On February 11, 2011, a federal judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan ruled that Wal-Mart did not wrongly fire an employee, Joseph Casias, who tested positive for medical marijuana he was using to treat a brain tumor. In the decision [PDF], Judge Robert Jonker found that the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act (MMMA) protects licensed medical marijuana users but does not prohibit employers from adopting policies banning marijuana use, regardless of the cause. In June 2011, the Washington Supreme Court ruled similarly that their state's Medical Use of Marijuana Act (MUMA) does not prohibit private employers from firing an employee who fails a mandatory drug screening.

Marijuana

Learn more about the laws governing medical marijuana from the JURIST news archive.