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

Excerpt:

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.


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

My take:

What you do outside of work is your business, not your employers. I believe men and women should have dominion over their own bodies. How much do you want to bet that they CAN'T fire you for off-duty alcohol consumption? The worker who was terminated lived in a state where marijuana is legal, AND even more than that, he was a medical marijuana patient.

Opinions?

 

Like the man said (paraphrasing), "What, are we not going to allow people who smoke marijuana to work?" Good luck in keeping millions of people out of work America! Pot smokers have been called lazy for decades, but we don't allow them to work!

I think that employers should be able to test your vehicle's computer system to ensure you haven't sped in the past few months. Hey, it's a crime, and we don't want irresponsible people who speed to work for us.

 

I have no problem with it.

While I personally think it's a stupid company rule, I don't like government micromanaging business policies for the most part.

 

I can understand this if it were a federal court, but for a state court to decide this, well then, what was the point of legalizing medical marijuana in the first place?

 

I dunno. I think for 8 or 9 hours per day you can be sober.

 

Employers should be able to determine who represents them based on any criteria they feel is relevant... at the peril of losing excellent, productive, profitable employees to their competitors, who are not so draconian. Further, possession of marijuana is still (inexplicably) a federal crime, and this company is a national company. While I hate it for this guy, and think Dish should have made an exception for his individual circumstance (don't ask, don't tell is a fitting strategy here) it is probably a positive step for him to find an employer who will overtly support his individual requirements.

 

I think Dish wanted him gone because he was a quadriplegic ... this was just an excuse to do it imo

we could start seeing a trend of disabled people being fired for being on medications now

.

 

I'm not sure of this but I think the only way they can do this is if marijuana remains illegal as a federal law. I don't THINK you can be fired for doing something legal at all levels because I can see it opening up all kinds of discrimination laws, like wearing a hejab

OTOH the company can say that if they're Interstate then they're going against their own policy if they let workers in a legal state cross state lines. The problem there is the gummint gets to use the old divide and conquer thing. You can't get your libertarians to agree with the paleocons that we should all be let alone when the paleocons are all wanting to shoot everyone who's even seen a seed.

I dunno, drug testing is unconstitutional on so many points that I see the whole thing as just another way the government gets to use the Constitution as toilet paper and then rub it in our face. (eewwww)

 

not sure, I think some courts are allowing corps to fire people for smoking cigarettes in their off time now too

http://www.wcvb.com/Fired-For-Smoking-Cigarettes/11228084

""They said, 'Because you have nicotine in your system, you're fired"'" Kelly said."

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He says he did not smoke at work and the company does not claim he did. The strange thing is them firing him for using a drug that is Legal, so do they fire people for using other Legal Drugs such as Alcohol or Tobacco products? I have the feeling this case is not settled and will rise to the US Supreme Court where I cannot see the ruling being upheld. Me thinks it has to do more with his physical condition and they are simply using an old rule as an excuse to fire him since after all it would be illegal to fire him for having a handicap.

 

Yeah, tough question. It should probably boil down to how it affects your job, and I suspect that millions of people show up for work each day using legal drugs that affect their performance much worse than marijuana. Percocet can leave one a blithering idiot.

 

Trouble with reefer and work or driving is the fact that there is no test equivalent to a breathalyzer to show if one is high on the job or while driving.
Reefer can stay in the system for a long time after use and current testing only shows that its there not when it got there.

Sucks for this guy that lost his job and others that didn't get a job but until testing improves an employer will play it safe to protect the company every time.

 

Yes. I've heard of that too, it's justified as being an insurance thing

(*)(*)(*)(*), NEVER work for someone else, it simply doesn't pay if you want to be a free person.

 

Talk about the double standard and social inconsistencies, but soccer moms and heads of corporations can take their prescribed hillbilly heroin and nobody from the government bats an eye.

Ladies and gentlemen this is not about drugs, it's as George Carlin said; It's about who your dealer is.

 

This seems scummy on every level. Its legal. They would have to fire ANYONE on any sort of emotional balancing medication, that's for sure. What about pain medication?

 

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