SENATE VOTE SUPPORTS EMPLOYERS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA QUESTION

Employers could fire medical marijuana users who fail drug tests under
a bill passed Wednesday by the Oregon Senate.

If it becomes law, the measure could shield employers from potential
lawsuits filed by medical marijuana patients who have been fired or
disciplined for testing positive for the drug when they show up for
work.

Without the bill, "employers will be left with individual lawsuits
and appeals," said Sen. Rick Metsger, D-Welches. "I believe this is
good policy for our state, and it is strongly supported by both labor
and management."

For the 12 states that allow medical marijuana, the use of the drug by
employees outside the workplace is an increasingly sticky - and
legally contentious - subject.

According to Michael Cohen, an employment attorney with the
Philadelphia-based law firm Wolf Block, only California and Montana
have provisions in their medical marijuana statutes that clearly
protect workers from being fired or disciplined if they are
state-approved users.

States that don't forbid employers from taking action against workers
who use medical marijuana have created a gray area, legal experts say.

A lack of clear policy from lawmakers or legal rulings from state
courts has muddied the issue that also pits state law against federal
law. The federal government classifies marijuana as having "no
currently accepted" medical use.

In testimony earlier this year, several medical marijuana cardholders
said the Oregon measure would unfairly penalize them.

They said most drug policies are enforced through urine tests that
don't determine if users are impaired, but only if they used cannabis
within the past few weeks.

In Wednesday's debate, Sen. Floyd Prozanski agreed, calling the bill
"a very broad sweep at dealing with an issue that is going to
discriminate against individuals who have not violated the intent of
the safe workplace."

"They are not impaired, they are not under the influence while they
are at work," the Eugene Democrat said.

Prozanski said he would try to persuade the House to change the bill
so that it would not discriminate against workers who are cardholders
under the Oregon medical marijuana program.

Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposed the
bill, said testing for impairment, rather than drug use, would be a
more effective way of creating safe workplaces.

Many business groups supported the bill, saying they wanted a clear
mandate to enforce drug-free workplaces.

Several company representatives said they already enforce such
policies in the interest of workplace safety and would fire an
employee who tested positive for marijuana.

Last year, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled against millwright Robert
Washburn, a registered medical marijuana user who was fired from his
job at a Columbia Forest Products plant after urine tests detected
traces of the drug.

The court's decision avoided the central issue of marijuana use
outside of the workplace, however, ruling that Washburn's leg spasms
didn't qualify him as disabled.