabinoids   

As cannabis legalization has expanded, many novel cannabis product types have emerged, and the co-use of cannabis with other intoxicating substances has increased. Simultaneously, the incidence of driving under the influence of cannabis has increased. Thus, controlled research to quantify cannabinoids across various biological matrices (e.g., blood, oral fluid, urine), across various product formulations/routes of administration, and under solo versus co-use conditions is vital to public safety as it can inform policies related to workplace drug testing and impairment detection. This symposium brings together leading researchers studying these critical issues using controlled human laboratory procedures. Specific research in this symposium will include: 1) studies on the impact of cannabis product formulation/route of administration on cannabinoid pharmacokinetics in blood, urine, and oral fluid, 2) innovative research quantifying cannabinoids in exhaled breath, and 3) research elucidating how other potentially intoxicating drugs, measured via broad spectrum drug screening and quantitative analysis, influence the pharmacokinetics and toxicology of cannabinoids. The session will conclude with a panel discussion summarizing how cannabis toxicology data is currently used in the US, the current state of science on this subject, including current limitations to using toxicology data to infer impairment, lessons learned from other countries with differing cannabis policies in this area, and possible future research directions and solutions to current limitations.

 

 

Rescheduled, Not Safe for Work: Cannabis, Schedule III, and the New Fault Lines in Employment Law    

Cannabis’s move from Schedule I to Schedule III has immediate and unresolved consequences for employers, HR professionals, and workplace policymakers. While rescheduling signals federal recognition of medical value, it does not legalize cannabis, eliminate impairment risks, or harmonize conflicting federal and state employment rules.
This session examines how the schedule change affects workplace drug policies, accommodation requests, safety-sensitive positions, and employee discipline. Panelists will analyze the growing gap between evolving medical and scientific understandings of cannabis and the blunt tools employers continue to rely on—urinalysis, zero-tolerance policies, and outdated impairment assumptions. The discussion will address how Schedule III status may influence ADA accommodation analysis, wrongful termination claims, unemployment benefits, workers’ compensation, and collective bargaining agreements, particularly in states with employee-protective cannabis statutes. Speakers will also explore whether rescheduling alters employer liability exposure, federal contractor obligations, and HR risk management strategies in regulated industries. Rather than offering simplistic compliance checklists, this session provides a doctrinal and practical framework for navigating cannabis in the modern workplace—clarifying what the law now requires, what it still prohibits, and where litigation risk is most likely to emerge.

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