Washington DC Reverses Past Termination Over Cannabis

Washington D.C.’s Mayor, Muriel Bowser, has already signed a bill that bans most workplaces from firing or otherwise punishing employees for marijuana use.

But prior to this, people have been fired, and this week, a Washington DC court ruled to reverse a past termination of a goverment employee over cannabis.

The situation stemmed from a 2020 incident where a government employee was fired after being suspected of cannabis intoxication on the job because of having red eyes and talking quietly. Supervisors then made her take a drug test, where she tested positive for cannabis metabolites.

The employee petitioned the termination, arguing that her eyes may have appeared red because she had received almost no sleep after being informed of her brother’s hospitalization. She said she was tired but stable enough to perform the job. She further provided proof that she was a registered medical cannabis patient. She stated that she hadn’t used cannabis on the day of the drug test, but she’d consumed recently enough while away from work, that the THC metabolites would still be detectable.

After hearing the case, the Washington D.C. Office of Employee Appeals ruled in favor of the employee. The judge wrote in the ruling, “Because Employee was allowed to perform her duties and did in fact adequately do so after being observed by her supervisors, I find that [the supervisors] did not reasonably believe that Employee’s ability to perform her job was impaired. As such, I further conclude that a reasonable suspicion referral was unwarranted.”

The employer told the court that the reasonable suspicion referral was legitimate whether the alleged impairment was due to drug use or sleep deprivation. But District statute does not allow sleep deprivation to be used to justify this process, and Dohnji said that the defense was “disturbing and without merit.”

​The employer is now required to reimburse the worker for all back pay since the original termination, as well as any benefits she missed out on because of the action.  

---