BILL TO PROTECT MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS PASSES ASSEMBLY

California's medical marijuana patients are one step closer to being
protected against work place discrimination after a bill made its way
through the state Assembly this week.

Assembly Bill 2279, authored by Assemblyman Mark Leno and co-authored
by Eureka's Assemblywoman Patty Berg, would make it unlawful for an
employer to discriminate against an employee because of their status
as a medical marijuana patient or caregiver or for failing a drug test.

"Voters have said that marijuana has legitimate medical uses, and this
bill says workers shouldn't be punished for having medical needs,"
Berg said in a statement.

That doesn't, however, mean medical marijuana patients are free to
light up on the job. The bill makes clear that employers would retain
the right to fire or discipline employees for being impaired at work
because of the use of medical marijuana.

The bill is a direct response to a recent California Supreme Court
ruling, which it aims to overturn.

The Supreme Court voted in January to uphold a Sacramento
telecommunications company's firing of Gary Ross, who flunked a
company-ordered drug test, but had a medical marijuana card
authorizing him to legally use marijuana to treat a back injury he
suffered while serving in the Air Force.

"No state law could completely legalize marijuana for medical purposes
because the drug remains illegal under federal law," Justice Kathryn
Werdegar wrote for the 5-2 majority.

The company, Ragingwire Inc., successfully argued it rightfully fired
Ross because marijuana is illegal under federal law, which does not
recognize medical marijuana laws in California and 11 other states.

The court's decision drew the ire of medical marijuana supporters, and
from Leno who vowed to bring forward legislation that would overrule
the court's decision.

"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 press release after
introducing the bill.

In a previous interview with the Times-Standard, Eureka attorney Neal
Sanders, who specializes in marijuana cases, said the bill would
essentially put medical marijuana patients back in the same position
they were in before the court's ruling.

"It's an issue that needs to be taken care of legislatively," Sanders
said. "It's gone as far as it can with the courts, and the courts
don't seem to be sympathetic."

AB 2279 just narrowly passed the Assembly with a 41-35 vote, and now
heads to the Senate for review.