Two Colorado lawmakers want to pass a law to protect workers who use marijuana when they’re off the clock.

House Rep. Jovan Melton, D-Aurora, has introduced a bill to prevent businesses from firing employees for partaking in legal activities on their own time — even if the activities are only legal under state and not federal law. To pass, though, the bill will likely require some compromise to address expected objections from the business community.

Melton says the measure would correct an oversight in Colorado law.

“It was just a glaring gap that we have here in the statute, especially when we’re supposed to regulate marijuana like we are with alcohol,” Melton said. “If someone’s able to drink while they’re at home and on their free time, as long as they’re not coming into work intoxicated, then they’re not penalized with their employment.”

In the Colorado Supreme Court case Coats v. Dish Network, employee Brandon Coats appealed a lower court decision that sided with Dish Network in Coats’ firing after he failed a random drug test in 2010. Coats used medical marijuana to control seizures while he was away from work.

The court unanimously ruled that state statute referred to lawful activities as those that are legal under both state and federal law.

The bill would clarify the definition of legal activities as those that are legal just under state law, so if Coloradans legalize anything else that is illegal federally, lawmakers wouldn’t have go through the same process again.

The bill would not apply to federal employees or employees subject to additional federal requirements.

An official with the Colorado Chamber of Commerce said the group hasn’t taken an official stance on the bill, but she expects the policy committee will come out against it, particularly based on what she’s hearing from businesses.

“Our employers supported that Supreme Court decision over the years and continue to do so,” Loren Furman said.

She worries about employees who operate high-risk equipment and feels the change could jeopardize safety for certain businesses, such as those in the oil and gas or mining industries, and she said employers want to have the flexibility to implement zero-tolerance drug policies.

“It requires a larger dialogue among all the interest groups,” Furman said.

Melton expects the pushback but said he hopes to find common ground, as lawmakers did last year with the “ban the box” legislation.

“We may have to put some more guardrails and definitions,” Melton said. “I’m more than willing to listen to the business community and see how maybe we can tighten language up if necessary.”

The bill was assigned to the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee and has not been scheduled for a hearing yet.

California similarly changed its definition of lawful activity to refer to state law when it first passed legal recreational marijuana use, Melton said, adding that the failure to do so was an oversight for Colorado.

Republican Rep. Hugh McKean of Loveland, a member of the House’s business committee, said he’s not yet familiar with the bill, but if the question is about doing what a person wants on their own time, he’s generally fine with that. Still, he worries about unintended consequences and wants to know what worker’s compensation and liability insurers think about the bill.

“We know just from sobriety testing that marijuana lasts longer in the system than alcohol,” he said. And he doesn’t believe there’s definitive understanding of the way that active THC works in the system.

“It’s a tough question because as much as people want this to look exactly like alcohol, it’s not exactly like alcohol,” including in the way the federal government views the drug, McKean said.

Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, supports the bill. He said he wants to make sure to “wipe the slate clean” for people who use the drug that voters agreed should be legal, such as through another bill to expunge criminal records.

The law that allows employers to fire people for marijuana use disproportionately affects people in poverty and people of color, he said. And that further excludes those populations from participating in the economy.

This story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Rep. Jovan Melton’s name.