Denver criminal defense lawyer / employer reactions to drugs

This isn't something I strictly deal with as a Denver criminal defense lawyer, but it is close to my heart because I have clients who deal with drug possession charges. It appears the Supreme Court will not hear a challenge to a law that allows companies to fire employees for taking controlled substances. That includes medical marijuana even if the patient has a perfectly valid prescription.

Essentially it works like this. Employment law cases start in a totally different court system than criminal law cases. When you apply for unemployment benefits, it goes to an administrative law judge. These are judges who deal with a different sort of law that exists totally under the governor. They don't really look at the statutes as much as the administrative code. In this case, even though the employer challenged the application for benefits, the employees won.

The employer then challenged that ruling to a district court. That's a more typical court, part of the judicial branch instead of the executive, charged with applying the laws and constitution, etc. In that court, the employer won. After two more appeals, that's become final. Like I said though this isn't a problem for criminal defense lawyers, it does indicate something about the state of marijuana law among the judicial branch. Probably the only real chance that this actually gets changed is through referendum.