Medical pot users need job protection
THE ISSUE
The California Supreme Court has ruled that employers may fire workers
for using doctor-prescribed marijuana for medical purposes.
THE latest threat to ailing people who use doctor-recommended
marijuana to ease their pain comes from a strange ruling by the
California Supreme Court. The court ruled that employers may fire
workers for using marijuana for medical purposes, which will prompt
legislation to undo the ruling's damage. As one of 11 states that have
legalized medical use of cannabis, Hawaii should enact similar
workplace protections.
In a 5-2 ruling last week, the California high court upheld the firing
Gary Ross, a former Air Force mechanic who used marijuana to ease the
pain from injuries to his lower back in a fall off an airplane in
1983. A doctor prescribed the marijuana, but the court ruled that
California's legalization of marijuana deals with criminal
prosecution, not terms of employment.
Laws allowing medical use of marijuana were approved by California
voters in 1996 and by the Hawaii Legislature four years later. As many
as a thousand Hawaii residents have been registered with the state to
use marijuana to treat their illnesses.
Those laws have been attacked by the Bush administration, which won a
U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2005 that subjects medical marijuana
users to prosecution. However, that decision does not cover workplace
rules.
The telecommunications company that fired Ross argued that it feared a
raid by federal authorities. A state assemblyman from San Francisco
said he plans to introduce a bill to provide medical marijuana users
some workplace protections.
Left over from last year's Hawaii Legislature is a bill that would
expand the use of medical marijuana and restrict physicians' role to
conform with court rulings. While the California ruling does not apply
to Hawaii, a precautionary provision providing workplace-protection
should be attached to that bill and enacted into law.
