California to decide if medical marijuana users may be fired

It's a sad state of affairs when Big Business is so oppressive that a case like this has to go all the way to the California Supreme Court.

In California, a man who had been legally prescribed medical marijuana following a back injury (an injury he received as an Air Force mechanic) was fired from his job as a computer technician for a private firm because the marijuana made him fail a drug test. Today the state's Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the man's plea that his firing was illegal.

Let's get some things perfectly straight: Medical marijuana is legal in California. Period. End of discussion. For another thing, what gives employers the right to interfere with what people do when they're not at work? That should really be one of the big issues here. (It might be different if the drug use was enough to affect how a worker did their job. Usually, however, a drug test detects substances long after the effects have worn off.) For another, drug tests are not 100% accurate - a fact that's usually overlooked amidst today's moral panic atmosphere. So even if the plaintiff in this case admits he used marijuana, what about those who deny it but were fired because of a faulty test?

The company insists federal law bans marijuana. So what??? State law permits it! There are legal protections for workers who have prescriptions for painkillers. Why would these protections not apply if someone has a prescription for marijuana?

This is how Coprorate (sic) America treats a former Air Force mechanic who got injured serving his country?

Why aren't the people who talk about "states' rights" all the time coming forward in defense of California's law that permits medical marijuana? Yeah, I know, this is yet another case of "states' rights for me, not for thee." Right-wing legal foundations and industry groups have come down against the plaintiff's right to receive workplace protections.

Believe it or not, 2 lower state courts have actually sided with the Sacramento company that fired the man, citing the federal prohibition against marijuana. So much for upholding the state laws they're supposed to operate under, huh?

America needs to increase protections for workers and halt the overuse of drug testing that plagues the modern American workplace.

(Source: http://wire.jacksonville.com/pstories/us/20071106/215428803.shtml)