A Washington, D.C. administrative court has reversed the termination of a government employee and medical cannabis patient who was fired after being suspected of intoxication on the job and subsequently tested positive for marijuana in late 2020. It also ordered the Office of Unified Communications (OUC) to reimburse the worker for all back pay and benefits.
The D.C. Office of Employee Appeals (OEA) ruled in favor of the employee, who petitioned the termination in April 2021, arguing that OUC falsely accused her of being impaired because her eyes were red and she was talking quietly, prompting supervisors to initiate a reasonable suspicion referral and drug test that did show THC metabolites in her system.
The employee asserted that her eyes may have appeared red because she had received almost no sleep after being informed of her brother’s hospitalization from a drug overdose, after which point she stayed at the hospital and then returned to her next shift just hours after returning home. She said she was tired but stable enough to perform the job.
She further provided proof both to the employer and OEA that she was a registered medical cannabis patient. She said she hadn’t used cannabis on the
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