This really seems like something that could have been worked out between employer and employee.
Now a bunch of lawyers are happy and a dude's out of a job and the shop is out of a drill press operator.
(from the OP link)
...The case involved the 2003 firing of Anthony Scevers, a drill press operator with Emerald Steel Fabricators of Eugene. According to court records, Scevers suffered from anxiety, panic attacks, nausea and vomiting and was granted a medical marijuana registry card in 2002, the Oregonian reports. He used pot one to three times a day, but not at work.
Scevers told an Emerald Steel supervisor that he was a medical marijuana user; a week later, he was fired.
Scevers filed a claim with the Bureau of Labor and Industries, which ruled that Scevers’s medical condition qualified as a disability under state law. It ordered the company to pay Scevers $45,000 in damages. The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the labor bureau’s decision.
The Oregon Supreme Court, however, held that Scevers was not taking marijuana under the supervision of a licensed health care professional, as required by state law, and thus was engaged in the illegal use of drugs ─ a valid basis, according to the court, for Emerald Steel to fire him. ...
(and from another article)
Scevers was hired in January 2003 on a temporary basis and was being considered for a full-time job. At the time, he was using medical marijuana one to three times a day, but not at work. Knowing he would have to pass a drug test to be hired permanently, Scevers told an Emerald Steel supervisor that he was a medical marijuana user and showed his documentation. A week later, he was fired.
Scevers filed a claim with the Bureau of Labor and Industries, which ruled that Scevers' medical condition qualified as a disability under state law and that Emerald Steel should have engaged in an "interactive process" to accommodate his medical marijuana use. It ordered the company to pay Scevers $20,000 in lost wages and benefits and $25,000 for emotional suffering.
The Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the labor bureau's decision, but the Supreme Court said both were wrong. The money awarded to Scevers remained in bond during the appeals process and was never paid.
Eugene attorney Terence Hammons, who represented Emerald Steel, said the company fired Scevers because it feared he or someone else might get injured.
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/04/oregon_supreme_court_says_ok_t.html