Emily Overholt of Phoenix Business Journal reported Friday that with more than 36,500 Arizonans armed with medical marijuana patient cards, employers must figure out how to ensure their employees are not impaired on the job.
Existing state laws set specific guidelines for employers to drug-test both applicants and employees. If employers follow these laws, they should be protected from discrimination suits.
In 2011, Esther Shapiro claimed Verde Valley Community Hospice LLC terminated her employment based solely on her status as a medical marijuana cardholder and her failure to pass a pre-employment drug test as a result of that status. A year later, Verde Valley entered an offer of judgment awarding Shapiro $5,000. She was represented by Rose Law Group’s employment attorney David Weissman.
“It very much is a gray area of the law, and part of the reason why we took the case was because it’s an issue that employers really need to be aware of,” said David Weissman, director of the employment law practice group with Rose Law Group PC, who served as Shapiro’s attorney in the 2011 case.
