Employment Law: Employer Violated State Medical Marijuana Law by Rescinding Job Offer to Individual Registered as an Eligible Medical Marijuana Patient

A U.S. district court in Connecticut determined that a rehabilitation center violated state law when it rescinded an offer of employment to an individual on account of her use of medical marijuana pursuant to state law. No federal law prohibited the center from employing the plaintiff on account of her medical marijuana use pursuant to the state's medical marijuana program, the court said.

The defendant rehabilitation center recruited the plaintiff for employment as an activities manager. The offer, however, was contingent on the candidate's passing a drug test. The plaintiff told her prospective employer that she was qualified under Connecticut's Palliative Use of Marijuana Act (PUMA) to use marijuana for medical purposes to treat her posttraumatic stress disorder that manifested as "night terrors" after she was in a car accident. She had registered with a state agency as a qualifying patient, and produced her registration certificate and an empty pill container that displayed the name and dosage of her medical marijuana pills obtained pursuant to the state medical marijuana program. She informed the defendant that she...