Colorado Ruling: Companies Have the Right to Fire Employees on Medical Marijuana- Say What?

Colorado’s supreme court doesn’t care if you’re a recreational marijuana smoker, or if you have a legitimate condition meriting the new legalized medicine (well, legalized in Colorado and 22 other states)- they will fire you. Okay, that’s not entirely factual. They won’t fire you, but the Supreme Court just ruled in favor of allowing corporations to make their own policies on marijuana usage, allowing employers to fire workers who engage in using recreational marijuana, along with patients who have a prescription for the plant’s medicinal uses, according to Town Hall. Now, whatever your stance on the legalization issue is, that last bit is a little much, don’t you think? That’s like firing Aunt Kathy because you don’t like her heart medication.

It all started with Brandon Coats, who was fired by DISH Network for smoking medical marijuana. Mind you, Coats is a quadriplegic who uses legally sanctioned medical marijuana to help allay his severe muscle spasms. So what gives DISH Network and other corporations the legal authority to supercede a medical prescription? Obama! Well, not really President Obama- but what the President did do by not officially abolishing the federal law making marijuana illegal (not that he has the power to do so on his own), is create strange loopholes in the judiciary system.

 

Case and point: Brandon Coats VS DISH Network.

 

If you’re still wondering why DISH and other companies are allowed to govern their own policies consider the awkward position America’s in right now, legally: there’s a presiding federal law making marijuana illegal, but the powers that be have decided not to seek legal action against the states who have made their own laws (based on their state’s voters) to allow the substance for recreational and medical use (and honestly, whatever your opinion is, isn’t that what democracy is all about?). In this gaggle of strangeness, states are left to enforce their own laws governing marijuana, in spite of the federal ban- so yeah, they’re kind of breaking the law, but Obama says it’s okay! But, the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. Take it from Town Hall, who quotes The Denver Post,

“The question at hand is whether medical marijuana is ‘lawful’ under the state’s Lawful Off-Duty Activities Statute.

“That term, the justices said, refers to activities lawful under both state and federal law.

‘Therefore, employees who engage in an activity such as medical marijuana use that is permitted by state law but unlawful under federal law are not protected by the statute,’ Justice Allison H. Eid wrote,”

 

So What’s the Lawful Off-Duty Activities Statute?

 

Essentially the statute protects workers from nosey bosses. It makes unreasonable questioning and searches strictly illegal. More than this, it prevents employers from firing workers for lawful conduct engaged in outside of the office. So why doesn’t this apply to medical marijuana? Obama. . . (seriously, why does everyone blame him for everything?)

It’s not the President’s fault employers can fire their workers for using medical marijuana, but the White House’s actions have inadvertently made it possible for medical marijuana users to be lawfully fired for engaging in illegal federal conduct, even though their state may permit it. Crazy, I know.

Before you start tipping cars over, not all corporations are going to implement policies like DISH Network (maybe you should consider switching service providers?). This is just one instance where things don’t seem entirely fair. Colorado’s ruling does not make this precedent the ultimate outcome for all cases, but merely establishes that yes, companies do have the right to govern their own policies- even if it’s against people on medication.

Who knows? The backlash from Brandon Coats’ case may cause enough waves to change the way medical marijuana is perceived; only time will tell if that’s a good thing or not.

 

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