Governor Brown:

Over 1 million US citizens are estimated to be legal medical marijuana patients. These citizens have chosen a natural treatment alternative, of which current state legislation approves. Despite having committed no crime in states where it is legal, in order to honestly get jobs that drug test, these citizens must discontinue the use of their effective, much-needed, quality-of-life-improving medication. Because many states have legalized this medication, denying patients job acceptance based on testing positive for marijuana is nothing but discrimination.

Patients struggle when they are unfairly forced to choose between critical treatment for a vast variety of ailments and an essential income to care for themselves and their families. All citizens deserve the right to choose which medications go into their bodies, and current policy limits the options for job-seeking patients. Companies allow the hiring of employees who test positive for much stronger pharmaceuticals, such as Vicodin and Oxycodone, and the time is long overdue for marijuana to be respected as a medication, following the law.

Our government leaders must protect the rights of patients by enacting a law stating that legal medical cannabis patients cannot be denied a job based on a marijuana positive drug test. This crucial update will allow hundreds of thousands of people to get the jobs they have been unfairly denied.