Calif Supreme Court: Workers can be fired for using med marijuana

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

Employers can fire workers found to have used medical marijuana that was legally prescribed, the California Supreme Court ruled Thursday in another setback for California in its increasingly rancorous clash with federal law over medical pot use.

The high court upheld a Sacramento telecommunications company's firing of a man who flunked a company-ordered drug test. Gary Ross held a medical marijuana card authorizing him to legally use marijuana to treat a back injury sustained while serving in the Air Force.

The company, Ragingwire Inc., successfully argued it rightfully fired Ross because all marijuana use is illegal under federal law, which does not recognize the medical marijuana laws in California and 11 other states.

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.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/24/financial/f101657S57.DTL&tsp=1

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Background from before the ruling here:
http://cbs13.com/local/medical.marijuana.supreme.2.637002.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I suspect this will not end well

[mikelgb]

2. Busty

[Ecumenist]

3. This ain't going to be pretty...

In spite of what people believe about California, we are REAL uptight about folks walking on our right, throwing away our choices and stepping on our toes. This is going to get ugly REAL fast.

[Bennyboy]

5. How so?

I am a MMJ patient in CA and I ahve been waiting for some ruling about this very subject. But how do you think it will get ugly or we do anything at all about it?

[Ecumenist]

10. I know ALOT of people who use MMJ for AIDS, Autoimmune diseases, intractable pain...

Chemotherapy side effects, Dystrophies, etc, ad infinitum and some of these people are so desperate that they are talking about shooting anyone that would try to force their only hope for pain ablation and the myriad positive effects that the plant provides. Trust me, it will not be pretty. People who have nothing to lose will do anything to maintain hope.

[DCKit]

8. Yeah, the Republics are HUGE state's rights fans....

Until a state does something they don't like.

[reggie the dog]

4. one of the reasons I left the USA is that

I am not qualified to work at wal mart or mcdonalds for minimum wage even though I have a masters degree. Hell I am mire educated than 94% of the usa but 65% of jobs are off limits because I smoke cannabis instead of using tobacco or alcohol.

[goodgd_yall]

6. Didn't at least one of our candidates say they'd do something about this?

[apnu]

7. And where, pray tell, are all the State's Rights goons on this?

Sounds to me like a case where the Federal government is bossing the states around. So where are all those 'states rights' wankers now? I can hear the crickets chirping all the way in Chicago.


Buncha' hypocrites.

[happyslug]

11. I remember attending a seminar in the 1980s

And the Speakers were talking about the cases conservatives cites in the 1960s from LIberals of the 1920s and 1930s on state rights. People forget that state rights is most often cited by people who are NOT the Majority at the National Level. That was Liberals in the 1920s and early 1930s (and earlier), conservatives in the 1960s. The point being made is that "State Rights" is rarely about the rights of the States, but what are the rights of the State if it disagrees with how the national agenda is going. In the pre-Depression days, North Eastern States wanted more rights to workers, but on the national level workers rights interfered with the rights of employers, thus liberal states demanded State Rights so they could protect the workers. Later on during the Civil Rights Movement it was the Conservatives, having lost on the national level regarding segregation, that yelled "State Rights".

Just a point, "State Rights" is often yelled by people who have lost at the national level, be it left or right.

[apnu]

14. wow good point.

I never thought of it that way. All my life time, 'states rights' has been associated with cranky conservatives. Mostly with Norquist and his followers. You know, the ones who crow about 'big government' squashing us.

My point is, where are they in this issue? Nowhere I expect. Since this is an example where someone they don't like (drug users) are getting trampled so they will stand silent and watch it happen. Kinda like all the pro-lifers sitting quite when one of thier own takes lives by bombing a Planned Parenthood clinic. Hence the hypocrisy accusation.

Still, good point tho.

[slackmaster]

13. One states' rights interested party checking in

This is an excellent example of how the federal government has exceeded the authority it was originally intended to have.

[KillCapitalism]

9. This is such bullshit!

Again, the Courts rule in favor of corporations and shit on the individual.

[yardwork]

12. That is outrageous!

While I don't use marijuana, I think it's disgraceful that our country is so hysterical about its use, they won't even allow people to use it when it is clearly medically indicated. This ruling will allow the leisured wealthy to use it while denying its medical use to anyone who needs a job!

More of our two-tiered medical system in the U.S. The rich get ultra-health care. Everyone else gets nothing.