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Last Updated: Aug 1, 2008 - 10:24:18 AM |
FRIDAY JAN 25, 2008 (Foodconsumer.org) -- The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that employers have the right to terminate workers who test positive for marijuana even if employees use the illicit drug for medical purpose.
The California state like many other states has legislation in position allowing its residents to use Marijuana for medical purpose, mostly as pain reliever. Marijuana has been found to ease severe pain in patients with terminal diseases such as AIDS and cancer. The state allows patients to plant a limited number of marijuana for their own use.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in another case that the federal government can persecute those who use marijuana even for medical purpose even if their home state allows it.
The case in question involves a man named Gary Ross who was injured when he fell off the wing of an F-16 as an Air Force mechanic in 1983. He used marijuana as doctors recommended to relieve chronic pain from three lumbar vertebrae fractured from that accident. Ross said he used cannabis only when experiencing spasms.
The pain Ross experienced must be severe as Ross was quoted by Washington Post as saying "Prior to 1999 I was carted off in an ambulance a half a dozen times. Since 1999, only once." He said from 1999 he had been using medical marijuana as recommended by his doctor and he can stop that spasm from getting into a knot and I don't need any pain medication.
But RagingWire Inc. Ross used to work for fired him in 2001 even after he presented the company a copy of his physician's recommendation to smoke marijuana as painkiller for his pain.
The company seems to have a good reason. Marijuana is illegal under the federal law and employers are held liable all the time when the employees make trouble under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Ross gained sympathy from some lawmakers. In a friend-of-the court brief filed in support of Ross, five current and former lawmakers quoted the statute to say that the statutory language implies that people on medical marijuana may not be fired.
Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) was reported to immediately announce he would introduce a measure to explicitly specify that employers should not fire employees using medical marijuana.
Marijuana has been proved to be an effective painkiller although the federal government is trying hard to suppress use of this drug for medical purpose, which is illicit under the federal law. Many cancer and AIDS patient rely on this drug to ease their pain. Patients claimed that no other painkillers could do a better job than cannabis.
Indeed, the drug industry has found an effective ingredient in this plant and purifies and sells it as a painkiller. But for whatever reason, the federal government does not allow the natural painkiller to be used, which is allowed in more than 10 states. The feds said prescription painkillers are available and they do not think patients need any medical marijuana to help patients suffering severe pain.
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