County Worker Smoking Pot as Medicine Is Fired

An Orange County flood-control employee who resumed smoking marijuana to treat symptoms of glaucoma following the passage of Proposition 215 was fired Friday after failing a drug test.

Rod Dunaway was initially placed on paid administrative leave after failing a random workplace drug test Feb. 13 for the second time in a year. In a subsequent meeting with supervisors, Dunaway said, he explained that he smokes marijuana once each evening to relieve the buildup of fluids in his eyes.

County officials rejected his argument and fired him in a letter he received Friday.

“They say it’s a violation of Orange County policy,” said Dunaway, 38, a heavy-equipment operator who smokes marijuana with his doctor’s knowledge--but without the doctor’s formal approval.

County officials could not be reached immediately for comment. Cynthia Pickett, executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 787, said the union would file a request for arbitration on Monday to preserve Dunaway’s right to appeal the dismissal. But she said it’s unclear what other steps the union would take.

“The bottom line is we’re willing to work with the county,” she said. “We understand their liability issue with somebody testing positive for controlled substances. In this case, we have mitigating circumstances that come into play.”

Dunaway, who was diagnosed with glaucoma at age 19, said he plans to file federal discrimination complaints accusing the county of violating workplace rules set by the Americans with Disabilities Act and under the Department of Fair Housing and Employment.

Dunaway, who operates heavy machinery used to clear flood-control channels, said he understands that the county might not want him driving the machinery, even though he smokes the marijuana only in the evenings.

“I admit it’s their equipment,” Dunaway said. “I’m there doing a job for them. They have the right to take me off the equipment. But on the same token, I believe that I have the right to be placed in a position that wouldn’t put the county in any liability.”

Under Proposition 215, criminal penalties were removed for possession of marijuana by patients if its use is recommended by a physician. In Dunaway’s case, he said, his doctor refused to prescribe marijuana because of threats from the Clinton Administration that it would prosecute doctors prescribing drugs not meeting with federal approval. Dunaway declined to identify his doctor but said the physician was aware that Dunaway was taking the drug.

Marvin Chavez, chairman of the Cannabis Co-Op, a strong backer of Proposition 215, said the group would try to help Dunaway in his fight, including finding lawyers to help with legal challenges.

“I just totally disagree with [the county’s] decision,” he said. “They are going to put a good man into anguish, him and his family, because of his medicine. It’s ridiculous. This is not a war on medicine. It’s a war on people’s lives.”

Chavez said he has discussed the use of marijuana with Dunaway, a co-op member, and that he believes Dunaway uses the drug responsibly, smoking before bed in a regimen that his bosses didn’t know about until he was found out in random drug tests.

“He treats his medicine very seriously,” Chavez said.

Dunaway said he has used marijuana off and on for about 15 years because it is the only medication he has found that relieves the pressure glaucoma builds up in his eyes without giving him side effects ranging from high blood pressure to dizziness.

Dunaway first failed a county drug test in March 1996. To keep his job, he said, he agreed to give up marijuana, accept a 30-day unpaid suspension, go through four months of rehabilitation and be on probation for a year.

But by last December, on the heels of the passage of Proposition 215 and facing pain that felt like “a finger poking in the back of the eye,” he started smoking again.

Dunaway is married and the father of two daughters, ages 13 and 4. His wife works in the animal services field, he said, declining to identify it further. His job paid about $2,700 a month.

“This is going to be very difficult, very hard,” he said. “I have a house payment. I have two car payments. I’m probably going to have to get into my retirement fund to sustain us through until this is over.”