I Was Gonna Go to Work, But Then I Got Fired (for Getting High)

The right to smoke pot for health reasons while not on the job has triggered a lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. A Michigan man on Tuesday sued the retail giant in state court, alleging he was wrongfully fired for using medical marijuana to treat the pain of an inoperable brain tumor and cancer. Medical marijuana is legal in Michigan.

Joseph Casias, a 30-year-old Wal-Mart store manager and the 2008 Associate of the Year at the Battle Creek, Mich., store, alleges he was fired after testing positive for marijuana even though he was legally registered to use the drug under Michigan's medical marijuana law.

Similar suits have been filed in California, Montana, Oregon and Washington state. So far, the courts have sided with employers, holding that they don't have to accommodate medical marijuana users because pot is still illegal under federal law and its use could pose a safety risk.

In a case titled Emerald Steel Fabricators v. Bureau of Labor and Industries, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled in April that an employer can fire a worker for using medical marijuana even if that worker is legally registered to use pot under state law. Also in April, the Washington Supreme Court agreed to review Jane Doe v. TeleTech Customer Care Management, in which an appeals court held that a person can use the state medical marijuana law as a defense in a criminal case but not an employment one.

In Michigan, however, the medical marijuana statute has language designed to protect those who use pot for health reasons from adverse employment actions. Scott Michelman, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is handling the suit along with St. Joseph, Mich., practitioner Daniel Grow, said that Michigan's statute specifically states that patients who use medicinal marijuana "may not be subject to discipline by any business."

There is no such language in the laws in states such as California and Ore ...