Joseph Casias, 29, has sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor.

Despite his condition, he has dutifully gone to work every day for the last five years at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan, where in 2008 he was named Associate of the Year.

Casias is also a legal medical marijuana patient under Michigan state law. He uses marijuana with the recommendation of his doctor to relieve the effects of cancer.

But Wal-Mart, the world’s largest public corporation, has no sympathy for his condition or regard for Michigan’s state law. Last November, Wal-Mart fired Casias because he tested positive for marijuana during a routine drug screening.

Here’s what a Wal-Mart spokesman had to say:

“In states, such as Michigan, where prescriptions for marijuana can be obtained, an employer can still enforce a policy that requires termination of employment following a positive drug screen. We believe our policy complies with the law and we support decisions based on the policy.”

To add insult to injury, Wal-Mart is now challenging Casias’ eligibility for unemployment. Simply outrageous. This is the thanks he gets for showing up to work and doing his job for the last five years, despite being stricken with a potentially life-threatening illness. “I gave them everything,” Casias told a local news outlet. “One-hundred-ten percent every day. Anything they asked me to do I did. More than they asked me to do. Twelve to 14 hours a day.”

Sadly, the dilemma facing medical marijuana patients who still have no legal protection from being fired is nothing new.

http://blog.mpp.org/medical-marijuana/walmart-fires-cancer-patient-for-legally-using-medical-marijuana/03122010/

If he has been using medical marijuana for the last five years, this is setting the stage for a class action lawsuit. Undoubtedly he's taken tests several times in the last five years, and obviously it was positive. Which means that an employer must've let him slip under the radar due to medical conditions.

I'm sorry, but a company should be willing to bend the rules for anyone due to medical conditions in which they provide documentation on. If he didn't provide the documentation, that was a mistake on his part, and he deserved to get fired.

But if he did, this incident could potentially bankrupt Wal-mart. It's possible a class-action lawsuit could come out of New Jersey. Now they're staring at another potential one out of Michigan. These people have GOT to wake up!

This is SICK!! If he's following the laws and is sick like this, then Wal-Mart should leave him the heck alone. He was a great employee (according to the article) and his performance was never affected, therefore he should sue the out of Wal-Mart.

Well. teh problem is... is that even though the Federal Government under the Obama administration is no longer interested in prosecuting Meidcal Marijuana dispensers and users.. many of the States still are.

That's the problem here in California.. the Feds are ok with it.. but the State police will still arrest people and raid the dispensers.. even though our Governer, Arnold Schawrneggar wants to legalize it and tax it.

I beleive this is do to the money that the courts make for the State and the money that the prison industrial system makes for the corporations that run them.

Wen you are in the USa , it's always about the money, rather than the ethics or freedom.