A Maine woman has filed a discrimination lawsuit against an employment agency she claims wouldn’t rehire her when it learned she smoked marijuana for medical reasons.
"No patient should be forced to choose between the pain relief she needs to live a normal life and the employment she needs to support her family," Zachary Heiden, legal director of the ACLU of Maine which is assisting in the woman's suit, told the
Portland Press Herald.
The suit claims Brittany Thomas, of Pittsfield, was being given temp work by Adecco Group North America, a global employment agency. She took a break when she became pregnant.
Thomas had been taking a prescription narcotic for severe back pain, caused in part by arthritis, but didn’t want to continue it after she gave birth. That’s when her doctor suggested marijuana and she became a certified medical marijuana patient.
But when she tried to go back to work and revealed she used medical marijuana — which also showed up in a company drug test — she was allegedly told she would not be rehired, the Herald reported.
"I choose to use medical marijuana to control my pain because it doesn't have any of the side effects of stronger pain medication, like addiction,’’ Thomas told the newspaper. “The incredible thing is: If I was using a stronger drug, I could have kept my job."
An Adecco spokeswoman told the Herald she had not seen the suit and it was premature to comment.
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