DC judge sides with government worker fired for using medical marijuana

A medical marijuana patient who was fired from her job in 2020 for being drunk in the office has won a major court battle. The DC Office of Employee Appeals (OEA) recently ruled in the worker’s favour, overturning her termination and asking the responsible parties to reimburse her for any arrears in wages and benefits that she missed out on.

Marijuana Moment reports that the employee filed a resignation request in April 2021. She said that the Office of Unified Communications had “falsely accused” her of being impaired while at work and that her supervisors had used the fact that her eyes were red and that she could speak softly as sufficient reasons to stop one requesting a drug test.

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She explained that her eyes may have been red from lack of sleep and that at that point she was able to do her job properly. She said that she did not use cannabis on the day of the drug test, but that she did use it the weekend before the drug test. She then provided the necessary documentation to prove that she was a medical marijuana patient.

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“The OUC has been lax in handling the reasonable suspicion of drug impairment proceedings,” said Monica Dohnji, the OEA’s chief administrative judge. Dohnji added that supervisors have no evidence that their employee is sufficiently impaired and unable to perform their duties.

“Because the employee was allowed to fulfill her duties and, after observation by her superiors, she did so appropriately, I think [the supervisors] could not reasonably believe that the employee’s ability to perform her job was impaired,” the judge wrote in the final ruling. “Therefore, I come to the further conclusion that a reasonable suspicion transfer was not justified.”

TIED TOGETHER: DC passes law protecting employees from failed drug tests

As marijuana becomes legal in a variety of states, lawmakers are trying to provide protections for residents. The process is slow and there is work to be done since most states have some form of protection for medical marijuana patients. But over time, more and more laws are emerging, protecting workers from drug testing and losing their jobs for using a drug that is legal in their state.