Q: I am concerned if I meet with a doctor and obtain approval for medical marijuana that it will be reported. What's to prevent that? - H.G., San PedroA: Medical records are subject to well-established confidentiality and privacy protections. Further, the doctor who evaluates you has no obligation to report to law enforcement or otherwise. This is so even if the doctor concludes you do not qualify for medical marijuana use. In addition, case law has come forward in which a physician recommending patients for medical marijuana was held not required to turn over records sought by the California Medical Quality Assurance Board because no sufficient reason was shown to invade the patients' privacy rights.
Q: We are going to be drug tested at work. I have a doctor's formal approval for medical marijuana use. If I test positive can they still fire me? - L.M., El Segundo
A: While having approval for medical marijuana allows you (under California law) to possess and to use a certain amount of marijuana here, it remains up to your employer's discretion concerning your employment status. You can emphasize to the employer that you are a legal patient under applicable California law, but your job may be such that marijuana use is considered too risky or simply not appropriate. It is possible that in time legal issues will be tested in a California court where an employee claims he or she can not work unless allowed to utilize medical marijuana (at least during off hours), and thus there is a disability or medical condition that must be considered, but to my knowledge this kind of situation has not resulted in a binding legal decision to date.
Q: Our 15-year-old came home from school, and told us about one of his classmates who has medical marijuana. Is there no age limit? Can anyone get it? - M.C., Torrance
A: You have to be at least l8 years of age to be able to seek approval for medical marijuana use. As to whether anyone can get it: Many who seek medical marijuana are suffering greatly. They are military persons who have been injured; people who are dealing with the effects of cancer and cancer treatments; and others who have genuine physical problems that are relieved, in part anyway, by judicious medical marijuana use. The physicians who evaluate patients for marijuana use have a fundamental obligation to carefully and competently screen patients, not rubber-stamp approvals.
NOTE: Questions arose in response to the recent column about the legality of marijuana in California. Some are addressed here. First, when I referred to a "prescription" for medical marijuana, it is more typically considered a doctor's "recommendation" or "approval for" use. Also, California law has been modified such that possession of one ounce or less of marijuana (ie, for which you do not have a doctor's approval), will be handled in many instances now as an infraction subject to a fine rather than a misdemeanor.
Ron Sokol is a Manhattan Beach-based attorney with more than 30 years of experience who has arbitrated and mediated many cases. E-mail questions and comments to him at RonSEsq@aol.com or write to him at Ask The Lawyer, Daily Breeze, 21250 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 170, Torrance, CA 90503. This column is a summary of the law, and not a substitute for legal consultation on any particular case.
Source: Daily Breeze
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