Hartford Business Journal Special Editions

Women in Business — April 3, 2017

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4 Hartford Business Journal • April 3, 2017 www.HartfordBusiness.com w w w. H a r t f o r d B u s i n e s s . c o m (860) 236-9998 E D I T O R I A L Greg Bordonaro Editor, ext. 139 gbordonaro@HartfordBusiness.com Gregory Seay News Editor, ext. 144 gseay@HartfordBusiness.com Matt Pilon News Editor, ext. 143 mpilon@HartfordBusiness.com John Stearns Staff Writer, ext. 145 jstearns@HartfordBusiness.com Patricia Daddona Web Editor, ext. 127 pdaddona@HartfordBusiness.com Stephanie Meagher Research Director Heide Martin Research Assistant B U S I N E S S Joe Zwiebel President and Publisher, ext. 132 jzwiebel@HartfordBusiness.com Donna Collins Associate Publisher, ext. 121 dcollins@HartfordBusiness.com Allison Williams Office & Sales Coordinator, ext. 122 awilliams@HartfordBusiness.com Amy Orsini Events Manager, ext. 134 aorsini@HartfordBusiness.com Kaleigh Hickey Events Coordinator, ext. 137 khickey@hartfordbusiness.com Jaime Rudy Sales Director, ext. 124 jrudy@HartfordBusiness.com David Hartley Sr. Accounts Manager, ext. 130 dhartley@HartfordBusiness.com William C. Lambot Sr. Accounts Manager, ext. 128 wlambot@hartfordbusiness.com John Vuillemot Sr. Accounts Manager, ext. 133 jvuillemot@hartfordbusiness.com Raki Zwiebel Credit and Collections Manager Valerie Clark Accounting Assistant/Office Manager Kim Vautour HR Director P R O D U C T I O N Christopher Wallace Art Director, ext. 147 cwallace@HartfordBusiness.com Peter Stanton CEO pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Joseph Zwiebel President, ext. 132 jzwiebel@HartfordBusiness.com Mary Rogers COO/CFO mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are $84.95. To subscribe, visit HartfordBusiness.com, email hartfordbusiness@ cambeywest.com, or call (845) 267-3008. Advertising: For advertising information, please call (860) 236-9998. Please address all correspondence to: Hartford Business Journal, 15 Lewis Street, Suite 200, Hart ford CT 06103. News Department: If you have a news item: Call us at (860) 236-9998, fax us at (860) 570-2493, or e-mail us at news@HartfordBusiness.com Hartford Business Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or materials and in general does not return them to the sender. Hartford Business Journal (ISSN 1083-5245) is published weekly, 49x per year — including three special issues in July, November and December — by new England Business Media, LLC, 15 Lewis Street, Suite 200, Hartford, CT 06103. Periodicals postage paid at Hartford, CT. Tel: (860) 236-9998 • Fax (860) 570-2493 Copyright 2017. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Hartford Business Journal P.O. Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894 www.copyright.com Pot Prospects legalization happens. "You naturally increase your popula- tion of users," said Glassman, who has visited Colorado several times in recent years to study its pot industry. It's difficult to determine how much demand would increase. The state and dispensaries don't publicly disclose sales, which aren't taxed. Under Senate Bill 11, the state would slap a nearly 24 percent tax on recreational pot purchases. Tom Nicholas, CEO of Prime Wellness in South Windsor, said his average dis- pensary patient buys a half-ounce to an ounce of marijuana monthly. If his experi- ence holds true for others, the state's nine dispensaries could be selling somewhere between 545 and 1,089 pounds per month, based on the 17,431 state-registered medi- cal marijuana patients, though there are many forms of the drug available that could throw off that math. Nicholas, a nurse by training who formerly ran a dialysis company, said legalization could cost his dispensary some business, but he's confident there would be an incumbent advantage for the already licensed industry participants. "If we had the opportunity, who better to blaze that trail than the licensees who blazed the trail for medical marijuana?" he said. Existing medical dispensaries and growers will get the first crack at adult- use licenses in Massachusetts, and some predict Connecticut might follow a simi- lar regulatory path, though the current bill doesn't include any such provision. Employer concerns Don Shubert, president of the Connect- icut Construction Industries Association, representing some 300 companies in the state, said those employers have a hard enough time finding qualified workers, particularly in the wake of the 2008 reces- sion that saw the sector take a nosedive. He said recreational pot legaliza- tion would "exacerbate our workforce challenges." Employees of contractors, builders and various related firms often operate heavy machinery or dangerous equip- ment and face other safety hazards on the worksite, so many companies have zero-tolerance drug and alcohol policies. "If you're going to survive in construc- tion, safety is your protocol," said Shu- bert, who is a member of the Stop Pot CT Coalition. While construction sites might be more dangerous than many work environ- ments, other employers would face new uncertainties if marijuana were legalized, said Megan Carannante, another Pullman & Comley attorney. Both the state's medical marijuana law and its proposed legalization bill contain no requirements for employers to accom- modate or allow pot use in the workplace. But while the medical law forbids compa- nies from firing or declining to hire a pro- spective employee based solely on his or her status as a medical marijuana patient, the legalization bill does not. A company reviewing an employee's conduct would have to discern whether the employee had a medical card, and if so, whether they were high on the job. That's a difficult task, since unlike a breathalyzer test for alcohol, there is no reliable test for marijuana. "Because THC (an active chemi- cal in marijuana) stays in the system, a drug test is not an accurate predictor of impairment," Carannante said. n For more information contact Rennie Polk at cabaret@asd-1817.org or 860.570.2356 or Margaret Lawson at specialgifts@cptv.org or 860.558.5026 Premier SPonSor TiTle SPonSor PreSenTing SPonSor Join us to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the American School for the Deaf Friday, April 21, 2017 6:00 p.m. Connecticut Convention Center Hartford, Connecticut Black Tie Optional Enjoy a wonderful evening of fun, food, and music Reserve your tickets today at www.asd200.org Proceeds will benefit ASD programs: Literacy Initiative, Early Childhood Intervention, Camp Isola Bella and Historic Preservation. Meet Marlee Matlin Academy Award-Winning Actress.

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