Wal-Mart worker fired over medical marijuana

Joseph Casias has been legally using medical marijuana to deal with the gnawing pain caused by sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor pressing against his skull. He says he never used it when he was on duty as an associate at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Mich, and he never went to work high.

But one morning he went to work and was fired for it.

“I never thought I would be terminated for this,” said Casias, who worked for the company for five years and was a Wal-Mart associate of the year in 2008. “At first I thought, ‘This wasn’t true. How could this be right?’”

Casias, 29, just couldn’t understand how Wal-Mart or any employer for that matter could fire a worker for using medical marijuana, which was prescribed by his doctor and has been legal in Michigan since 2008. He even has a card sanctioned by the state that says he can legally use the drug.

Fourteen states now have laws on the books legalizing marijuana. But many of the laws, which do protect users against criminal charges, are often unclear when it comes to protections in the workplace.

Michigan is another story. The state’s law includes some legal shields for workers.

“You can’t discriminate against a person if you have a medical marijuana card, and if they use it for medicinal purposes,” said James McCurtis, a spokesman for Michigan’s Department of Community Health that oversees the medical marijuana program.

Drug testing at work
Most large corporations such as Wal-Mart have long-standing policies against drug use, and many screen prospective employees and conduct random drug testing on existing workers.

According to a 2006 report from the Society for Human Resource Management:

84 percent of employers do pre-employment drug screening.
73 percent do reasonable-suspicion testing.
58 percent do post-accident screening.
39 percent do random testing.
In the case of Casias, who has been using medical marijuana since last summer, a knee injury on the job prompted Wal-Mart to test him for drug use.

Casias’ managers knew he had been battling sinus cancer and the brain tumor for some time, but he did not tell them he was using marijuana to deal with the pain because traditional painkillers alone weren’t working.

When the test came back positive, a manager at the store at first told him it wasn’t a big deal because he was legally using marijuana. However, when he came in for work the morning of Nov. 24, he was immediately pulled into the store manager’s office and told he was fired. “The manager told me he was sorry and he had no choice. He said he wished he could help me out,” Casias said. “They went and got my personal belongings, and I walked out of the store.”

Wal-Mart spokesman Greg Rossiter called the situation “unfortunate.”

“We are sympathetic to Mr. Casias’ condition,” he said. However, like so many other employers, “we have to consider the overall safety of our customers and associates, including Mr. Casias, when making a difficult decision like this.”

Difficult situation
Employment experts said companies across the country, especially those that operate in a number of states with different marijuana laws, face a Catch-22.

CONTINUED >>> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35913492/ns/business-careers/

http://cannabisculture.com/v2/files/images/walmartboycott.frontpage.jpg