Reflections

Walmart Fires Employee For Using Medical Pot For Cancer – Brain Tumor Pain Relief

Posted by on Mar 17, 2010 | 11 Comments

An associate for Walmart was terminated after the man failed a random drug test. The man lives in Michigan which is one of 15 states that approves of marijuana for medical purposes. He has stated that he suffers from sinus cancer and also has a brain tumor and was legally using the drug for pain relief. But Walmart didn’t seem to care and the man was fired from his job.

In a recent article it also stated that:

Casias, 29, just couldn’t understand how Wal-Mart or any employer for that matter could fire a worker for using medical marijuana, which was prescribed by his doctor and has been legal in Michigan since 2008. He even has a card sanctioned by the state that says he can legally use the drug.

“You can’t discriminate against a person if you have a medical marijuana card, and if they use it for medicinal purposes,” said James McCurtis, a spokesman for Michigan’s Department of Community Health that oversees the medical marijuana program.

Casias’ managers knew he had been battling sinus cancer and the brain tumor for some time, but he did not tell them he was using marijuana to deal with the pain because traditional painkillers alone weren’t working.

When the test came back positive, a manager at the store at first told him it wasn’t a big deal because he was legally using marijuana. However, when he came in for work the morning of Nov. 24, he was immediately pulled into the store manager’s office and told he was fired. “The manager told me he was sorry and he had no choice. He said he wished he could help me out,” Casias said. “They went and got my personal belongings, and I walked out of the store.”

Wal-Mart spokesman Greg Rossiter called the situation “unfortunate.”

“We are sympathetic to Mr. Casias’ condition,” he said. However, like so many other employers, “we have to consider the overall safety of our customers and associates, including Mr. Casias, when making a difficult decision like this.”

Sympathetic? How could Walmart be sympathetic towards the man by terminating his employment? I understand that drug testing is a way to keep Walmart stores drug free, but this seems adsurd to apply this policy to those who use the drug for pain relief.

What do you think?

Comments welcome.

Source

  • http://blaster.tv blaster

    Many companies have drug policies that even prohibit legal drugs while at work. Can you imagine if someone on drugs was involved in an accident that injures or kills a customer? Legal or not, any mood altering substances need to be banned from the workplace. Discrimination? Hardly.

  • Kevin Bailey

    He claims he was not using before or at work. Only after work and on days off. The difficulty with marijuana is that it is not cleared from the system for testing purposes in a short enough period of time to determine last use or use on the job.

    I don’t think anyone is concerned about him being fired for using condition altering drugs while at work but when not at work it seems discriminatory. The only thing I think he should have done is been up front with his employer about it. So that in the event he is selected for random drug screen it is well documented that he will test positive.

    Who would object to a person with a back injury toughing it out all day at work without altering pain killers and then taking a pill when they got home to relieve the pain and get through the night as long as it is no longer altering the system for motor and reason functions once returning to work.

    No different then having a beer or two or three after work and then waking up sober the next day to go to work. Should someone loose there job because they drink on their own time?

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  • jdnene

    I think Walmart is full of crap.
    There are many employees working for them who have been injured on the job (back injuries from stocking…) and they are working under medication (narcotics…)
    I’m not sure why this person did not inform them before he was tested.
    Either way, the man has a medically documented legitimate reason for using medical marijuana, yes?
    I’ll be interested to find out more.

  • http://bob3160.googlepages.com/ bob3160

    It’s easy to blame big bad Walmart. Why not, every one does it.
    I for one however would not like to be helped by a stoned employee regardless of the reason for the drug use.
    This isn’t bad employee relations on the part of Walmart but just plain good business sense on their part.

  • jeep

    Medical marijuana should be used as just that, for medical reasons. Like the employee said he didn’t use before or during work, so he shouldn’t of been fired. I was a manager for walmart for 7 years and I’m aware of employees using other narcotics such as prescription cold remedies, infections, all the way to Valium. Depending on the job they were required to do these things were put aside. I belive if this employee made a fuss he could get reinstated with back-pay for time loss. Walmart needs to wake up and relize this and re-write their policy.

  • krazdkiller

    bob3160 do yourself and everyone else a favor and grow a pair of balls. i am sick and tired watching jacka%#es back corporations when they know the corporation was in the wrong.

  • http://bob3160.googlepages.com/ bob3160

    Nothing wrong with my balls Killer, Yours seem to have gone flat. :)

  • MtnWolfGrl

    wal mart has the worst policies when it comes to its employees. This is nothing compared to some of the things it has been sued for in the past. The biggest one is discrimination against women. I can’t remember whether it has been settled or not.

    Don’t like wal mart, don’t shop there. I hate their employee policies so I refuse to spend my money on all of the worthless, imported chinese crap that they sell, and crap that I probably don’t need.

    With a little research, one can find out which corporations should not be supported with dollars and which can. There certainly is enough information on the internet.

    Whether this could have been avoided, is a question that is difficult to determine. Personally, I cannot think of anything more painful than sinus cancer.

    • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

      Agree. This person must be in extreme pain.