June 30, 2010 – A Michigan man has sued Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for firing him after he tested positive for medical marijuana he was using legally to treat pain from an inoperable brain tumor and sinus cancer.

Joseph Casias, 30, said he was fired late last year after five years of employment at a Wal-Mart store in his hometown of Battle Creek.

According to a complaint filed Tuesday with the Calhoun County District Court, Casias began using marijuana on his oncologist’s recommendation after Michigan voters had approved medical marijuana use in 2008.

But the married father of two tested positive in a drug test given after he had twisted his knee at work, under a Wal-Mart policy requiring tests for all employees injured on the job, the complaint said.

“Joseph is an example of a patient for whom marijuana has had a life-changing positive effect,” the complaint said.

Wal-Mart, “because it does not approve of the lawful medical treatment that relieves his pain, made him pay a stiff and unfair price,” it added.

Greg Rossiter, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said the world’s largest retailer was “sympathetic to Mr. Casias’ condition,” but defended the actions taken.

“Like other companies, we have to consider the overall safety of our customers and our associates, including Mr. Casias, when making a difficult decision like this,” he said. “In this case, the doctor-prescribed treatment was not the relevant issue.”

Wal-Mart is based in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Hired as a grocery stocker in 2004, Casias rose to become inventory control manager, and was named the Battle Creek store’s associate of the year in 2008, the complaint said.

Fourteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia protect patients who use marijuana on doctors’ recommendations, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, which helped Casias bring his case.

Still, within the last three years, state courts in California, Montana, Oregon and Washington have said employers need not accommodate users of medical marijuana, whose use remains illegal under federal law, court records show.

Casias is seeking an order that he be rehired, compensatory and punitive damages and other remedies.

The case is Casias v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc et al, Circuit Court of Calhoun County, Michigan.  Source.

June 24, 2010 - Lawyers for 35 people arrested during raids that shut down five compassion clubs in Quebec say they will mount a constitutional challenge to the federal government’s medical marijuana laws.

Supporters of those arrested during the raids on June 3 protested outside the Montreal courthouse Monday.

Inside, the 35 were formally charged with drug possession, trafficking and conspiracy.

Health Canada only offers one strain of medical marijuana, and the only legal way to purchase it is through the ministry.

Defence lawyer Jeffrey Boro, who is representing the co-founder of the Culture 420 club in Montreal’s Lachine district, said his client was simply filling in the gaps left by the federal government’s distribution program.

“The government is failing, as the courts have said … in their duty to put into place a system where people can lawfully obtain what they’re lawfully allowed to possess,” said Boro.

In early 2003, the Supreme Court of Ontario ruled that the medical access regulations were unconstitutional because they were failing to provide a legal supply of the drug. Ottawa responded later that year with a plan to provide dried marijuana or seeds to Canadians authorized to take marijuana for medical reasons. That plan — occasionally tweaked — remains largely intact to this day.

But it is time for the law to catch up with society, said Boro.

“I don’t believe that most, if not all, of the people who were here in court are criminals in the sense of the word that we often use,” he said.

“I would like to have a jury of 12 men and women under the age of 40 and watch to see if they’ll convict.”

Culture 420 co-founder Gary Webber, centre, and his lawyer Jeffrey Boro, right, say they will launch a constitutional challenge of Canada’s medical marijuana laws. (CBC)Boro’s client, Gary Webber, called the federal government’s distribution program “a total failure.”

Like many other medical marijuana users, Webber said he has been forced to turn to the streets to get the drug since the closure of the clubs.

He refuses to use the strain provided by Health Canada, calling it “poison.”

Some other medical marijuana activists have blamed Webber and his organization for the raids.

The recently opened Culture 420 club in Lachine and its second location in the Plateau district required only a declaration made before a commissioner of oaths from those interested in buying marijuana.

Other locations, including the Montreal Compassion Centre, have said they required a doctor’s prescription.

Police said they had received several complaints from residents about Culture 420.  Source.