The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusett [official website] on Monday held [opinion, PDF] that a woman who was fired from her job for testing positive for medically prescribed marijuana could sue her former employer for handicap discrimination. The employee in this case was prescribed medical marijuana to combat the low appetite that she experienced due to Crohn’s Disease. The court’s decision overturned a prior dismissal of the employee’s claim for handicap discrimination and will allow her to proceed with the lawsuit. The court noted that a handicap discrimination claim can be alleged where an employee could perform the essential functions of their job with some form of accommodation so long as the accommodation is facially reasonable. In rejecting the employer’s argument that using medical marijuana is unreasonable because it is illegal under federal law, the Court held that this fact does not make the use of medical marijuana per se unreasonable as an accommodation where a doctor deems it to be the most effective treatment for a patient’s condition.

The legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana has become a popular issue over the past few years. In June three Kentuckians challenged [JURIST report] the state’s criminal ban on medical marijuana. Earlier in June US Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked Congress [WP report] to undo the federal protections on medical marijuana. In June the California State Assembly passed a bill [JURIST report] with the bare minimum 41 out of 80 votes that, if passed by the Senate, will prohibit state and local authorities from assisting federal agencies in the enforcement of marijuana laws without a court order. Before Sessions’s confirmation, Hilary Bricken of the Canna Law Group [advocacy website] wrote [JURIST op-ed] about how the Trump administration could impact the status of cannabis at the state level. Elsewhere in North America, marijuana legalization has become a priority. The Mexico Chamber of Deputies approved [JURIST report] a bill in April allowing the use, production and distribution of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes. Also in April Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed [JURIST report] Senate Bill 10, legalizing the medicinal use of a marijuana extract, into law. In March a government official from Canada announced [JURIST report] the country’s intention to legalize recreational marijuana by July 2018.