Colorado top court says Dish worker can be fired for medical marijuana

[spanone]

**fucked up**

Colorado's Supreme Court ruled Monday that employers can fire workers who use marijuana for medical reasons, even though it's legal in that state.

The case involved Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic who was fired by Dish Network (DISH) in 2010 after he failed a company drug test for pot.
Coats had a doctor's authorization to smoke medical marijuana, which has been legal in Colorado since 2000. Coats says that he never used the drug -- or was under its influence -- at work, facts that Dish Network does not dispute.

But the company says it has a zero-tolerance drug policy, and notes that medical marijuana is still illegal on the federal level. Therefore, Dish says the use of the drug for any reason is cause for termination.

There is a Colorado law that protects employees from being discharged for "lawful activities," but the court ruled the law refers only to activities which are legal under both state and federal law.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/15/news/companies/dish-employee-firing-marijuana-colorado-court/index.html

[tblue37]

1. This country needs to get its collective legal and political head out of its tush.

The man's a quadriplegic FFS, but he wants to work. When people with disabilities don't work, they are smeared as "takers" by the same kind of idiots who would fire a person like him for using a legal substance that enables him to function more comfortably and effectively, even though he never uses it at work, and no one claims it impairs his performance at work when he uses it at home.