The Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) protects recovering drug addicts from discrimination in the workplace. However, a California court of appeal recently confirmed that job applicants who are using drugs when they apply for a job are not protected under the law. The plaintiff in the case argued that the defendant’s practice of permanently disqualifying applicants who were found to be using drugs at the time they applied was discriminatory because it disproportionately excluded recovering addicts, but the court found that the employer was within its rights to do so.
