Colorado Supreme Court: Medical marijuana patients may be fired for drug use


The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that medical marijuana patients may be fired for failing drug tests, the AP reports.


The case centered around Colorado resident Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic who uses medical marijuana. He was fired by Dish Network in 2010 over a failed random drug test.


Coats countered that he had never come to work high (THC can remain in the body for weeks after use) and that state law bans firing employees for what they do outside work.


Coats was paralyzed in a car crash at the age of 16. He uses medical marijuana to control his leg spasms.


“My spinal cord is broken, so messages don’t get back and forth from my brain to my body,” Coats told the Huffington Post. “My legs still work, but they just can’t get the signal. Sometimes my whole body can just seize up.”


The court concluded that medical marijuana does not fall under the protection of the state law, since it remains illegal under federal law.


“The supreme court holds that under the plain language of section 24-34-402.5, C.R.S. (2014), Colorado’s ‘lawful activities statute,’ the term ‘lawful’ refers only to those activities that are lawful under both state and federal law. Therefore, employees who engage in an activity such as medical marijuana use that is permitted by state law but unlawful under federal law are not protected by the statute,” they wrote, according to Fox 31.


Courts in California, Montana, and Washington have all made the same determination regarding medical marijuana use.

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