March 16, 2010 – A quickly growing effort in the marijuana reform community is calling for a boycott of Walmart. News hit the streets last week that a Michigan man who is a legal medical marijuana patient was fired after failing a drug test.  Though the Arkansas based chain has fought critics of its internal policies before, this time it could be sticky.

WZZM reported “Joseph Casias tested positive for marijuana during a routine worker’s compensation drug screen. Casias had worked for the Arkansas based chain for five years, and was the Battle Creek store’s Associate of the Year in 2008. Casias has sinus cancer, which is currently in remission, and an inoperable brain tumor. To treat the pain caused by both diseases, his doctor recommended he use marijuana.”

When Casias revealed in later interviews that Walmart was now also fighting his unemployment benefits the outrage got measurably louder.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the Marijuana Policy Project along with numerous local NORML Chapters and individuals have quickly organized marijuana reform supporters to stop shopping at the retail giant.

The ACLU of Michigan is also backing Casias according to a report today from The Michigan Messenger: “He {ACLU rep} also notes that in order for a business to challenge unemployment benefits, it must prove the employee was fired for cause. In other words, Walmart has to prove Casias was fired for breaking the law or failing to do his job. READ FULL”

Medical marijuana patients, though legal under state laws, are often discriminated against in this manner.  Currently corporations hide behind legal and contractual screens rather than make policies for their therapeutic cannabis employees. Although most medical marijuana legislation, including New Jersey’s, specifically outlaw any business related sanctions against patients just for being registered, there are no provisions for special consideration during any instance when a workplace drug test is issued.

Walmart’s recent actions against Casias seem to embody a nationwide problem for legal cannabis patients. Facebook groups are popping up to push the boycott and MPP has created a website asking for supporters to make a phone call to the corporation. CLICK HERE

Ken Wolski at the Coalition for Medical Marijuana New Jersey is supporting the Walmart boycott from the Garden State, “It’s an outrageous corporate decision to fire a hard working cancer patient, who is using medical marijuana in accordance with state law. We hope that patients here won’t face the same situation.”

Earlier Post on this story:

WASHINGTON – March 16 – Today, the nation’s largest marijuana policy reform organization called upon shoppers across the country to boycott Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in order to protest the unjust and potentially unlawful firing of Joseph Casias, a 29-year-old medical marijuana patient and sinus cancer survivor who suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. Casias’s cancer is in remission, and marijuana alleviates his pain that resulted from it. The Marijuana Policy Project is asking shoppers to demand that Wal-Mart abandon its discriminatory policy of firing employees who are legal medical marijuana patients under state law.

After dutifully working at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan, for five years, Casias was suddenly terminated because he tested positive for marijuana during a drug screening administered after he sprained his knee on the job. Casias, who was named store Associate of the Year in 2008, is a registered medical marijuana patient in Michigan, where it is legal to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation.

“It’s despicable that Wal-Mart would fire such a hardworking and seriously ill employee simply for treating his symptoms with a medicine that he is authorized to use under state law,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project and lead drafter of Michigan’s medical marijuana law. “Would Wal-Mart also fire someone for taking doctor-prescribed Percocet, or any of the other legal medications sold in many of Wal-Mart’s own stores?”

Casias’s firing violates the “Michigan Medical Marihuana Act,” which reads in part that a qualifying patient shall not be “denied any right or privilege, including but not limited to … disciplinary action by a business or occupational or professional licensing board or bureau, for the medical use of marihuana.” Under the law, the definition of “medical use” contains “internal possession”- having marijuana in one’s system. The law does not require employers to allow the “ingestion of marihuana in any workplace” or employees to work while under the influence, but there is no allegation that Casias used marijuana at work or worked while impaired. To add further insult to injury, Wal-Mart is contesting Casias’s eligibility for unemployment.