The Associated Press reports that a recent ruling by the Supreme court in Washington effectively removes protections from employees using medical marijuana.
Medical marijuana patients in Washington are facing another uphill battle: the right to use their medication and not be subjected to discrimination in the workplace; even if they are using the medicine offsite and not when they are at work.
On Friday, June 10th, the supreme court ruled 8-1 that employers do not have to accommodate medical marijuana patients, and that their jobs are not protected should they test positive for marijuana or THC – the main chemical agent in marijuana that provides relief – on an employee mandated drug test.
The ruling is part of an ongoing lawsuit that was filed by a woman who was a medical marijuana user that tested positive for a pre-employment drug test for a company called TeleTech Customer Care Management back in 2006.
When the drug test came back positive, the woman informed the company that she was a doctor approved medical marijuana patient, but the company rejected her for employment, citing illegal drug usage.
The woman filed suit, and now Friday’s ruling sets precedence in the state of Washington and elsewhere in the US.
The state law’s verbage specifically mentions that employers do not have to accommodate medical marijuana usage onsite, but fails to address the usage of it offsite.
The Justices interpreted the law as in favor of the workplace, and stated in their ruling that, “The language of (the law) is unambiguous — it does not regulate the conduct of a private employer or protect an employee from being discharged because of authorized medical marijuana use.”
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