Texas judge says teacher can’t lose certification for using pot in Colorado

What a mess this is going to be when Jeff Sessions starts going after the states who already legalized pot:

As more and more individual states continue to change the laws regarding the criminalization of marijuana use, issues with the differences in these laws continue to occur. What happens when an individual becomes trapped in a collision of the legal use of the drug in one state with the criminal use of the drug in another?

This is exactly what happened to a Texas high school teacher who is being threatened with having her teaching license suspended because she tested positive for marijuana in a drug test ordered by the school officials.

The Case

Maryam Roland was a teacher at Parkland High School in El Paso. She had been employed by the district since 2008 and had no disciplinary actions on her employment record.

During the Christmas break of 2014-2015, Ms. Roland traveled to Colorado. Upon resumption of classes after the holiday, she was confronted by school officials over alleged marijuana use.

According to media reports, a former school employee had written an email which referenced drug use by Roland and other school employees. It was this email that prompted school administrators to question Roland and require a drug test. Marijuana use is illegal in Texas.

Roland’s drug test was positive for marijuana and she admitted to these officials that she had consumed an edible marijuana product while she had been visiting Colorado. Marijuana use is legal in Colorado.

Roland resigned from her teaching position in February 2015, however, the Texas Education Agency still sought to suspend her license. Even though she resigned, without that suspension, she could return to teaching at any time.

The education agency filed for a hearing with the State Office of Administrative Hearings to push for that suspension. The administrative judge recently denied the suspension, comparing Roland’s use of marijuana with gambling, which is also illegal in Texas.

The judge pointed out that if a person gambled in Nevada – where it is legal – no action could then be taken against that person when they returned to Texas. He declined to suspend Roland’s teaching license.

Moving Forward

A spokesperson for the education agency told the media that they would continue to pursue the case, referencing the State Board of Educator Certification.

That board has the authority to also take action against Roland, including reprimands, suspension of her teaching certificate, or even revocation of her teaching certificate.

Legal vs Illegal

Laws in eight states have been changed, legalizing marijuana use for recreational purposes. Another 29 states have passed medical marijuana laws, however, employee drug testing laws have not been updated to reflect the changes in marijuana laws.

Defense attorney Stephen Hamilton commented, “In many states, a person who has been approved for medical marijuana use can still be fired for testing positive in an employer-required drug test if they test positive for marijuana.”

In one Colorado case, one of the first states to legalize the drug, a man was fired from his job for testing positive for marijuana in a random drug test. The man was partially paralyzed from a car accident and uses medical marijuana to help alleviate painful muscle spasms.

The case made it all the way to the Colorado Supreme Court, which agreed with the lower courts’ rulings that said employers can fire even medical marijuana users who test positive.

Many legal analysts say that a major issue is that under federal law, marijuana is still illegal, and that is still a strong, persuasive argument for judicial authorities.