[420 Girl]

On Jan. 24, the California Supreme Court upheld the firing of a medical marijuana patient from his job because he tested positive for marijuana in a company drug test.

For patients who do not have to undergo the onerous and humiliating ritual of providing a urine specimen in a cup or you will be fired or not hired, this ruling has no direct impact.

But for the many people whose livelihoods depend on being able to pass a drug screen, this is a serious blow to their health and welfare.

Like law enforcement's successful attempt to terrorize local elected officials by threatening to arrest them if they pass laws allowing medicinal marijuana in their communities, law enforcement has now succeeded in getting business owners to carry out their prohibitionist agenda by threatening them with loss of federal contracts, police raids and lawsuits if they allow their employees to use marijuana medicinally. At least that is what lawyers representing business owners in the case claimed in their legal briefs arguing that they had no choice but to fire a legal medical marijuana patient for testing positive for marijuana.

In a 5-2 decision, the California Supreme Court unfortunately bought into this absurd argument. I imagine their legal reasoning has some basis in jurisprudence, but that doesn't mean it's rational.

The total preposterousness of the decision is showcased by the fact that employees cannot be fired for having synthetic THC in their Advertisement systems. Employees can take Marinol and the other synthetic THC products and go to work and be under the influence of THC, and that's legal.

But if they take natural THC, then the California Supreme Court rules it is OK to fire them.

Now what is the difference pharmacologically between synthetic THC and natural THC?

Zip, nada, nothing - there is no difference. They are biologically equivalent and are, for all intents and purposes, the exact same thing with the exact same effects on the human body. They cannot even be differentiated in standard blood and urine drug screens.

There is one significant difference, however, between synthetic THC and natural THC, but it has nothing to do with the human body.

Pharmaceutical companies can patent synthetic THC and make billions selling it, such as Marinol, for $13 a pill. They can't patent natural THC because it comes naturally from a plant. They will not make a dime on it let alone the billions that is par for the course for most of their products.

The winner in this abysmal court ruling certainly wasn't the health and welfare of Californians. The first winner is law enforcement who view medical marijuana as a chink in their $20 billion a year wall of marijuana prohibition laws, which guarantee them a taxpayer-funded full-employment program.

No doubt they were out at the bars celebrating the court's decision.

Joining law enforcement at the bars are the giant pharmaceutical companies who let out a collective sigh of relief that once again they had fought back the threat marijuana poses to their bottom line.

There is one ray of hope as the California Supreme Court decision can be abrogated by the state Legislature by passing legislation that would overcome the court's objections.

Even though state Assemblyman Mark Leno has announced that he would very quickly introduce legislation to do that, I would advise against holding one's breath on it ever passing. Even if it did, it would surely be vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

As disheartening as this ruling is, patients understand the importance of continuing the struggle. At medical marijuana patient-support group meetings, I always ask how many people know that marijuana has improved their lives and made them healthier. Almost all hands shoot up.

Of course I expect that to happen, but the enthusiasm with which everyone thrusts their hands into the air and the expressions of conviction on their faces vividly demonstrates just how critical the struggle to bring marijuana back to our nation's medicine cabinet is to the overall health of our communities.

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