A Word Please

My book title Miami Snow is a reference to cocaine. So, yes, this book is about drugs. This book is also about divorce and relationships. However, at its heart, Miami Snow is about the choices we make and where they lead us.

Miami Snow is Nick Donovan’s story. For him, the seemingly innocuous choice to leave work early one day changes everything he thought he knew about his life. A small decision. A life-altering outcome.

That is the funny thing about life. Most of us think hard about whether to get married, buy a home, have children. These are the decisions we consider vital to our lives. And they are. But so are the little decisions we often make without much thought. Whether to drive or take a cab. Whether to accept a party invitation. Whether to leave work early one day.

Ultimately, the choices we make lead us down paths with varying scenery, giving each of us a unique perspective. Is yours a view from rose-colored glasses or the narrowed eyes of a skeptic? Can you think of a minor decision you’ve made that has changed your life, for better or worse?

Should you get fired from your job for smoking pot, providing you have a prescription that says you’re allowed to do so? According to a recent article in Newsweek magazine, this is happening all over the country. Employers are firing their employees for failing a drug test, despite the fact that the marijuana in their system is legal and their job performance has not been a problem. Many of these cases have gone to court. According to the article, so far judges in California, Washington, Montana, and Oregon have sided with the employers.

This doesn’t seem like a fair standard. Oxycontin and Vicodin are much more powerful than marijuana, yet employees are not being fired for using those drugs. In these cases, we are talking about the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes, not recreational drug use. If a state is going to make the use of medical marijuana legal, then “failing” a drug test for that same drug should not be legal cause for termination. After all, you don’t get fired for having Oxycontin in your system – that is, providing you have a prescription.

Of course, this is just my opinion. But, it seems to me, our courts need to start backing up the laws made by our government, at both the local and national levels. Otherwise, there is a whole lot of confusion and innocent people get tossed around in the resulting whirlwind.