An Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Scott Martin joined the Buffalo Fire Department in 2009.
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It was during oral arguments that attorney David Holland got a sense that Scott Martin, an Air Force veteran and firefighter who was terminated for medical cannabis use, would soon be back on the job.
Holland represented Martin in his lawsuit against the City of Buffalo and the Buffalo Fire Department. Martin was seeking full reinstatement and to be reassigned back to his original rank and platoon after being fired in Dec. 2020.
For nearly 12 years, Martin had worked as an EMT and firefighter for the city and he was eventually assigned to a truck and platoon that covered his childhood neighbourhood. It was important for him to return to the same area.
“I had always wanted to be a firefighter. That was my purpose in life,” Martin told The GrowthOp last year. “And then just to lose everything like that was just … it was a shock. But I’ve been working through it and I’m doing better every day.”
Nearly two years to the date he was fired, Martin returned to work.
In December, Martin and the City of Buffalo reached a settlement on Martin’s civil claims seeking to enforce his rights as a certified and registered medical marijuana patient under New York’s Compassionate Care Act (CCA), a 2014 law that allows state residents to purchase and possess cannabis-based products under very limited medical circumstances.
Just days before Christmas in 2020, Martin was suspended under the terms of a 2011 collective bargaining agreement after he tested positive for cannabis. Two months later, as he continued his use of medical cannabis and again tested positive, he was fired.
Holland says the case is the first of its kind in the U.S. to “really take on collective bargaining as a whole when it comes to the rights of medical patients.”
In Martin’s case, Holland says the CBA had not caught up with changes in the law, and similar situations are playing out across the rest of the U.S.
“The last version of [the CBA] was written before the medical marijuana law was passed in New York,” Holland told The GrowthOp in a video call. “But then — and the city admitted this, surprisingly — they opted to continue to keep their drug testing policy and basically a prohibition on marijuana, whether medical or otherwise.”
Holland said that during the course of the case, it was revealed the city considered adding an exemption for medical cannabis patients in 2018 but decided against it unless they received concessions in other areas.
He says that while certain rights can be bargained away, such as what is said within the confines of a workplace or on social media after work hours, disability status is not one of them.
“You can’t bargain away somebody’s protected rights that are given to them by a statute saying you can’t discriminate against them,” he says. “The union never really thought about it in the context of people like Scott.”
Martin qualified as a registered medical consumer due to a back injury that didn’t respond well to a variety of other treatments, including opioids, nerve blockers and X-ray-assisted spinal injections.
Martin knew he would test positive for cannabis and provided his employer with his prescription before the results came in.
Holland says, despite Martin’s legal status as a qualified patient, the City of Buffalo continued to treat cannabis as if it were illegal.
“When you read New York’s medical law, that thinking is exactly what it’s designed to change,” he says. “It’s designed to protect people that do use it as medicine as Scott does.”
Now back on the job, Martin says he’s glad the case is over and things are slowly returning to normal, though there are a few new faces at the firehouse and some other friends have moved on.
“I’m back to doing what I love to do,” he says. “It’ll get back to normal. It’s not there yet, but it’ll get there.”
He is continuing his use of medical cannabis and, after spending much of his time away from the job working on his garden, he’s now looking forward to growing a few cannabis plants of his own.
He consumes cannabis after work in the evenings and has found relief after identifying the cultivars and products that work for him. He says he never intended to be a spokesperson for other people, he was fighting for his own rights, but he doesn’t back down once challenged.
“That’s just the type of person I am,” he says. He admits, though, that it was strange to have his personal health issues aired out nationally and to receive media attention from across the continent.
“It had to be someone, I guess. It is weird, though, to think about it sometimes, and have stories written about me and see myself on TV. But someone had to do it. So it might as well be me.”
Holland, who previously won a case in Albany for a probationer who was told they couldn’t consume medical cannabis due to their background, serves as the executive and legal director for the New York state affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). He is also a pro bono legal advisor to the Last Prisoner Project, which seeks clemency and habeas corpus relief for prisoners of the War on Drugs.
He didn’t need much convincing to take on Martin’s case.
“When Scott called me, it just seemed so unfair what had happened to him, given the rights that medical patients have,” he says.
“Here’s a guy who’s fought for his country, fights to help the lives of people in Buffalo, and what can you say, except for God bless you, you’re out there doing it all for your fellow citizens,” he says. “And then he gets terminated for something that not only is not a bad plant, but effective medicine.”
Holland’s background severed him well during oral arguments when says he and the City of Buffalos attorney went back and forth in front of the judge for nearly an hour and a half.
“I found myself in a position that was more teaching than arguing,” he says. “I was able to educate [the judge] on what the laws and protections are and why you shouldn’t just believe a collective bargaining agreement should be in control. There’s been an evolution of the law that nobody’s really challenged before. So Scott was the first to really challenge in a way that nobody else in the country had.”
He says the City’s arguments appealed to emotion, to try and get a knee-jerk reaction, a stance that he says is well past dated at this point.
“The national studies that have been done in multiple countries where legalization or otherwise medical cannabis has been allowed shows that this isn’t a great risk, and it’s not a great harm and that it doesn’t make you negligent or incapable of doing your job when it’s done responsibly,” he says.
He adds that he believes the judge started to become swayed not only heard as they heard Holland’s arguments but also as the city, which was arguing to get the case dismissed, resorted to personal attacks on Martin’s character.
“I had no doubt that Scott was going to get all the relief he asked for. And that’s why I think they changed and decided to settle it pretty quickly thereafter,” Holland says. “They knew that the writing was on the wall.”
After nearly two years, Martin was restored to the same rank, seniority, salary, and benefits that he held immediately before he was suspended. He also received an undisclosed cash settlement. Beyond that, the City and Fire Department now must recognize Martin’s status and rights as a registered medical marijuana patient.
“He got everything he asked for,” Holland says. “The war is over.”
Holland believes the case will now be the standard by which similar cases get evaluated going forward in New York.
“Scott really bravely stood up, not only for his country and as a firefighter, but for the rights of medical patients. He said that this doesn’t make me a bad person, it doesn’t make me a bad firefighter, in fact, allows me to be a better fighter because I can go to bed, get through issues with pain and PTSD and go on and save the lives of citizens on a daily basis,” he says. “It’s a big win for the power of the rights of medical patients over collective bargaining agreements.”
H/T: www.thegrowthop.com
