Supreme Court of Colorado: Deciding as to whether use of medical marijuana that is licensed by the State of Colorado but prohibited under federal law is justifiable to terminate an employee who consumes medical marijuana off-duty to treat painful muscle spas caused by quadriplegia, a division bench of Eid and Marquez JJ., held that under the plain language of Section 24-34-402.5 C.R.S. (2014), Colorado’s “lawful activities statute”, the term “lawful” refers only to those activities that are lawful under both State and federal law, and therefore, employees who are engage in an activity such as medical marijuana use that is permitted by State law, but unlawful under federal law are not protected by the statute.
The Attorney for the petitioner, Michael D. Evans, argued that the respondent violated Section 24-34-402.5 C.R.S. (2014) by discharging him from the service due to his state-licensed use of medical marijuana at home during non-working hours, which is “lawful” under Colo. Const. Art. XVIII S. 14 of the
The trial court dismissed the petitioner’s complaint for failure to state a claim after finding that Medical Marijuana Amendment does not make the use of medical marijuana “lawful activity within the meaning of Section 24-34-402.5. The majority of Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the trial court that medical use of marijuana is prohibited by federal law, as it is not “lawful activity” for the purpose of Section 24-34-402.5. The Court granted Certiorari and after review of the Court of Appeals opinion, affirmed that the term “lawful” as it is used in Section 24-34-402.5 of the
