WALMART WORKER FIRED FOR USING MEDICAL MARIJUANA VOWS TO APPEAL RULING

GRAND RAPIDS - Joseph Casias, the Walmart worker fired after he used
medical marijuana, plans to appeal a judge's decision to dismiss his complaint.

He and his attorneys were disappointed by the ruling.

"He has always looked at the bigger picture all the way through,"
attorney Daniel Grow said this afternoon.

"He doesn't want this to happen to other people. He doesn't want
other people to have to make the same difficult choices."

Casias maintained he was wrongly fired after he legally used medical
marijuana to treat pain from an inoperable brain tumor and cancer.
His attorneys, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said he
essentially was forced to choose between his job and medicine.

Casias has been unable to find another job.

"A choice between adequate pain relief and gainful employment is an
untenable one that no patient should ever be forced to make," ACLU
attorney Scott Michelman said in a statement.

"Yet Walmart forced Joseph to pay a stiff and unfair price for using
a medicine allowed under state law that has had a life-changing
positive effect for him."

U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker determined that the state's medical
marijuana law, which won wide approval in 2008, is intended to
protect lawful users from arrest. It does not regulate private
employers and their policies on drug use.

The judges ruling comes as no surprise, said Grand Rapids attorney
Pat White, who is not involved in the case.

He said Casias appears to be the perfect candidate for use of medical
marijuana, but the judge would have had to significantly expand the
law - "build a castle out of a single brick" - to offer Casias
employment protection. He would have had to make Casias part of a
new, protected class.

White, who generally represents management, said Jonker is known as a
"straight-shooter" not driven by ideology in his decisions.

"There is a very good chance that Judge Jonker's opinion will be the
definitive interpretation of the (medical marijuana law) as it
applies to employment decisions," White said, adding that the case is
subject to appeal.

Walmart attorneys could not immediately be reached.