THE STORY IS NOT ABOUT STONERS…
Medical marijuana changed our conversation on drug use and President Barack Hussein Obama has told the Justice Department to stop wasting critical resources on busting operations supplying patients in states that had legalized marijuana for medical use.
This is why I fully expect the case of Joseph Casias v. Walmart to reach the Supreme Court and, in much the same way that Roe v. Wade caused a tectonic shift more than 35 years ago, to push our thinking about the War on Drugs into the 21st century.
While we wait for the suit to make its way to the black-robed nine, The Marijuana Policy Project is asking Walmart shoppers to take their business elsewhere.
This morning, the Marijuana Policy Project called upon shoppers across the country to join in a boycott of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in order to protest the unjust and potentially unlawful firing of Joe Casias, a 29-year-old medical marijuana patient and sinus cancer survivor who suffers from an inoperable brain tumor.
After dutifully working at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan, for five years, Casias was suddenly terminated because he tested positive for marijuana during a drug screening administered after he sprained his knee on the job. To make matters worse, Wal-Mart is contesting Casias’s eligibility for unemployment, and Michigan has the nation’s highest unemployment rate, at almost 15%.
MPP is asking shoppers to demand that Wal-Mart abandon its discriminatory policy of firing employees who are legal medical marijuana patients under state law.
We need to send a strong message to Wal-Mart and other businesses in medical marijuana states that it is not acceptable to fire sick people for trying to get better by following their doctor’s recommendation and obeying state law. Marijuana is a legitimate medicine, supported by science and protected by law in 14 states, including Michigan.
This story is not about the folks at NORML or the stoner performing civil disobedience or April 20th. This story is about the sensible recognition that legal marijuana consumption eases the suffering of cancer patients and others.
I really want Walmart to fight tooth and nail on this one so that the Supreme Court gets a shot.
[...] THE STORY IS NOT ABOUT STONERS… Medical marijuana changed our conversation on drug use and President Barack Hussein Obama has told the Justice Department to stop wasting critical resources on busting operations supplying patients in states that had legalized marijuana for medical use. Keep reading… [...]
this is not about marijuana . It is about not paying his medical bills.If you are sick you are gone and that is all of it.
Shalom Mole,
For the store manager who made the decision, that very well may be the case. I think the decision maker stepped in the shit this time and may come to wish that higher-ups had been consulted first.
B’shalom,
Jeff
Me too – I really have no dog in this fight, but I think it’s a very interesting case. I’m really more interested in the State vs. Federal law part of it though.
Shalom Bob,
For now, I do see the state’s rights issue, but if this results in a reversal of nearly a century of wrong-headed federal legislation, then those states that do not have medical marijuana laws on the books and have no desire to do so, may find themselves on the other end of the debate.
In any case, this is going to get interesting. For Walmart’s part, the smartest action it could take would be to settle, quick. I hope that doesn’t happen.
B’shalom,
Jeff
I’m not so sure.
If the individual in question was taking marijuana, then as far as federal laws are concerned, he was taking an illegal substance.
The fact that he had a prescription would mean nothing – because you can’t legally get a prescription for an illegal substance.
Obviously, I’m not a lawyer, so this is my internet-understanding.
Now, the /right/ thing for Walmart to do would be to just let this guy collect unemployment (but not pay him off or anything). But, as far as their legal obligations? He’s accused of breaking federal law *and* violating company policy (no matter how archaic/misplaced the federal law is). I don’t see him winning if this makes it to any kind of federal court.
Shalom Bob,
That’s true, you’re absolutely correct.
We are a society, however, that does not take pride in the suffering of innocents, and I see this as the test case that could force Law Makers to cast aside the archaic drug laws that made a criminal out of Casias.
We are in the midst of a national debate over whether or not our marijuana laws — passed to protect commerce, not virgins from drug fiends — make sense in the 21st century when we know that the use of marijuana for medical purposes under the care of a licensed physician can alleviate the nausea caused by chemicals used in cancer treatments.
Medical marijuana ought not to be illegal any more than medical opiates are.
I suspect that pharmaceutical companies have had a hand in preventing our nation’s drug laws from moving into the 21st century because they can’t control marijuana the way they can opiates.
As we know from Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court is influenced by current attitudes among the separate states. Whether or not it could rule in this narrow of case, I don’t know.
If a majority of states, however, passed medical marijuana laws, Congress and the Supreme Court would take notice. We are not a nation that knowingly causes suffering to its citizens without consideration.
B’shalom,
Jeff
I pretty much agree with everything you said there – but if they change the law, they can’t retroactively go back and say “Well, since it’s legal now, Walmart, you’re in trouble for firing him.” That sets a really scary standard.
Shalom Bob,
No. Our legal system does not permit the retroactive charging of a crime. If Walmart were to lose the case, it would not be result in the company being charged with a crime, but rather invalidation of the law.
Casias broke federal law and Walmart acted legally under the law, that can’t be changed. What can be changed is the prevention of future acts of injustice from an unjust law.
There is a dissonance in the law that must be set right.
B’shalom,
Jeff
Since does is smoking weed make you a member of a protected class?
Shalom Someone,
I think you meant:
If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’d been smoking some primo Meigs County Gold.
I’m just pulling your leg, Someone, I couldn’t resist.
B’shalom,
Jeff
[...] story of Joseph Casias is growing legs because of the blatant injustice of firing an exemplary employee in the middle of [...]