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Spotted this closed thread on Customers Suck (this was the topic that made me get off my butt and register here). Since the thread was closed, I couldn't add my comment there, but I can understand WalMart's reasoning.
As a professional driver, I am subject to random drug tests, and am therefore somewhat familiar with the procedures which are followed. In the United States, Marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug (i.e. prohibited under all circumstances). The regulations for drug testing state that "medical marijuana prescribed by a physician" will NOT be considered a legitimate reason for a positive drug test.
For comparison purposes, if as a result of pain due to a broken bone, I were prescribed Tylenol 3 which contains coedine (circumstances which happened when I worked in a factory job), I would be prohibited from driving commercially in the U.S. while taking it (since it's an opiate), but if I were called in for a random test a couple days after return to work (i.e. metabolites still in my system), the fact that I had been prescribed this medication (would need to give proof to the testing agency), combined with an opiate metabolite level consistent with the dosage I had been prescribed and the time since discontinuing it (i.e. test results showing opiate residue but at a level indicating that the prescirbed Tylenol 3 was the only source) would result in the test being recorded as a negative.
There is a workaround he and his doctor could have used (since the MSNBC story linked to from the CS thread says that the marijuana was prescribed by his doctor and he had a state-sanctioned card saying he could legally use the drug) would be for his doctor to have determined a dosage of Marinol (synthetic THC which is supposed to have the pain relief/antinausea prperties of marijuana, but which various sources say doesn't work as advertised) which would have produced the same THC metabolites as the dosage of marijuana which worked for him, and prescribed the Marinol, with instructions to buy it (to generate a paper trail), but discard it and use the marijuana instead. This would have resulted in a situation similar to the example I gave above - the test would show drug residue, but there would be documentation that he had been prescribed a legal (at the federal level) drug in a dosage which would account for that residue, and the testing agency would then report the result as negative (since the test is for illegal drug consumption.
Note that I am just trying to explain why a firing over medical marijuana could be legally justified - whether or not marijuana should be moved to a lower schedule (i.e. so at the federal level it would be legal to prescribe) is a matter for Fratching.
As a professional driver, I am subject to random drug tests, and am therefore somewhat familiar with the procedures which are followed. In the United States, Marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug (i.e. prohibited under all circumstances). The regulations for drug testing state that "medical marijuana prescribed by a physician" will NOT be considered a legitimate reason for a positive drug test.
For comparison purposes, if as a result of pain due to a broken bone, I were prescribed Tylenol 3 which contains coedine (circumstances which happened when I worked in a factory job), I would be prohibited from driving commercially in the U.S. while taking it (since it's an opiate), but if I were called in for a random test a couple days after return to work (i.e. metabolites still in my system), the fact that I had been prescribed this medication (would need to give proof to the testing agency), combined with an opiate metabolite level consistent with the dosage I had been prescribed and the time since discontinuing it (i.e. test results showing opiate residue but at a level indicating that the prescirbed Tylenol 3 was the only source) would result in the test being recorded as a negative.
There is a workaround he and his doctor could have used (since the MSNBC story linked to from the CS thread says that the marijuana was prescribed by his doctor and he had a state-sanctioned card saying he could legally use the drug) would be for his doctor to have determined a dosage of Marinol (synthetic THC which is supposed to have the pain relief/antinausea prperties of marijuana, but which various sources say doesn't work as advertised) which would have produced the same THC metabolites as the dosage of marijuana which worked for him, and prescribed the Marinol, with instructions to buy it (to generate a paper trail), but discard it and use the marijuana instead. This would have resulted in a situation similar to the example I gave above - the test would show drug residue, but there would be documentation that he had been prescribed a legal (at the federal level) drug in a dosage which would account for that residue, and the testing agency would then report the result as negative (since the test is for illegal drug consumption.
Note that I am just trying to explain why a firing over medical marijuana could be legally justified - whether or not marijuana should be moved to a lower schedule (i.e. so at the federal level it would be legal to prescribe) is a matter for Fratching.
I just think they rely too much on "approval"....they probably don't approve of ancient medical uses for herbs either...doesn't fit into the regulations 
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