| Graphic: Rose Law Group |
California employers would be prevented from discriminating against medical marijuana patients under a bill introduced to the California Legislature on Thursday.
Senate Bill 129, introduced by State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), would not change the current law which prohibits employees from using medical marijuana at the workplace. “This bill is not about being under the influence while at work,” Sen. Leno said. “That’s against the law, and will remain so.”
According to Sen. Leno, his bill “simply establishes a medical cannabis patient’s right to work.”
| Photo: Bev Sykes |
| CA State Sen. Mark Leno: his bill “simply establishes a medical cannabis patient’s right to work.” |
SB 129 would reverse a 2008 California Supreme Court ruling that granted employers the right to fire or refuse to hire workers with a physician’s recommendation for medical marijuana. Advocates have estimated that more than 400,000 medical marijuana patients live in California.
“The people who voted for Proposition 215 never intended to force law-abiding patients out of a job,” said Don Duncan, California director with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a medical marijuana advocacy group and sponsors of the legislation. “Like anyone else, patients just want to be productive members of society.”
“Why must hundreds of thousands of Californians be denied their civil rights, and be forced to live with the risk of losing their job due to their choice of medication?” Duncan asked.
ASA was also the sponsor of a similar bill, AB 2279, which was introduced in 2008 by then-State Assembly member Mark Leno, less than a week after the California Supreme Court ruling in Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications.
| Photo: ASA |
| Don Duncan, ASA: “The people who voted for Proposition 215 never intended to force law-abiding patients out of a job” |
AB 2279, which had strong support from a broad coalition of disability rights, labor, medical and legal groups, passed both houses but was then vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Sen. Leno and ASA will be working together over the next few weeks to gain even greater support for the new legislation.
The bill leaves intact existing state law that prohibits medical marijuana consumption at the workplace or during working hours and exempts from the law “safety-sensitive” positions such as health care providers, school bus drivers, and operators of heavy equipment in order to protect employers from liability and to ensure public safety.
The California Supreme Court ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by Gary Ross, who was fired in 2001 from his systems engineering job at RagingWire Telecommunications for testing positive for marijuana. Ross, a disabled medical marijuana patient in his mid-40s, was injured while in the Air Force and uses cannabis to help treat chronic back pain from his injury.
After losing in the court of appeal, Ross appealed, with the help of ASA, to the California Supreme Court. In rendering its decision, the court overlooked amicus “friend of the court” briefs from 10 state and national medical organizations, the original co-authors of the Medical Marijuana Program Act, and disability rights groups in support of Ross and patients across California.
Since it began in 2005 recording instances of employment discrimination against medical marijuana patients, ASA has received hundreds of such reports from patients across California.
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