Pot Smokers Can Be Fired For Smoking Medical Marijuana Courts Rule, Even in Colorado

Medical and recreational marijuana may be legal in Colorado but pot smokers can still legally be fired for testing positive for marijuana because it is still illegal under federal law. According to a state appeals court ruling, even medical marijuana users can be fired if they test positive for the drug.

Reuters reports In a split decision, a three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals said that federal law trumps a state law that protects workers for engaging in lawful activities outside the workplace.

The federal government considers marijuana an illegal and dangerous narcotic. U.S. officials have said they are considering how to respond to the legalization moves.

The ruling concurs with court decisions in similar cases elsewhere and comes as businesses attempt to regulate pot use among employees in states where the drug is legal. Colorado and Washington state law both provide for recreational marijuana use. Several other states have legalized medical use.

The patchwork of laws across the nation and state-federal conflict has left the issue unclear. Based on this ruling, employees who use pot in Colorado do so at their own risk. In Arizona, however, workers cannot be terminated for lawfully using medical marijuana, unless it would jeopardize an employer's federal licensing or contracts.

Reuters Reports that the Colorado case involves Brandon Coats, 33, a telephone operator for Englewood, Colo.-based Dish Network LLC. Coats was paralyzed in a car crash as a teenager and has been a medical marijuana patient in the state since 2009.

After he was fired, Coats sued Dish Network to regain his job, arguing that a Colorado law protected him from being fired for engaging in lawful activities outside of the workplace. A district court ruled against Coats, stating that Dish was able to terminate Coats due to federal laws against marijuana. The Colorado Court of Appeals upheld that ruling on Thursday.

"[W]hile we agree that the general purpose of [the worker protection law] ... is to keep an employer's proverbial nose out of an employee's off-site off-hours business ... we can find no legislative intent to extend employment protections to those engaged in activities that violate federal law," Judge Janice Davidson wrote in the majority opinion.

While Coats was disappointed by the ruling, he and his lawyer have stated that they will take the case as high as the Colorado Supreme Court.

The Washington State Supreme Court and California Supreme Court have followed suit and ruled that people could be fired for testing positive for marijuana.