Walmart Fires Cancer Patient with Prescription for Medical Marijuana

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Walmart Fires Cancer Patient with Prescription for Medical Marijuana
Man Who Earned Associate of the Year Honors Fired by Employer Even Though Medical Marijuana Legal

Even though Michigan resident Joseph Casias had a prescription from his doctor for medical marijuana, he was fired after a positive test for the substance by his employer, Walmart.

The news last November he'd been terminated was devastating for Casias, 29, who took great pride in his job, once earning the honor of Associate of the Year.

"It hurts. It hurts because I care. I care a lot about the store. I always wanted to make sure I do well," he told ABC News.

Casias started taking the medicine last June to cope with pain from sinus cancer and a brain tumor. He says the rare form of cancer causes him pain constantly and he almost died when he was first diagnosed.

Casias sprained his knee at work last November and underwent the routine drug test that follows all workplace injuries. Questioned about his positive test, Casias told management about his condition and presented a state card authorizing his marijuana use for medical purposes, but he was fired anyway. Casias says management told him Walmart does not honor medical marijuana cards.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/michgan-man-fired-walmart-medical-marijuana/story?id=10122193


Walmart fires Michigan man for using medical marijuana
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=119421&catid=14

Wal-Mart 'Sympathetic' to Man Fired for Using Medical Pot, but Won't Rehire Him
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/03/17/wal-mart-sympathetic-man-fired-medical-marijuana-wont-rehire/

Wal-Mart Won’t Rehire Employee Fired for Medical Marijuana Use
http://hightimes.com/news/mike_hughes/6299

Marijuana Group Calling For A Boycott Of Wal-Mart
http://new.wkzo.com/news/articles/2010/mar/17/marijuana-group-calling-boycott-wal-mart/

Wal-Mart Worker, Medical Marijuana Support for Joseph Casias (Video)
http://law.rightpundits.com/?p=1338
 
I already boycott Wal-mart and this Wal-mart, in particular. This just gives me one more reason. I prefer to do my shopping with local businesses to try to help Michigan's ailing economy. With Michigan's unemployment rate being the highest in the Union, it doesn't make much sense to me for Wal-mart to add to it by firing someone that is doing nothing wrong. Wal-mart hurts our economy more than it helps it and not just because of this, IMO.
 
:furious:That is just plain WRONG Wal-Mart.:furious:
 
Walmart gets on my nerves all around. I bought a mop from them once, with replaceable mopheads. I soon found out that they didn't sell the replacement heads.

They stopped selling the dairy substitutes that my daughter needs (soy and rice cheese), even though they are the biggest grocery in our area. Now I have to go out of town to get it.

Someone in their pharmacy told me they don't accept my insurance, which is Blue Cross Blue Shield State. What??

The employess walk around cussing and spreading gossip loudly, acting crude and immature.

It doesn't surprise me at all that they did this to this person.
 
Oh Walmart, another reason to hate you. Bunch of dirt bags. So by that reasoning if the drug test someone who has an injury and chronic pain and they test positive for pain pills like lortabs, they should be fired too.
 
"Casias says management told him Walmart does not honor medical marijuana cards."
Unless they want to discriminate ( a practice they do excel at) then no they don't have to. he is IMO coping with a disablility and illness and still works and makes a living, he could be home on SSI, heck I probably would. I adminre a man like him and walfart does that to him? Shame. I hope he sure and gets enough money from them so he never has to work again.
 
I am not very knowledgable about all this, but imo the GOVERNMENT needs to PASS LAWS making it impossible to fire people in this situation, as long as they are not impaired on the job. The above poster is spot-on: if this person had a bad back or whatever and had a script for OxyContin, etc., then he/she would not be fired. Like it's OK to go about your day loaded on synthetic heroin, but not smoke med. marijuana at home if prescribed! SO not right. Our government is so hypocritical when it comes to pot, as they cannot figure out a way to regulate it while still putting across the "front" of baseball/hot dogs/apple pie America... Meanwhile, the liquor and beer companies spent zillions w/their lobbyists to keep alcohol legal, when it wreaks so much havoc in our society, much MUCH worse than pot, IMO!!!:furious:
 
Unless someone comes up with a way to test for recent marijuana use, like they can w/ alcohol, companies shouldn't be allowed to test their employees for it, especially when it is being prescribed to an individual by a physician. If it can't be proven that the individual was smoking marijuana immediately prior to a workshift, it shouldn't be cause for penalizing them. He could have last smoked 2 weeks before the test on a day off for all they know because it would still show up on a test and that's not right. Even if he smoked it the night before a workshift, it shouldn't matter. People drink and get drunk all the time the night before they have to go to work and few seem to have a problem with that. Some individuals in management positions even take part in after work "drinks" and sometimes get drunker than the employees, I've seen it. Marijuana shouldn't be looked any differently. Booze is actually worse, IMO. Much worse.

The same goes for when marijuana is just plain legalized for everyone's use (I'm sorry for those that are against it being legalized, but it IS going to happen, eventually). I'm sure with the current age of technology, there is a way to test for recent marijuana use. But until we have access to it, people shouldn't be getting penalized for using it and especially when it's being prescribed to them by a physician.
 
My honest opinion? I do not smoke marijuana, I am so uncool I wouldn't know how to get it. That said so nobody can say I am a druggie, I don't see why it's illegal. To me, it's effects are no different than alcohol. Hey it would improve the ecomony! boost the farning industry and give some new tax money to the country. I'll duck now!
 
annmarie62 said:
I am not very knowledgable about all this, but imo the GOVERNMENT needs to PASS LAWS making it impossible to fire people in this situation, as long as they are not impaired on the job. The above poster is spot-on: if this person had a bad back or whatever and had a script for OxyContin, etc., then he/she would not be fired. Like it's OK to go about your day loaded on synthetic heroin, but not smoke med. marijuana at home if prescribed! SO not right. Our government is so hypocritical when it comes to pot, as they cannot figure out a way to regulate it while still putting across the "front" of baseball/hot dogs/apple pie America... Meanwhile, the liquor and beer companies spent zillions w/their lobbyists to keep alcohol legal, when it wreaks so much havoc in our society, much MUCH worse than pot, IMO!!!:furious:
Click to expand...
Exactly, and we have all known someone who has sustained and injury and has pain management issues. It is not hard to get hooked on pills after a bad injury all the same though they impair a person just as much.
 
IMO and the opinions of millions of other marijuana advocates, LEGAL pharmaceuticals are far worse for us than an illegal flowering herb that you smoke.
 
2sisters said:
My honest opinion? I do not smoke marijuana, I am so uncool I wouldn't know how to get it. That said so nobody can say I am a druggie, I don't see why it's illegal. To me, it's effects are no different than alcohol. Hey it would improve the ecomony! boost the farning industry and give some new tax money to the country. I'll duck now!
Click to expand...

I think they should legalize weed, and make alcohol illegal. Just my opinion.
 
Ladybass0711 said:
I think they should legalize weed, and make alcohol illegal. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...

ITA with this, LB. Alcohol kills and maims thousands of people everyday. Cannabis, does not. It makes you wonder what the government is up to. Especially with all of the more dangerous pharmaceuticals being perfectly legal. Disgusts me.
 
Tell Wal-Mart to stop discriminating against sick people.

Please sign the petition HERE at the Human Rights website.

Thank you.
 
I used to work for Wal-Mart. With that experience, this is soooo unbelievably wrong, imo. There was a lady who worked in the dept. next to mine (I worked stationary, she worked cosmetics) who was abusing pain pills like nothing I have ever seen in real life (she was like the people you see on the show intervention, but at least most of them got help). I didn't understand why on earth she had a job. Customer complaints were filed on her. She often fell asleep in the break room with a cigarette or hot coffee in her hand. She would pass out in her car right after her shift was over, and it wasn't because she didn't have a home-she was just too stoned to drive. I asked my manager how she still had a job. She said she had a prescription for her meds, so they could do nothing about it......
 
MissieMt said:
I used to work for Wal-Mart. With that experience, this is soooo unbelievably wrong, imo. There was a lady who worked in the dept. next to mine (I worked stationary, she worked cosmetics) who was abusing pain pills like nothing I have ever seen in real life (she was like the people you see on the show intervention, but at least most of them got help). I didn't understand why on earth she had a job. Customer complaints were filed on her. She often fell asleep in the break room with a cigarette or hot coffee in her hand. She would pass out in her car right after her shift was over, and it wasn't because she didn't have a home-she was just too stoned to drive. I asked my manager how she still had a job. She said she had a prescription for her meds, so they could do nothing about it......
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I don't understand. He also had a script from his Doctor and provided it to management. This guy sounds like a much better employee than the employees at my local wally world. Now that he is w/o a job, how in the world is he going to cover his medical care!?

I hope to heck he has already gotten a call from an good attorney.
IMO he needs to sue.
 
luckygirl said:
That's exactly what I don't understand. He also had a script from his Doctor and provided it to management. This guy sounds like a much better employee than the employees at my local wally world. Now that he is w/o a job, how in the world is he going to cover his medical care!?

I hope to heck he has already gotten a call from an good attorney.
IMO he needs to sue.
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I concur. Although I usually get tired of reading about lawsuits from the sue happy world we live in, this definitely is worth suing over. Occasionally Walmart has given in to bad media attention, etc. so hopefully they will change their policy after this.
 
I don't think this person should have been fired. It's Walmart, not brain surgery.

But I don't want bus drivers, pilots, police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses, teachers, anyone using heavy equipment or dangerous machinery etc....using medical marijuana.
 
Mr. E said:
Walmart gets on my nerves all around. I bought a mop from them once, with replaceable mopheads. I soon found out that they didn't sell the replacement heads.

They stopped selling the dairy substitutes that my daughter needs (soy and rice cheese), even though they are the biggest grocery in our area. Now I have to go out of town to get it.

Someone in their pharmacy told me they don't accept my insurance, which is Blue Cross Blue Shield State. What??

The employess walk around cussing and spreading gossip loudly, acting crude and immature.

It doesn't surprise me at all that they did this to this person.
Click to expand...

I once bought a vacuum from them only to learn a month later they stopped selling the belts and bags! GRRRRRRRR Worked out for the best anyhow, I finally broke down and bought a Kirby.
 
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