Last November we reported on a case pending before the California Supreme Court. At issue was whether an employer could fire an employee for smoking marijuana, prescribed by a physician, on his own time.
The verdict is in and the Supremes in California have spoken. Even though the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal under California law an employer does have the right to fire workers who do smoke the weed. Our reaction is mixed. Philosophically we have major disagreements with state-imposed prohibitions on substances people enjoy. As we said last November we see no good reason to deny people the right to smoke marijuana, including those who believe they derive a medicinal benefit from pot. On the other hand we have excoriated marijuana advocates, including those wanting to legalize it for medicinal reasons, who all too often muddy their message by gratuitously denigrating tobacco and smokers. We also commented on the irony of how this one firing ignited howls of outrage from "civil libertarians" who are silent when smokers are fired for smoking a legal product on their own time.
We note wearily that Sacramento politicians, perhaps the most intolerant gang running a state, have vowed to write a law that will protect those who are prescribed marijuana from being terminated. This squad of anti-smokers never misses an opportunity to make life more difficult for the millions of smokers, who far outnumber those smoking marijuana for any reason. In a culture that sheds copious tears over victims with fashionable ailments and treatments it is not gratifying that a much larger group of victims whose only sin, the lawful enjoyment of a legal product, is consistently and viciously punished.
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