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States Keep Changing the Marijuana Laws
Since 1998, 23 states and the District of Columbia have adopted statutes permitting medical marijuana use under limited circumstances, and similar legislation is pending in 10 more states. More recently, Colorado and Washington have passed laws legalizing recreational marijuana use. However, marijuana use remains illegal for both medical and recreational purposes under federal law, and many companies continue to maintain “zero tolerance” policies with respect to employee marijuana use.
On Sept. 30, attorneys for Brandon Coats, a 34 year-old Colorado quadriplegic and authorized medical marijuana user, argued in Colorado Supreme Court that Coats was unlawfully fired in 2010 by his employer, Dish Network, after failing a random workplace drug test. Colorado trial and appellate courts had previously ruled that Dish Network was within its rights to fire Coats, finding that the state's medical marijuana statute merely protected Coats from criminal penalties for his medical marijuana use, but did not afford civil protections.
Coats alleged that he was seriously injured in a car accident as a teenager, resulting in paralysis over 80% of his body. Prescription painkillers did not ease the debilitating muscle spasms and seizures that made sleep difficult for Coats, but in 2009, when his doctor prescribed a nightly dose of medical marijuana, he claimed to have found some relief. When Coats was selected for a random drug test for the first time in 2010, he voluntarily informed his employer that he was on the state's medical marijuana registry and that the test would come back positive for marijuana though he never used the substance during the workday.
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