## Facts

- Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic, worked for Dish Network, LLC as a customer service representative from about 2007 to 2010.
- Coats obtained a state-issued medical marijuana license in 2009 and used medical marijuana at home during nonworking hours to manage muscle spasms.
- Dish maintained a drug-free workplace policy and conducted random drug testing.
- In May 2010, Coats tested positive for THC on a random test and told Dish the result reflected his licensed medical marijuana use.
- Dish terminated Coats for violating its drug policy.
- Coats alleged he did not use marijuana at work and that his off-duty use did not impair his work performance.
- Coats sued under Colorado’s “lawful activities” statute, § 24-34-402.5, C.R.S., claiming the discharge was based on lawful off-premises, off-hours conduct permitted by Colorado’s Medical Marijuana Amendment.

## Issues

1. Whether “lawful activity” in § 24-34-402.5 includes medical marijuana use permitted by Colorado law but prohibited by the federal Controlled Substances Act.
2. Whether an employer may terminate an employee for off-duty medical marijuana use without violating § 24-34-402.5.

## Decision

- The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed dismissal of Coats’s complaint for failure to state a claim.
- The court held that “lawful” in § 24-34-402.5 means lawful under both state and federal law.
- Because marijuana use is unlawful under federal law, Coats’s medical marijuana use was not a protected “lawful activity” under the statute.
- Dish therefore did not violate § 24-34-402.5 by terminating Coats for his off-duty medical marijuana use.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory interpretation begins with plain meaning; an unqualified term like “lawful” is read according to its ordinary meaning, not limited to state law absent textual direction.
- For § 24-34-402.5, “lawful” refers to conduct permitted by law in both sovereigns when federal law criminalizes the conduct.
- The federal Controlled Substances Act’s prohibition on marijuana renders marijuana use unlawful for purposes of a state statute requiring “lawful” conduct, even if state law permits medical use.
- A state constitutional provision permitting medical marijuana functions as protection from specified state-law consequences and does not convert federally prohibited conduct into “lawful” conduct for unrelated employment-protection statutes.
- Courts will not add limiting language to a statute (such as “lawful under state law”) when the legislature did not include it.

## Conclusion

Colorado’s lawful activities statute does not protect off-duty medical marijuana use because the activity remains illegal under federal law; therefore, an employer may discharge an employee for such use without violating § 24-34-402.5.


Coats v. Dish Network, LLC, 350 P.3d 849 (Colo. 2015)