Wal-Mart Sued Over Medical Pot Firing

Worker sacked for using prescribed pot for cancer
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 30, 2010 2:30 AM CDT
Wal-Mart Sued Over Medical Pot Firing
Joseph Casias speaks to reporters during a news conference on the steps of the Justice Hall in Battle Creek, Mich.    (AP Photo/The Enquirer, Al Lassen)

The ACLU is suing Wal-Mart on behalf of a Michigan man fired for using medical marijuana to ease the symptoms of sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor. Joseph Casias, a 30-year-old father of two, was fired after failing a drug test. Casias—a legally registered user of medicinal marijuana who was prescribed the drug by his doctor—says he only used marijuana outside working hours, but Wal-Mart insists that pot use is an issue of safety.

"Medical marijuana has had a life-changing positive effect for Joseph, but Wal-Mart made him pay a stiff and unfair price for his medicine," an attorney with the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project tells CNN. "No patient should be forced to choose between adequate pain relief and gainful employment, and no employer should be allowed to intrude upon private medical choices made by employees in consultation with their doctors." (More Michigan stories.)

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