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US: Medical Marijuana Uers Can be Fired - California Supreme Court
San Francisco Sentinel
Thursday 24 Jan 2008 MEDICAL MARIJUANA USERS CAN BE FIRED, California Supreme Court rules The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that employers in the state can fire workers found to have used medical marijuana legally recommended by doctors. The company, Ragingwire Inc., successfully argued it rightfully fired Gary Ross after he flunked a company-ordered drug test because all marijuana use is illegal under federal law, which does not recognize the medical marijuana laws in California and 11 other states. Ross held a medical marijuana card authorizing him to legally use marijuana to treat a back injury he sustained while serving in the U.S. Air Force. A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision declared that state medicinal marijuana laws don’t protect users from prosecution. The Drug Enforcement Agency and other federal agencies have been actively shutting down major medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the state over the last two years and charging their operators with serious felony distributions charges. The company said it fired Ross because it feared it could be the target of a federal raid, among other reasons. Ragingwire, a small telecommunications company in Sacramento, has been joined in the Supreme Court by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and the Western Electrical Contractors Association Inc., who said companies could lose federal contracts and grants if they allowed employees to smoke pot. The conservative nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation said in a friend-of-the court filing that employers could also be liable for damage done by high workers. Ross had argued that medical marijuana users should receive the same workplace protection from discipline that employees with valid painkiller prescriptions do. California voters legalized medicinal marijuana in 1996. The nonprofit marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access, which is represented Ross, estimates that 300,000 Americans use medical marijuana. The Oakland-based group said it has received hundreds of employee discrimination complaints in California since it first began tracking the issue in 2005. The American Medical Association advocates keeping marijuana classified as a tightly controlled and dangerous drug that should not be legalized until more research is done. Northern California has been a hotbed for legal cases surrounding medical marijuana. In December, three pot clubs in Oakland, Fairfax and Ukiah lost what appeared to be their final appeal in a long-running battle against a federal court injunction barring them from giving marijuana to patients. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a permanent injunction issued by a federal trial judge in 2002 against the Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative, Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana and Ukiah Cannabis Buyer’s Club. http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=9458
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