Friday, September 21, 2012

Court rules Wal-Mart can fire legal medical marijuana user

Although he lives in a state where medical marijuana is legal, a federal court ruled on Wednesday that a Michigan man could be terminated by his employer for testing positive for the drug.
Doctors diagnosed Joseph Casias with sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor at the age of 17. After Michigan legalized the use of medical marijuana in 2008, Casias’s oncologist recommended that he try the drug marijuana to relieve both his pain and the side effects of other prescribed pain medications.
Casias used marijuana during the final months of his five-year employment at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan. Although the drug proved beneficial, Casias made certain never to use it on the job or come to work under the influence.
However, after Casias was injured on the job in Nov. 2009, Wal-Mart company policy required he be administered a drug test as a routine measure.
Unsurprisingly, Casias tested positive for marijuana. Wal-Mart fired him a week later.
Casias, represented by the ACLU, sued Wal-Mart for wrongful discharge and violation of Michigan’s Medical Marihuana Act, arguing that the law prohibits a business from sanctioning a patient legally using the drug.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan ruled that Wal-Mart did not violate Michigan law by firing Casias. On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

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