Patients who are OK'd for medical marijuana are finding out the hard way that it doesn't necessarily mean employers are OK with their prescriptions, Bakersfield TV station KGET reported.

The California Supreme Court ruled a company that fired an employee for using medical marijuana was within its rights. Employers must argue that the pot impairs the employee from doing their job — and the decision doesn't just apply to patients carrying a card, but to pain killers and other medicines that could have adverse affects on performance.

However, if an anti-drug policy isn't in place and the employees don't know about it, workers on prescription medicines have a good chance contesting their employer in court.

San Francisco State Senator Mark Leno proposed a bill in the spring to protect medical marijuana users from being fired from their job, but he later indefinitely delayed it.

Is it fair that patients with a prescription — not just medical marijuana patients, but patients using other pain medicines as well — could be fired from their job for following their doctor's advice?

While I'm sure there's a joke here using the usual "In Soviet Russia…" meme, sometimes it takes an outsider to show how stupid and contradictory the war against marijuana really is.

In this commentary from The Voice of Russia, Gladkov Vladimir discusses the current federal crackdown on California dispensaries. It's a truly depressing state of affairs when a country that's broken the shackles of communism and embraced the free market (albeit in a very extreme manner) in the last 20 years sees the obvious stupidity of shutting down access to patients in need.

"In any event," Vladmir writes, "the Obama administration has picked the wrong moment for the launch of its questionable campaign. While the country is hopelessly struggling with the economic and social depression it seems that there are a lot more urgent problems to address than persecuting producers of a medical substance."

No doubt the Chinese will chime in about this as well — making this issue a true international laughingstock.

In a dramatic change in posture, the Los Angeles City Council is exploring the possibility of shutting down collectives throughout the city.

While the city has tried to balance granting access to patients and regulating the dispensaries, Los Angeles has been staunchly pro-medical marijuana. However, Councilman Jose Huizar's motion would close all dispensaries in the city.

Huizar's motion stems from a recent Long Beach court decision that found any regulation of medical marijuana on the city level invalid because the laws are in violation of federal drug statutes.

Though the ban was proposed the same week as Thanksgiving, the holiday did not deter patient access advocates from turning out to the hearing on Wednesday, Nov. 23, reported the Los Angeles Times.

Yamileth Bolanos, president of the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance, said, "For six years, this council has done nothing. We came and told you about the proliferation of the collectives in the city. This council did nothing. Irresponsible to do nothing? Yes, it was very irresponsible to do nothing. And today, calling for a ban is the most irresponsible thing you can do because you're turning over the distribution of medical marijuana to the cartels and the gangs in the city."

An urgent message was flashed to pro-medical marijuana advocates today, stating that Los Angeles Councilman Jose Huizar would introduce an emergency motion to ban collectives.

The move will supposedly take advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday and the lack of interest in legislative affairs during the shortened holiday week. Huizar's motion is being proposed despite a similar legislation by Councilmembers Bernard Parks and Jan Perry.

Pro-marijuana advocates are urged to attend the motion's hearing tomorrow, Wednesday Nov. 23, at the City Hall's 3rd Floor at 10 a.m. Angelinos who cannot make the hearing are urged to email, write and leave voicemail messages for their councilmembers.

A San Diego judge nixed efforts on the part of four collectives and two patients to halt the federal government from closing dispensaries.

U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy issued letters on Oct. 4 and Oct. 7 to dispensaries and landlords in the San Diego area stating they had 45 days to cease operations or face forfeiture of their property and assets.

Nathan Shaman, a lawyer for San Diego dispensaries, told The San Diego Union-Tribune, "There are varying responses. Some have shut down. Others do want to fight this. It’s a personal decision for everyone."

While sympathetic to their plight, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw would not issue the restraining order against the government. She added that there's not much chance pro-medical marijuana advocates will prevail in higher courts because the laws have no standing in federal statutes.

One of these things is not like the other: former U.S. Attorneys John McKay and Kate Pflaumer, former head of the FBI's Seattle office Charlie Mandigo and U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan.

Give up? The former U.S. Attorneys and the former FBI agent are all for a Washington initiative to allow anyone over 21 to buy marijuana recreationally from state sanctioned shops.

The odd man out — or rather odd woman out — is Jenny Durkan, the sitting U.S. Attorney for Seattle who was just involved in the largest round of collective busts since the state approved medical marijuana. Despite local law enforcement taking a lenient view toward growers and dispensaries, the DEA raided 10 collectives. The feds were looking for illicit drug dealing, drug conspiracies, money laundering and guns, The Seattle Times reports.

However, the busts will not put a stop to future medical marijuana facilities, says Seattle City Councilman Tim Burgess, a former police officer and chairman of the Council's Public Safety committee.

If those many former law enforcement officials are pro-legalization, how can current federal law enforcement officials continue to crackdown on medical marijuana growers and dispensaries without feeling they're losing the larger war?

Vets are calling on the Veteran's Administration and state legislators to recognize medical marijuana as a treatment for post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Wired's national security blog, Danger Room, details the story of Ryan Begin, a former serviceman who lost an arm in Iraq. Begin found himself taking over 100 pills a day as well as going in and out of prison for assault charges and parole violations.

A civilian doctor prescribed him medical pot for the pain from his surgeries, but Begin also found the pot helped him deal with his issues of rage, anxiety and insomnia — all of which he associated with PTSD.

Begin, a Maine native, is taking part in Occupy Augusta to call for the legalization of marijuana and adding PTSD as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana. He's also wants further studies into how marijuana can help other servicemen and women who have problems with PTSD.

Michigan police who seize marijuana are not required to return it, even if the marijuana was prescribed for medical use, The Detroit News reports.

The state's attorney general, Bill Schuette, issued an opinion last week that stated, "By returning marijuana to a registered patient or caregiver, a law enforcement officer is exposing himself or herself to potential criminal and civil penalties under the (federal law) for the distribution of marijuana or for aiding or abetting the possession or distribution of marijuana."

However, critics of Schuette and his opinion noted he's been an opponent of the medical use of pot since it was voted in and was active in attempting to denying access while he was an appellate court judge.

In addition to the opinion, Schuette's past actions have made it difficult for Michigan residents to have access to medical marijuana.

What can be done about state officials who ignore the will of the voters and medical use laws?

A California Appeals Court decided that cities could decide to prohibit medical marijuana collectives within their boundaries, The Los Angeles Times reports.

The decision by a three judge panel in the 4th District Court of Appeal was based on a case filed by the city of Riverside which sought to shut down the Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Wellness Center. The same judges also issued an unpublished ruling that upheld a similar ban in the city of Upland.

Anti-access and anti-legalization forces hailed the decisions, naturally, as the beginning of the end of medical marijuana in California.

"This is a real victory for communities and the tide is turning against so-called medical marijuana in California," Paul Chabot, founder of the Coalition for a Drug Free California, gloated.

But not so fast — the rulings contradict another appeals court that found Long Beach could not regulate dispensaries because the state's medical marijuana laws were in violation of federal drug statutes.

In either case, it looks like the question of cities putting the kibosh on collectives is headed for the California Supreme Court.

Local, state and federal laws clash, with a Mendocino medical marijuana grower caught in the middle.

PBS Newshour profiles the case of Matt Cohen. As a grower, Cohen is fastidious about complying with state and local medical marijuana laws, taking care not to cultivate more than the 99 plants allowed for four patients and tagging each one with a zip tie bought from the county sheriff to mark it as legal and submitted to inspections by local law enforcement. He also ensured the property was properly secured and maintained the paperwork required by local and state statutes.

None of that mattered to the DEA agents that raided his home on Oct. 13. As part of the security for the medical marijuana, Cohen has cameras and surveillance equipment installed which captured the raid. The federal agents made copies of the paperwork, which can now be used against him, and confiscated his plants which were legal under state and local law.

Both the Mendocino sheriff and Cohen are left confused by the raid. The area is a hotbed of illegally grown marijuana and neither know why the federal government has not targeted those operations instead of someone growing medical pot.