Companies in Washington State can fire employees for using medical marijuana in a legal manner, according to a ruling by the state’s Supreme Court.

 

An unnamed woman training for a position with TeleTech Customer Care Management, a customer-service firm used by Sprint, was dismissed after a pre-employment drug test revealed traces of marijuana in her body. The woman demonstrated that she was authorized under the state’s Medical Use of Marijuana Act (MUMA), which was approved by voters in 1998, to use the drug for treatment of migraines. In fact, she volunteered the information when she applied for the job. But TeleTech insisted its contract with Sprint did not allow exceptions for medical marijuana.

 

After losing her job opportunity, the woman sued the company, but lost her case twice, once before a county judge and then in front of the Washington Supreme Court. The first judge ruled that MUMA “provides only an affirmative defense to criminal prosecution under state drug laws and does not imply a civil cause of action.” The state Supreme Court agreed, by an 8-1 vote, that TeleTech and Sprint had the right to reject an employee even if her use of marijuana was legal. Justice Tom Chambers dissented, arguing that marijuana should be treated like any other legal medication, and he recommended that the state legislature clarify the law to permit use of medical marijuana outside the workplace.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Medical Marijuana Users Can be Fired, High Court Rules (by Vanessa Ho, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Medical Pot User Loses Fight to Return to Work (by Nick McCann, Courthouse News Service)

Jane Roe v. Teletech Customer Care Management (Supreme Court of Washington) (pdf)