Help, my employee is drinking CBD infused drinks at lunch

What your employee drinks with their personal lunch in your Day Nursery shouldn’t be an employer’s concern so long as it is not alcohol. However what you may not be aware of is that there is now a drink that you can buy in your local supermarket in the ‘meal deal’ section that contains CBD.

So should you be worried?

The answer is no as CBD is legal in the UK and what makes CBD legal is the fact that it has had the THC (Tetrahydrocannabional – try saying that 3 times in a row quickly) removed and this is the substance primarily responsible for the ‘high’ that people get and also the addictiveness.

So how should we view CBD drinks?

Is it something new and edgy on the market and a bit of a fad. We have seen it before with a certain brand of energy drink and people were drinking 3 or 4 cans and then had a lot of energy for a while after drinking the energy drinks. 

It is believed that CBD can help with pain relief as well as anxiety and depression. So, with this in mind if you notice that an employee is consuming CBD products on a regular basis, the question you may need to ask yourself is “are they following a fad or is there something more that may be affecting the employee?”

You may want to start by having a chat with the employee. Nothing formal, more a “I have seen you consuming a lot of CBD infused drinks, and wondered, is everything alright? Are you taking it for a medical reason at all?”

Remember its important to support employees who may have a chronic health condition which may be deemed a disability under the Equality Act 2010.

The main takeaway from this is that CBD infused drinks are not illegal but the employee drinking them could have something going on with them that you were not aware of, so just have that conversation and don’t miss an opportunity to be able to support them.

If you need any assistance when you are managing your employees, please contact us on 01527 909436.