Employers Can Terminate Employees For Medical Marijuana Use, In Oregon
The Oregon State Supreme Court recently issued a decision in Emerald Steel Fabricators v. Bureau of Labor and Industrial Relations (Oregon, April 15, 2010), which addressed whether employers could terminate an employee for using medical marijuana.
The court’s decision? Yes!
Oregon has joined California and Washington in ruling that employers can terminate employees for using medical marijuana. The rationale is that while statutes decriminalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes protects employees from criminal prosecution, the same laws do not prevent employers from terminating an employee for violating a company’s anti-drug policy.
In addition, the employee in question was also found using medical marijuana in an illegal manner anyway.
a drug test