Oregon High Court: Employer Free to Fire Medical Marijuana User

[Omaha Steve]

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/04/16/oregon-high-court-employer-free-to-fire-medical-marijuana-user/

By Nathan Koppel

For supporters of legalizing of medical marijuana, yesterday was not a good day.

The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that a state worker who used pot to relieve pain and nausea could be fired for drug use even though he had had a state-issued medical marijuana card.


marijuana

Oregon is one of a number of states that allows the use of pot for authorized medical reasons.

Here’s an article in The Oregonian on the ruling and here’s the opinion.

The Oregon high court was asked to try to square the state’s dope laws with federal employment law, which can require employers to make accommodations for workers with disabilities. In short, the court ruled that an employer’s accommodation duties did not require it to tolerate medical marijuana use.

Business groups in the state hailed the decision.

FULL story at link.

[sakabatou]

1. I hope this is appealed

[RKP5637]

2. Yet again, CF Nation. n/t

[NYC_SKP]

3. More of the story:

This really seems like something that could have been worked out between employer and employee.
Now a bunch of lawyers are happy and a dude's out of a job and the shop is out of a drill press operator.

(from the OP link)
...The case involved the 2003 firing of Anthony Scevers, a drill press operator with Emerald Steel Fabricators of Eugene. According to court records, Scevers suffered from anxiety, panic attacks, nausea and vomiting and was granted a medical marijuana registry card in 2002, the Oregonian reports. He used pot one to three times a day, but not at work.

Scevers told an Emerald Steel supervisor that he was a medical marijuana user; a week later, he was fired.

Scevers filed a claim with the Bureau of Labor and Industries, which ruled that Scevers’s medical condition qualified as a disability under state law. It ordered the company to pay Scevers $45,000 in damages. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the labor bureau’s decision.

The Oregon Supreme Court, however, held that Scevers was not taking marijuana under the supervision of a licensed health care professional, as required by state law, and thus was engaged in the illegal use of drugs ─ a valid basis, according to the court, for Emerald Steel to fire him. ...

(and from another article)

Scevers was hired in January 2003 on a temporary basis and was being considered for a full-time job. At the time, he was using medical marijuana one to three times a day, but not at work. Knowing he would have to pass a drug test to be hired permanently, Scevers told an Emerald Steel supervisor that he was a medical marijuana user and showed his documentation. A week later, he was fired.

Scevers filed a claim with the Bureau of Labor and Industries, which ruled that Scevers' medical condition qualified as a disability under state law and that Emerald Steel should have engaged in an "interactive process" to accommodate his medical marijuana use. It ordered the company to pay Scevers $20,000 in lost wages and benefits and $25,000 for emotional suffering.

The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the labor bureau's decision, but the Supreme Court said both were wrong. The money awarded to Scevers remained in bond during the appeals process and was never paid.

Eugene attorney Terence Hammons, who represented Emerald Steel, said the company fired Scevers because it feared he or someone else might get injured.

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/04/oregon_supreme_court_says_ok_t.html

[demosincebirth]

4. How about a truck driver using pot for med purposes? Put that in your pipe...

[Webster Green]

5. Wouldn't necessarily be more hazardous than your average driver.

Studies have shown that stoned drivers are safe drivers, in general.

A lot of legal pharmaceuticals would be far more likely to cause dangerous driving, especially if the driver isn't used to taking them.

What if I'm taking Percoset or something for pain. Should I be absolutely prohibited from driving to work, even though I can handle it just fine?

Should I be fired from a job for taking legal pain medication prescribed to me? If a state recognizes cannabis as medicine, why should anyone be fired for using it?

[Warpy]

7. No, but he'd be fired for being inefficient

because stoners know they're stoned and tend to drive very slowly.

[demosincebirth]

8. You really believe that?

[Warpy]

6. This needs to be appealed

but if he was smoking on the job and he was too impaired to do his job properly, they might have a case.

I've been in terrible pain for years and have taken narcotics for it. I knew better than to take anything before I went in for a nursing shift.

I guess maybe this guy didn't.