Employers Can Fire You For Using Marijuana, But Brandon Coats' Case Could Change Everything
huffingtonpost.com
A sympathetic medical marijuana patient suing. I'm very sympathetic to the individual in this case, but I've learned not to let sympathy for an individual turn my head. Nowadays, every legalized vice becomes a legally protected class. if he wins, it'll create a right to use without "discrimination" to every pothead in the country. I've been expecting this. And the legal protection for marijuana use won't be limited to employment, but to rent, government benefits, and on and on.
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Throughout the country, where state medical marijuana laws do not explicitly provide protected status to patients, state supreme courts have upheld companies’ decisions to fire employees for their cannabis use outside the office. The highest courts in California, Montana, Washington and Oregon have heard similar cases, and have consistently ruled in favor of the employers. The judges have said that medical cannabis laws only protect patients from criminal penalties, not from termination by their employers.
Should the Colorado Supreme Court buck the trend and rule in Coats’ favor, the decision would be a historic one, likely protecting the more than 110,000 registered medical marijuana users in the state and setting a precedent that could eventually affect millions of patients nationwide.
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