Federal judge upholds Wal*Mart firing medical marijuana user

On Feb. 11, 2011, U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker (W.D. Mich.) upheld Wal*Mart in its discharge of Joseph Casias, a one-time "Associate of the Year" at a Wal*Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan, for using marijuana. Mr. Casias was a registered medical marijuana patient in Michigan. He was drug tested after an accident, and Wal*Mart headquarters fired him

Judge Jonker's ruling reads like a reasonable and straight-forward reading of the law in Michigan, as cruel and tragic as that may be. Of course the problem Mr. Casias faced was foreseeable in developing the medical marijuana laws.

Because of the scandalous indifference of the U.S. Congress and the Drug Enforcement Administration to the public's demand for marijuana to be one of the legitimate medical tools available to the sick and suffering, any state law has to be written in the face of federal law that does not recognize medical value. Therefore, to get these laws enacted, in most instances by popular initiative, they are simplified to ignore obvious issues.

One would imagine that law makers who express their adherence to principles of restrained federal power would seek to make sure that their state's laws can operate without federal interference.

One would imagine that a United States Senator who represents an entire state in the Congress would be especially sensitive to minimize conflict between the laws of his or her state, and the federal law. So with 14 states with medical marijuana laws, there are 28 Senators who might feel compelled to introduce such legislation. And yet it has never happened.

If you live in a medical marijuana state, be sure to write to your TWO U.S. Senators asking them to introduce a bill to modify federal law to assure that your state medical marijuana law can be revised to fully work to protect the sick and suffering!

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