## Facts

- Gary Ross suffered chronic back pain and muscle spasms and used marijuana pursuant to a physician’s recommendation under California’s Compassionate Use Act of 1996 (CUA).
- RagingWire Telecommunications offered Ross a lead systems administrator job conditioned on passing a preemployment drug test; Ross began working while results were pending.
- The test returned positive for THC; Ross disclosed his medically recommended use and provided documentation.
- RagingWire terminated Ross after a few days because of his marijuana use; Ross alleged his use did not impair job performance.
- RagingWire demurred; the trial court sustained the demurrer without leave to amend and entered judgment for RagingWire.
- The Court of Appeal affirmed; the California Supreme Court granted review.

## Issues

1. Whether the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) requires an employer to reasonably accommodate an employee/applicant’s physician-recommended medical marijuana use by excusing a positive preemployment drug test.
2. Whether terminating employment for such marijuana use supports a common-law wrongful termination claim based on public policy derived from the CUA and/or FEHA.

## Decision

- The California Supreme Court affirmed the judgment for RagingWire (5–2).
- The court held FEHA does not require accommodation of medical marijuana use, including excusing a positive THC drug test.
- The court held termination based on medical marijuana use does not violate public policy grounded in the CUA or FEHA.
- Because Ross could not state a viable cause of action on these theories, the demurrer without leave to amend was properly sustained.

## Legal Principles

- The CUA provides a limited defense to certain state criminal sanctions for medical marijuana use; it does not create employment protections or regulate employer-employee rights and duties.
- FEHA’s reasonable-accommodation duty does not extend to requiring an employer to tolerate current use of a substance that remains illegal under federal law.
- An employer may require preemployment drug testing and may consider illegal drug use in employment decisions.
- A public-policy wrongful termination claim requires a clear, employment-related public policy; neither the CUA’s criminal-law purpose nor FEHA supplies a policy compelling accommodation of medical marijuana use.

## Conclusion

California law, as applied in this case, permits an employer to refuse to hire or to discharge an employee who tests positive for marijuana, even when the employee’s use is medically recommended under state law, because neither FEHA nor the CUA requires workplace accommodation or supplies a public policy barring such action.


Ross v. RagingWire Telecommunications, Inc., 42 Cal. 4th 920, 174 P.3d 200 (Cal. 2008)