News » Colorado Court Says MMJ Card No Excuse for Failing Drug Test At Work





The Colorado Court of Appeals decided that a Denver man who worked as a street sweeper cannot receive unemployment after being fired for failing a random drug test. Despite his possession of a valid medical marijuana card for Colorado (which are mandated by the state’s constitution), Jason Beinor will not get his job back nor will he receive any unemployment benefits.

The judges used the slippery technicality that the exemption to the drug test rule for unemployment – a doctor’s prescription for the drug that triggers the test – does not apply to marijuana since doctors cannot give prescriptions for it in Colorado. They can only “recommend” it – thanks to federal Schedule I rules.

Since a doctor did not prescribe, but only recommended (via a medical card, which is constitutionally mandated in Colorado), the cannabis that caused Bainor to fail his drug test and lose his job is not a “prescription medicine” as per the unemployment law.

Further, Bainor was not allowed to offer testimony of his medical rehabilitation thanks to MMJ either. The court did not care that it had helped him lose weight, kick a heavy alcohol habit, and turn his life around to get the street sweeping job in the first place.

According to the law, the judges also failed to point out, had Bainor continued to drink heavily on his own time with (legal) alcohol or had he taken (legal) prescription narcotics instead of (apparently only semi-legal) cannabis, he’d be just fine on the job.

The denial of claims is interesting since other Colorado MMJ patients have been awarded unemployment after being fired for failing drug tests on the job (here and here). Is the mood shifting politically in Colorado?

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