Today a federal judge in Michigan will begin hearing arguments in a lawsuit filed on behalf of Joseph Casias, the legal medical marijuana patient who was wrongfully terminated by a Battle Creek Wal-Mart because he tested positive for marijuana during a drug screen.

Casias, 30, is a husband, father of two, and 2008 store Associate of the Year, who suffers from an inoperable brain tumor and sinus cancer that is now in remission. His outrageous firing last year for using a state-legal, doctor-approved medicine to ease his pain garnered widespread media coverage and led MPP and others to call for a national boycott of Wal-Mart.

Casias is being represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and its Michigan chapter. According to the Battle Creek Enquirer, today “Casias’ attorneys will ask the court to deny a motion filed by Wal-Mart seeking dismissal of the case and reject the company’s attempts to have the case tried in federal court instead of state court.”

Casias’s firing violates the “Michigan Medical Marihuana Act,” which MPP helped pass in 2008 and reads in part that a qualifying patient shall not be “denied any right or privilege, including but not limited to … disciplinary action by a business or occupational or professional licensing board or bureau, for the medical use of marihuana.” Under the law, the definition of “medical use” contains “internal possession”— having marijuana in one’s system. The law does not require employers to allow the “ingestion of marihuana in any workplace” or employees to work while under the influence, but there has been no allegation that Casias used marijuana at work or worked while impaired.

“Joseph is exactly the kind of patient Michigan voters had in mind when they passed the [Michigan Medical Marihuana Act],” read an ACLU statement when the lawsuit was first filed. “We’re asking the court to not allow Wal-Mart to punish Joseph for merely taking refuge from his pain, and using marijuana as allowed by state law. Corporations should never be allowed to force patients to choose between their health care and their job.”

We’ll be following the case closely, so stay tuned for details.

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Joseph Casias, 29, has sinus cancer and an inoperable brain tumor.

Despite his condition, he has dutifully gone to work every day for the last five years at a Wal-Mart in Battle Creek, Michigan, where in 2008 he was named Associate of the Year.

Casias is also a legal medical marijuana patient under Michigan state law. He uses marijuana with the recommendation of his doctor to relieve the effects of cancer.

But Wal-Mart, the world’s largest public corporation, has no sympathy for his condition or regard for Michigan’s state law. Last November, Wal-Mart fired Casias because he tested positive for marijuana during a routine drug screening.

Here’s what a Wal-Mart spokesman had to say:

“In states, such as Michigan, where prescriptions for marijuana can be obtained, an employer can still enforce a policy that requires termination of employment following a positive drug screen. We believe our policy complies with the law and we support decisions based on the policy.”

To add insult to injury, Wal-Mart is now challenging Casias’ eligibility for unemployment. Simply outrageous. This is the thanks he gets for showing up to work and doing his job for the last five years, despite being stricken with a potentially life-threatening illness. “I gave them everything,” Casias told a local news outlet. “One-hundred-ten percent every day. Anything they asked me to do I did. More than they asked me to do. Twelve to 14 hours a day.”

Sadly, the dilemma facing medical marijuana patients who still have no legal protection from being fired is nothing new.

Readers who would like to register a complaint with Wal-Mart can find corporate contact information here.

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