An Indiana-based federal court dismissed a lawsuit from a worker after he got a positive marijuana test result after alleged cannabidiol use. The worker claimed that he got terminated discriminatorily based on a disability. Engineer Rocchio was put through a random drug test under his company’s policy. The policy not only requires tests for marijuana but allows for termination when one gets a positive test result as well.
In 2019, the worker had to undergo a random test for marijuana content and got a positive result. Then, he said that the result was because of his cannabidiol oil use. Unfortunately, his employment got terminated in line with what is essentially a CBD and employer drug testing policy.
Rocchio accused that the union and his employer terminated him and failed to hire him again, thus breaching the Americans with Disabilities Act. He did not argue about an employer’s capability to ban illegal drug consumption. However, he claimed that it breached the act for an adverse move against him because of the consumption of a legal substance.
The court did not agree with the argument as there was a lack of evidence that his employer realized that he was using cannabidiol oil instead of marijuana when it terminated him. The termination happened based on an objective substance test result that suggested that marijuana compounds were present in the body of the worker. Rocchio argued that he informed the administrator of the company’s drug test program that he used cannabidiol oil. However, there was a lack of evidence that the said information was offered to the company in question.
Rocchio also stated that the company policy of firing all workers testing positive for the substance, categorically considers them illegal drug users and disabled as safety is the basis for the policy. On the other hand, the court did not understand that a company that does drug testing feels that every person who gets a positive result is disabled as per the said act. Furthermore, there was a lack of evidence that it believed that its employer was a disabled person, or that the person got terminated owing to a perceived disability.
The lawsuit verdict makes people re-ask this question: Does CBD show up on drug tests? The employee’s account demonstrates that cannabidiol may not have to appear in the result for one’s employer to fire them.