Proposed by Rep. Peter Buckley to allow those with painful medical conditions to fulfill their responsibilities at work, House Bill 2503 would prohibit Oregon employers from discriminating against employees who are registered medical marijuana cardholders. Specifically, the bill would make it illegal to “discriminate against a person in hiring, termination or any term or condition of employment or otherwise penalize a person,” if the discrimination is based on the person’s status as a medical marijuana cardholder, or a positive drug test for marijuana if the person is a cardholder and the use of marijuana does not occur at the place or during the time of employment.
HB 2503 should be passed, as medical marijuana is just like any other prescription drug taken to relieve a medical condition, and should be treated as such.
For example, employers do not screen employees to determine if any have a prescription for drugs, such as Vicodin or Ritalin, which can be considered behavior-altering but are legal and widely used. The question surrounding medical marijuana only exists because of the stigma attached to marijuana and its use. Marijuana is still largely seen as criminalized, and those who use it in any regular capacity are often considered a burden on society.
The argument that the significant rise in cardholders since the drug’s medical legalization in 1998 indicates a widespread abuse of the system is largely irrelevant.
“We never thought people that were terminal would continue working at jobs, but now medical marijuana has become a get-out-of-jail-free card for people who want to abuse the substance and carry jobs,” said J. L. Wilson, Associated Oregon Industries governmental affairs vice president. Should people who are deemed “terminal” but who, with treatment from medical marijuana, can be fully functional and still need to work to pay bills, not be allowed to continue working? The fact is, those who are granted cardholder status and subsequently prescribed marijuana for medical use are within their rights, and within the law, to use the drug as they deem necessary.
What’s more, the bill effectively addresses the argument that it should be up to an employer’s discretion to make employment decisions. The prohibition doesn’t apply to employees in what the bill calls “safety-sensitive positions,” those who are responsible for the safety of others and whose performance, if impaired, could endanger the health and safety of others. Also, an employer can still justifiably terminate a person’s employment if he or she is deemed “impaired” (whether from marijuana or other prescription drugs); the bill simply prohibits discrimination based solely on a person’s cardholder status.
Those who oppose the bill and claim it only further allows the system to be abused should target a system that makes drugs widely available, not the patients who are legally prescribed them. Few people question the ethics of those who take prescription painkillers on a frequent basis to treat a recognized medical condition. While abuse may occur, so it does among those who take legal painkillers or other drugs. It should make no difference if the prescription is a pill or a plant.
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Users of medicinal marijuana face unjust discrimination
Daily Emerald
February 8, 2009
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