Colorado Supreme Court Provides a Moment of Sanity on Marijuana

In a unanimous (6-0) decision on June 15, 2015 in Coats v. Dish Network, the Colorado Supreme Court, ruled that an employer could fire an employee for testing positive for marijuana in that state despite the legality of both medical and recreational marijuana, even if the marijuana use were based on a physician’s recommendation and even if the marijuana use were limited to nonworking hours away from the workplace. The Colorado state marijuana laws are in conflict with the federal law, under which marijuana is an illicit substance and in this Supreme Court ruling, marijuana use was therefore considered “illegal.”