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Medical Marijuana and Jobs

dzarren

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 28, 2009
Messages
78
Location
Canada
Does Having a medical Marijuana license disable you from getting any jobs? Like Government based jobs?

What jobs do you know of that it DOES hinder me from?

I'm currently eligible for my own Medical Marijuana license but haven't yet obtained it.

I want to become a pharmacist when I'm a bit older, but am worried that getting a medical marijuana license won't let me get this job. Is this true?
 
I don't believe it stops you from getting any jobs but it WILL NOT protect your job if you fail a drug test, which most federal jobs give regularly.

Ex, you smoke MMJ, job gives you a drug test and you fail it, employer has the right to fire you.
 
it might make getting elected for president a little bit more difficult since not everyone is sympathetic to the notion of medicinal pot.

but if your not trying to become the next president or run for some sort of office where people dig up your skeletons.. i really dont think you'll have a problem. like roose said, it will not protect you when it comes to a drug test. employers still have the right to fire/not hire you for testing positive for mj, even if you can prove its for medical purposes.

but imo it can only help. from an employers stand point i would think it would look better to have a mmj card than not having one if you tested positive. atleast you werent doing anything illegal and you might be able to talk your way out of it, possibly keep your job or get a new one.
 
I ran into past students in local dispensaries. Word got around the school pretty quick through younger brothers and sisters~~long story short, no more teaching.
 
Yes well administrators at schools don't smoke and they don't want their teachers to smoke and the education system is still teaching that drugs, including marijuana, cause death. Doesn't matter... I know a lot of my students smoked. A ton of students smoke. But if word gets around that a teacher has her medical card, oh no. America's education system is totally fucked up and backwards and promotes bigotry and old white values, even in black schools.
 
No I was asked to resign because I could not pass a drug test. Regardless, once they found out I smoked, all sorts of rumors started that I hard core into drugs... I never used anything at or near the school though. I followed all the rules. Still.... there is no way schools want teachers who believe marijuana is ok. We spend a lot of money feeding kids a lot of bullshit about drugs.
 
Education authorities will stomp on you much in the same way as law enforcement officials will if you want to practice being a teacher or a cop and carry on using. But how weird is this? I had to declare my bust convictions before becoming a licenced teacher in Oz, and they were happy to sign me on. It was a stat dec and all they wanted me to do was fess up (which I reluctantly did) because they do background checks as a matter of process. Honesty pays, they told me, BUT, pity help me if I ever tested positive whilst employed by them. Hmmm. I do empathise, Ugly.

In an earlier thread I suggested issues would arise with insurance should something untowards happen and an employee tested positive. I just don't see how it could be otherwise, whether you use cannabis with a card or not. I can't see employers risking lawsuits or payouts for damages or injury, or insurance companies covering claims where drug use is a mitigating factor.

I'd love to know how it works in the Netherlands or Switzerland with their less anal approach to Cannabis use. I assume people still work over there, and there would have to be a few tokers among them. Can someone from over that way comment?
 
losthippy, I think a part of the question has to do with the feeling of being in the closet about it. All the Febreeze and whatnot, being sure I never took a pipe or bud to school. It's like being a closeted gay and it offends the fuck out of me because there is nothing wrong with it and as soon as I started seeing my graduated seniors in the local dispensaries, I knew I was fucked. And for what? I am a good teacher and some of students are just coming out of the navy or just graduating. All this time I've stayed in touch with some of them. They told me our discussions in our English classes were fun and funny, which they usually. Shakespeare is a lot more funny when you realize how many times he refers to a persons genitals... just like the stand up comedians of our day. I have an open mind. I encourage thinking outside the box. But the box has gotten on top of us. Standards based teaching with everything based on one single test in a years time....it's totally made school horribly boring. I didn't have a boring class. And that got attention.... and the rest is history.
 
Don't want to be seen as hijacking dzarren's more general thread point, but I concur 100% with your views, ugly, and your viewpoint/experience dovetails perfectly with my own other than being asked to leave. I've taught in international schools in a certain region for a decade now and the issue of testing has never arisen... more the risk of jail time and deportation, or a whole lot worse if caught using or holding.
Whilst it hasn't happened yet the time is coming where drug-testing will become wide-spread in all Aussie workplaces. And there won't be rules for us and different rules for medical marijuana recipients doing the same jobs. I can't imagine medical marijuana gaining even notional acceptance the way things are going. In short, if you use you won't work Downunda unless you can beat the tests. :/
 
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damn hip, that shit is crazy. There's nothing wrong with it in the slightest bit but we've got to be told we can't have it. It makes absolutely no sense. We can have glass of wine. Wine is made of grapes, and bud is made from Cannabis, and beer is made from hops, a relative of the marijuana strain, so WHY is marijuana so maligned? We aren't doing anything wrong, and just as the gay population has had to take drastic measures, the pot community is going to have to do the same thing but they have the obvious loss of their jobs to think about. I as a teacher can't go to any marijuana events or marches in LA. If I get seen there I'm an automatic pariah in mainstream society. Hippies were trying to change main stream society for that very reason. Why should we be told what to do, in particular, how it pertains to how much of anything is too much. It's not cool to come to your job hungover, or worse, drunk, but if you party it up on the weekend, that's fine. But if you smoked a joint and somebody got you smoking on their cell phone, you find yourself ass-deep in high district officials. BUT I AM NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG.
 
I have applied at a lot of places throughout the world for teaching English as a second language and I can't find a foothold. Any suggestions?
 
Still.... there is no way schools want teachers who believe marijuana is ok. We spend a lot of money feeding kids a lot of bullshit about drugs.

That's to bad - I assume you were not a university professor? Around this reach of the world, teachers are not drug tested. I have smoked with more than one back in high school.
 
This is from another thread, and while it's not exactly what you asked, it's related.
It will all depend on the state you are in and the specific laws and regulations your state has passed. In Colorado, You will be on a list, accessible to Law Enforcement and Dispensaries (to confirm you are a legit cardholders). That list isn't public. It cannot prevent you from getting a job, or health insurance, but there is no legal protection against a drug test or denial of work based on the results of the test. So basically, no one (except LEO or a dispensary that you authorize) can find out if you are a card-holder unless you tell them, but if they drug test you, your card basically means nothing to them legally.

It's different in every state though.
Here's the thread, all four posts

A local BLer, who is a student on the way to becoming a lawyer, chooses not to get a card for fear of someone finding it later. But for right now, that list is supposed to be confidential. While that's a plus, the card/list doesn't protect you if you're caught by a drug test... double edged sword.
 
Education authorities will stomp on you much in the same way as law enforcement officials will if you want to practice being a teacher or a cop and carry on using. But how weird is this? I had to declare my bust convictions before becoming a licenced teacher in Oz, and they were happy to sign me on. It was a stat dec and all they wanted me to do was fess up (which I reluctantly did) because they do background checks as a matter of process. Honesty pays, they told me, BUT, pity help me if I ever tested positive whilst employed by them. Hmmm. I do empathise, Ugly.

In an earlier thread I suggested issues would arise with insurance should something untowards happen and an employee tested positive. I just don't see how it could be otherwise, whether you use cannabis with a card or not. I can't see employers risking lawsuits or payouts for damages or injury, or insurance companies covering claims where drug use is a mitigating factor.

I'd love to know how it works in the Netherlands or Switzerland with their less anal approach to Cannabis use. I assume people still work over there, and there would have to be a few tokers among them. Can someone from over that way comment?

If you're a cop or soldier, it's not (at least officially) accepted to use drugs. But if you're basically anything else it's fine, as long as you keep that shit at home :). I don't think it's legal for an employer to fire you over drug use when you aren't actually intoxicated at the workplace. I don't know about drug testing and the legality of it but it sounds like some straight nazi shit to me and employers should mind their own business.
 
@ugly... check your email.
@wizzle:"I don't think it's legal for an employer to fire you over drug use when you aren't actually intoxicated at the workplace." Here-in lies the problem, and it's down to the interpretation of intoxicated at the workplace. Some would argue you are intoxicated (impaired?) if a drug test detects whatever you've previously taken still in your system. Different people's tolerance thresholds put this variable to the test and no-one's game to define what 'intoxication' is. Until someone does I can only see lawmakers taking the moral high ground about the matter of using whatever substance you use in the first place.
As for ugly's experience, education and other positions of influence like those filled by health-care/psych professionals or social workers etc. are a philosophical issue. You might not turn up to work red-eyed or wired but neither do the authorities want your more liberal attitude to drugs undermining their prohibitionist policies towards it.
The stereotyped Freak Brothers doper is not where we are now, and I can't think of a profession (except the clergy, maybe?) where illicit drug use doesn't happen.
 
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