Driving home last night I listened to a National Public Radio (NPR) story about a young 29 year old attorney turned entrepreneur, who owned a Medical Marijuana dispensary in Southern California. (NO, I’m not giving out the address. So, don’t waist your time e-mailing.) The reporter for this piece was attempting to describe his latest bit of technology, a vending machine which had equal parts of armored car and space alien design features…
Most, if not every state resident knows about California's Compassionate Use Act, which authorizes the use of
medically prescribed marijuana, but I mention this fact for the benefit of out of state readers. The US Government, however, insists that Marijuana is illegal at the federal level, and doesn’t care what laws California may have enacted on the left coast.
The young entrepreneur in the NPR story was showing the reporter how his new dispensing machine worked. It involved having an identity card to foil abusers and a referral script that was fed into the machine. Where the soft drink or candy would normally come out, you picked up the “prescription.” After opening the outer plastic mini briefcase-like container, the reporter remarked, “This looks just like what you would get in the 60’s,” to which the entrepreneur agreed proudly.
The NPR reporter rapped up her piece with a prophesy that the Federal government would not be deterred from sizing the marijuana, no matter what the physical attributes of the vending machine were, and she believed the machine would be gone in about a week. (I guess the DEA listens to NPR, too!) Quite probably, this revelation had the effect of dashing the hopes of a select sub-set of the population (you know who you are) that believed by having an unmanned dispensary it would somehow make everything okay.
I must, also, be the bearer of bad tidings on this subject, from the employment sector perspective. Trust me on this point, it is lawful for employers to fire users of medical marijuana when such use violates an agency’s or company's drug policy. California's Compassionate Use Act does not govern the employment relationship or the respective rights of employers and employees; it only regulates criminal laws.
According to recent court rulings, California employees cannot state a claim for disability-based discrimination or wrongful termination if they are fired by an employer that requires pre-employment drug tests and takes illegal drug use into consideration in making employment decisions.
I don’t think you can expect to see any crude warnings on employment announcements or building signage admonishing job candidates that, “Stoners Need Not Apply”, but if drug testing is a pre-requisite to employment or the employer describes itself as having a drug-free workplace, you can predict testing positive for marijuana will be an issue.
I have tried to take the high road in this blog entry, demonstrating my sensitivity for all people, by forgoing some of the more sophomoric shots that could have been taken in order to generate cheap laughs. I even changed the title from: “Where there is smoke… You’re Fired!” and, “Better plan on taking some else’s pee to that drug test.” And the more litterary, "The Cannibus Tales... The Road to Unemployment".
I am proud to say that I, also, dumped, “Put down the Twinkies and Chips, your job just went up in smoke! I should get kudos for not trying to come up with a parody on “The grass is always greener…“ Furthermore, consider yourselves fortunate (even the non-offenders) that I didn’t try to weed my way into your brain with an endless stream of puns.
Okay, I agree, this entry is starting to spin out of control. So guess what, I will abruptly end it here. Of course, if you have a perspective on this subject (or a really good pun) that you would like to share, please enter your reply.