Dear friends:
Joseph Casias, a medical marijuana patient and cancer survivor in Michigan, has been fired by Wal-Mart simply for following his doctor's recommendation and trying to ease his pain.
Just 29 years old, Joe has already survived sinus cancer and now suffers from an inoperable brain tumor. He's spent the last five years working at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan and was honored as the store's Associate of the Year in 2008. Joe also happens to be a legal medical marijuana patient, registered with the state of Michigan. After a recent workplace injury, Joe was given a drug screen â which he failed because of his medical marijuana use.
Rather than having compassion and understanding for a model employee who was following the law, Wal-Mart fired Joe and has recently contested his unemployment benefits.
Will you help us send a message to Wal-Mart that punishing medical marijuana patients who are trying to get better, following their doctorâs advice, and adhering to state law is cruel and unacceptable?
MPP is calling on our members to boycott Wal-Mart until it abandons its discriminatory policy of firing employees who are legal medical marijuana patients under state law. Please help us send a message to Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke that you don't support Wal-Martâs policy and won't be shopping there until itâs changed.
Check out this video of local activists in Michigan protesting Wal-Martâs actions. Together, we can let Wal-Mart and other businesses know that discrimination against medical marijuana patients will not go unchallenged.
Sincerely,
Director of State Policies
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.