The
woman told reporters she had never reported for work impaired, and "was
just looking for relief," reports Stephen C. Webster at The Raw Story.
"I just wanted to be able to get up and live my life the way I used to," she said.
After her coworkers allegedly noticed her red, watery eyes,
they reported her, despite the fact that she said she'd been up all
night with a sick child. At that point, management asked her to take a
drug test, and she was fired when the results showed positive for THC.
The
woman's name hasn't yet been made public, but that could change if the
state successfully challenges her unemployment benefits. It's a clear
case of medical discrimination, according to her attorney, Justin
Pennington, who said he will file a wrongful termination lawsuit.
In
most past cases of termination over legal medical marijuana use in
other states, including California and Washington, courts have
unfortunately sided with employers against medicinal cannabis patients.
It's even worse in Arizona, where employers have access to a database of
all the state's registered medical marijuana patients.
New Mexico has "at will" employment laws, meaning her bosses could have fired her for no reason at all if they so wished.
