If it were up to the top executives of state government — the governor and lieutenant governor — recreational marijuana would be legal. But it’s not.
However, residents of the commonwealth can legally obtain medicinal cannabis to treat a wide range of conditions.
It is time for employers to adjust their pre-employment health screening tests to conform with state law, which happens to mesh with the prevailing thinking within the medical community about the efficacy of medical marijuana in relieving a host of symptoms, some debilitating.
An apparent disconnect between state law and pre-employment screenings is being put to a legal test in Allegheny County, where a man is claiming in a lawsuit that he has been discriminated against for being a medical marijuana patient. The lawsuit seeks financial and related damages.
The plaintiff was applying for a corrections officer position with the Allegheny County Jail. He contends he reached the point in the hiring process of passing a physical fitness test and a psychological exam, and was far enough along to be given a pre-employment drug screening. He claims he had disclosed to the county’s human resources department prior to the drug screening that he was a medical marijuana patient and that he was told that would not be a problem. But, after the drug screening — which showed the presence of marijuana in his blood — he was told he would not be hired because of the positive test.
The U.S. Army veteran contends he has suffered discrimination.
He has.
The facts are these: Since medical marijuana was legalized in 2016 in Pennsylvania, the number of qualifying conditions and the number of patients have continued to rise. Currently, 23 medical conditions qualify for a treatment protocol that can include medicinal cannabis. Those conditions include cancer and Crohn’s disease, glaucoma and Parkinson’s disease. More than 100,000 Pennsylvania citizens have medical marijuana cards, according to figures compiled by the state Health Department. Across the United States, the Marijuana Policy Project pegs the figure at above 4.3 million people.
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Saylor wrote in a unanimous verdict this summer that no one engaged in the lawful use of medical marijuana could face “prosecution or penalty in any manner, or denied any right or privilege.” By any standard, loss of a job falls within these broadest of parameters.
A person using medical marijuana, by logical extension, already has been dealt a bad hand in terms of having a diagnosed medical problem. Punishing that person for availing himself of a legal medical treatment with a physician’s certification is piling on.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)
