Former Employee Sues Amazon after Being Fired for Cannabis Use
[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]A[/dropcap] Parlin, New Jersey man, known publicly only as “D.P.C.,” is suing Amazon after being fired by the company for consuming medical cannabis last year.
D.P.C. was given a random cheek swab drug test in July 2018 and tested positive for cannabis. It was his first drug test after approximately 10 months on the job. D.P.C. held a valid doctor’s recommendation to legally consume medical cannabis in New Jersey.
Despite furnishing a medical cannabis card, Amazon supervisors told D.P.C. that he’d be placed on paid leave. But D.P.C.’s legal team said that he didn’t even receive that, and it ended up being unpaid leave. D.P.C. was fired from his job about a month after failing the drug screen.
“This young man was done a tremendous disservice by Amazon,” attorney Walter Dana Venneman told MarketWatch. The former employee is seeking to get his job back, with added damages. While D.P.C. found new work about a year later, the new job is reportedly without benefits.
“Essentially, he views his job at Amazon as one in which he might be upwardly mobile,“ said Venneman, of the New Jersey-based law firm Gill & Chamas. Medical marijuana worked better for D.P.C. than prescription drugs, Venneman said. Before D.P.C. worked at Amazon, there was a time when he used prescription drugs, Venneman said. D.P.C. thought they “dulled him and made him feel ‘stupid.’”
According to D.P.C., Amazon decided to fire him for not disclosing his medical cannabis card when accepting the job in the first place. D.P.C. filed the claim last month in a New Jersey state court, and recently, the case was handed over to New Jersey federal court.
D.P.C. might actually have a case. New Jersey is among 11 other states that have introduced measures to protect employees from job termination if the medical cannabis doesn’t interfere with their ability to work.
There have been a few examples of similar cases that have set precedent including an Arizona woman who successfully settled with Walmart after being fired for medical cannabis use.
