Posted on 09/20/2002 5:56:11 PM PDT by chance33_98
Man Fired for Pot Use Plans Court Test of Medical Marijuana Law
A 40-year-old computer specialist from Sacramento is forcing a court test of a controversial state law allowing medical use of marijuana.
Gary Ross was fired when a drug test revealed he had recently used marijuana. Ross had worked at the $74,000 per year systems administrator job for only a week when he was dismissed.
Now he has filed suit against RagingWire Telecommunications, arguing that the marijuana had been prescribed by a physician as a means of relieving chronic back pain. Ross contends that the firing was illegal under the terms of a six-year-old California law allowing the use of marijuana as medicine. "I had gone through all the steps necessary to make sure it was perfectly legal," said Ross. "I don't know why they terminated me. I was very surprised."
RagingWire Telecommunications replied with a written a statement that said, in part, "Mr. Ross signed and accepted an offer for a position that required [full time] on-call availability. Mr. Ross failed to inform the company he was using marijuana for medicinal purposes prior to receiving his offer letter."
California courts must now decide if an employer can choose which medications are off limits. Ross said he doesn't really want to be the flag bearer for a cause. Instead, he said he just wants justice. "I don't really consider myself a test case," said Ross. "I just consider myself an employee who was wrongfully terminated."
Ross claims he tried nearly everything to relieve pain from a 20-year-old back injury before turning to marijuana. He finally tried the drug after his doctor recommended it. "It's been the best medication I've taken for my back since my injury," said Ross.
Ross said he could have avoided using marijuana in the weeks prior to his drug test, but felt that would be admitting he's doing something wrong.
Quasi-scriptural arguments don't come flimsier than this. If you want to force the issue, you lose big time. According to the Bible, Jesus drank wine. Paul drank wine. Neither smoked a joint.
Next!
Besides, you will find few people who call themselves Christians that "condemn all consumption of alcohol." Don't be silly.
"who cares?", now there's an intelligent and uplifting philosophy to live by. The foundation of many a great civilization, if I recall.
WHO CARES? ---
The people they work with
Their children
Their neighbors
The people they live with
The people that share the road with them
The people that rent property to them
And as is often the case, their parole officers
How long a list do you need?????
--Boot
Thanks for getting it. I would have no problem whatsoever with marijuana being used for medicinal purpose as long as it was treated like medicine, which the proponents of "medical marijuana" don't really want. They want to create a system in which a doctor's prescription -- any doctor's prescription -- is a license to smoke pot for any reason, medical or recreational.
Walk through the bank-laden streets of Zurich’s financial district, one block to the park behind the National Museum of Switzerland, and you are suddenly at a scene of human carnage – sealed with the approval of the Zurich City Council. ...
Beny, 30 years old, fills a government-supplied syringe with a mixture of cocaine and heroin and sees the police drive up. “Hey, they’ve got a new car,” he laughs, and prods with the needle in search of an elusive vein. The police greet Beny and drive by.
The practical Swiss, it appears, have lost their minds.
“One has to be a little pragmatic,” says Dr. Werner Fuchs, a soft-spoken physician and member of the Zurich AIDS Commission. “AIDS will cause more deaths in our society than drugs if we do not provide addicts with a clean shoot. It is a simple equation.”...
“I think this place is awful,” a man in the park says as he prepares a shot using a government-issued needle. “It will teach people to become junkies.”...
A two-year study is under way to determine whether the needle exchanges and the open scene have been effective.... But the scene itself, for all the rational arguments, seems a festering wound in the center of a culture known for its orderliness. Walk briefly past the mass of human tragedy in the open scene, and every nerve cries out, "Close it down." ...The open scene assaults our consciousness and insults us with the gory details of the enormous numbers of lives wasted by drugs. And it makes it clear why most cities try to hide the problem or attempt to chase it away."...
From here Just thought it was rather interesting....
If you will read my ENTIRE message, I said, and still say, that ABUSE is the problem. Using too much of, or using anything when unneeded is the problem. Especially, excessive use of force by authorities.
I am not sure that "pot smoking" is a cure for back pain, although it has been reported helpful with the nausea caused by the legal POISONS used to treat cancers. Would you like to bet on my reception if I were to propose massicely dosing you with a deadly chemical or radiation on the theory that it will almost kill you but will kill your disease ? Yet put MD by my name and many will act as though infallibility has been conferred.
Lastly, I note the thundering silence regarding the idea of expanding the many mandatory drug tests to our "masters"; for such they must be in order to be exempt from the very rules and laws they deamnd we observe.
If they are so stupid how come they are winning this Drug War?
Excusemoi.
Brilliant post. It's all about the money and the power.
--Boot
I believe that the employer has the right to fire an enployee just because he don't like him. Why does he have to have a reason?
Why can't an employer get rid of someone because he don't like him? There are lots of people that want a job.
If I hire someone and pay them, why don't I have a say about who I pay?
What if after I hire you and I meet your wife and she insults me? I am not allowed to get rid of you, and get someone that will be nice to me?
Technically he doesn't, but it's a self-defeating business practice. Why did he hire the employee in the first place?
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