[420 Girl]

California - The California Supreme Court is expected to rule for the first time Thursday on whether the state's 12-year-old medical marijuana law shields users from not only police and prosecutors, but also prospective employers looking to fire over positive drug tests.

The court's opinion, scheduled to be released at 10 a.m., will center on a discrimination claim by Carmichael resident Gary Ross over his 2001 firing from Sacramento telecommunications firm RagingWire. It could either uphold users' rights, affirm employers' discretion or leave the labor rights question to be answered by lawmakers or voters.

Whatever the outcome, legal observers and activists say the Supreme Court's decision could have far reaching implications beyond California, potentially affecting cases in many of the 11 other states with medical marijuana laws modeled after California's Compassionate Use Act of 1996.

"It's extremely significant; it's probably not only the most important medical marijuana case in California, but in the nation right now," Kris Hermes of the advocacy group Americans for Safe Access told The Bee after the Ross case was heard before the state Supreme Court last fall.

At the hearing in November, Ross' attorneys Stewart Katz of Sacramento and Joseph Elford of San Francisco told six of the seven justices present that the Fair Employment and Housing Act requires employers to make "reasonable accommodations" for workers who have disabilities. They said that Ross' use of marijuana was part of a medical treatment for a disability.

Complete Title: State Court To Rule on Employees' Rights Under Medical Marijuana Law


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