Colorado Supreme Court Rules Against Employee Fired For Marijuana Use
The Colorado Supreme Court issued a ruling this week addressing
employer rights over employee use of marijuana. Coats had been
fired from his customer service job at Dish Network after testing positive for
marijuana in a random drug test. He had
been prescribed medical marijuana for pain suffered after a car accident left
him paralyzed. He sued Dish Network, arguing that his medical marijuana use was
protected by a Colorado law that provides that employers may not fire workers
for “any lawful activity” outside the workplace. The state supreme court
disagreed, however, holding that because marijuana use was still illegal under federal
laws, it was not protected by this state statute. Coats v. Dish Network.
The California Supreme Court had previously issued a similar ruling in a case involving a military veteran who had been prescribed
marijuana for chronic back pain stemming from an injury he sustained while
serving in the Air Force. The employee
was fired a week after he started a new job at RagingWire Telecommunications
Inc. after a drug test revealed he had used marijuana. He then sued the company, claiming that it
did not accommodate his disability. Although the lower courts ruled in his
favor, the Supreme Court held that employers may fire employees for using
medical marijuana off duty, even with no evidence that the use had any effect
on job performance. The Court held that
the Act did not restrict the actions of employers, who have a “legitimate
interest in whether an employee uses the drug.” Ross v. Raging Wire Telecommunications, Inc.
Post Authored by Julie Tappendorf
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