Wal-Mart Fires Employee For Using Medically Prescribed Marijuana

Saying it was unfortunate,Wal-Mart spokesman Greg Rossiter said,

“We are sympathetic to Mr. Casias’ condition,” he said. However, like so many other employers, “we have to consider the overall safety of our customers and associates, including Mr. Casias, when making a difficult decision like this.”

  29- year old  Joseph. Casias, a former Wal-Mart associate  of the year, is battling sinus and brain cancer.  Before being dismissed for failing a drug test, Casias had worked at Wal-Mart for five years. Medical marijuana is legal in Michigan where Casias lives.

Writing about the case for MSNBC, Eve Tahminciogl reports that experts think Wal-Mart was caught in a Catch-22.

“The federal law says the drug is illegal, but the states are telling people they are allowed to smoke,” said Richard Meneghello, an attorney in Portland, Ore., who works for Fisher & Phillips, an employment law firm that represents companies. If they accommodate marijuana use among some employees, he said, and a worker ends up injuring a customer, then they could face charges of negligence because they knew the employee was using the drug.

Most of his clients are choosing not to make such accommodations and are terminating workers. And, he added, the courts are increasingly siding with employers in these matters.

One key case that many labor experts point to as seminal was Ross v. Ragingwire Telecommunications, Inc., in which California’s Supreme Court decided in 2008 that the telecommunications firm was within its legal right to fire Gary Ross, an administrator at the company, even though he was legally using medical marijuana.

In most states, said Carol Gillam, a Los Angeles attorney that represents workers, employers can legally fire employees. Medical marijuana use has been legal in California for more than a decade, she said, “and still employees are not protected.”

The case is particularly interesting because Michigan specifically has shield laws to protect employees using medical marijuana. According to the MSNBC, James McCurtis, a spokesman for Michigan’s Department of Community Health that oversees the medical marijuana program says, “You can’t discriminate against a person if you have a medical marijuana card, and if they use it for medicinal purposes,”

What do you think about this situation?