BILL WOULD PROTECT MEDICAL POT USERS' JOBS

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BILL WOULD PROTECT MEDICAL POT USERS' JOBS

 

by Josh Richman,

Source:Oakland Tribune

Regional News

21 Feb 2008

California

 

A new Assembly bill with two Bay Area co-authors seeks to protect

medical-marijuana users' jobs.

 

AB 2279, introduced Wednesday, would prohibit employment

discrimination against those who use marijuana as medicine in

compliance with state law away from the workplace. It would leave

intact already-existing provisions barring consumption in the

workplace, and would protect employers from liability by carving out

an exception for safety-sensitive jobs.

 

Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, had vowed to introduce such a

bill last month after the state Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that an

employer can fire a worker solely because he or she uses medical

marijuana outside the workplace.

 

" AB 2279 is merely an affirmation of the intent of the voters and the

legislature that medical marijuana patients need not be unemployed to

benefit from their medicine, " Leno said in a news release issued

Thursday.

 

The bill is co-authored by Assemblywomen Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley;

Patty Berg, D-Eureka; and Lori Saldana, D-San Diego. It's sponsored

by Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access, a national nonprofit

which had argued for the plaintiff in the state Supreme Court case

decided in January.

 

" Despite the ill-conceived ruling by the California Supreme Court,

the intent of state legislatures has been to recognize the civil

rights of patients and to offer them reasonable protections, " ASA

spokesman Kris Hermes said Thursday.

 

ASA says companies that have fired medical-marijuana users,

threatened their jobs or denied them jobs include Costco, UPS, Foster

Farms Dairy, DirecTV, the San Joaquin Courier, Power Auto Group and

several construction companies, hospitals, and trade union

employers.

 

Similar bills have been introduced in Oregon and Hawaii.

 

Pubdate: Thu, 21 Feb 2008

Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)

Copyright: 2008sANG Newspapers

 

 

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