Calif.: Firing Medical Marijuana Users OK
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 24, 2008

(CBS/AP) Employers can fire workers found to have used medical
marijuana even if it 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.

"No state law could completely legalize marijuana for medical purposes
because the drug remains illegal under federal law," Justice Kathryn
Werdegar wrote for the 5-2 majority.

Further, the state Supreme Court said the so-called Compassionate Use
Act passed by California voters in 1996 had nothing to do with
employment laws.

"Nothing in the text or history of the Compassionate Use Act suggests
the voters intended the measure to address the respective rights and
duties of employers and employees," Werdegar wrote. "Under California
law, an employer may require preemployment drug tests and take illegal
drug use into consideration in making employment decisions."

The Court said that just because certain people for medical reasons
are allowed to smoke marijuana without fear of going to jail doesn't
mean those same people can turn around and say they have a disability
that must be protected by law from employers, says CBS News legal
analyst Andrew Cohen.

"I don't know how many people this would affect but I do know that had
the ruling gone the other way it would have been a very, very big
deal," Cohen said.

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.

Raginwire said it fired Ross because it feared it could be the target
of a federal raid, among other reasons.

The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and the Western
Electrical Contractors Association Inc. had joined Ragingwire's case,
arguing that 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.

The nonprofit marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access,
which represents 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 began
tracking the issue in 2005.

Justice Joyce Kennard dissented attacking the majority's ruling in the
dissent as "conspicuously lacking in compassion." Kennard said the
ruling "disrespects" the California medical marijuana law, and said
employers should be barred from firing workers who use medical
marijuana as long as they continue to perform their jobs adequately.

"The majority gives employers permission to fire any employee who uses
marijuana on a doctor's recommendation, without requiring the employer
to show that this medical use will in any way impair the employer's
business interests," wrote Kennard. She was joined in the dissent by
Justice Carlos Moreno.

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.

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Press contributed to this report.