When can employers take action if their staff test positive to medicinal marijuana? (Getty: Rocky89) Earlier this year, a Brisbane man, whose job involved loading and unloading ship cargo, was fired after testing positive for THC in a random workplace drug test.
Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is a cannabinoid commonly found in cannabis, and Michael Gauci had a doctor’s prescription for medicinal marijuana.
So after he lost his job, he lodged an unfair dismissal claim against his employer, multinational logistics company DP World. Informative, jargon-free stories about law reform, legal education, test cases, miscarriages of justice and legal culture. But things didn’t turn out quite the way he thought they would.
And as Belinda Winter, a workplace relations and safety lawyer, tells ABC Radio National’s The Law Report , the case demonstrates the gap between Australia’s occupational health and safety laws and the use of medicinal marijuana. Rise in prescriptions
In 2016, medicinal marijuana was first legalised in Australia. Since then, the number of patients using the drug to treat chronic pain, anxiety, and cancer-related nausea has increased annually.
In 2019, around 18,000 Australians were prescribed medicinal cannabis products.
By January 2024, that number had grown to around one million patients, according to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
And the number of medical and nurse practitioners who can now prescribe medicinal marijuana has also risen sharply.
In Mr Gauci’s case, he was using medicinal marijuana, in the form of an oil and a vape, to treat a mental health condition.He had worked as a stevedore at DP World for nearly two decades, and prior to the drug test he had an impeccable work record. Yet his application for unfair dismissal was dismissed by the Fair Work Commission.So why did this happen? A Brisbane man lost an unfair dismissal claim against his shipping company employer after a random workplace drug test detected marijuana. (Getty: Connect images) Mr Gauci was scheduled to work on February 5, 2024. He started work at 7am and picked up one container box, before he was told that he needed to undergo a random drug and alcohol test that day."On the relevant day, […]
What are the common misconceptions about taking medicinal cannabis and going to work?
