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A judge in Montana, USA has ruled that a man who went in to a grizzly bear enclosure having earlier smoked pot is entitled to receive work accident compensation after he was mauled by a bear in 2007.
The 23-year-old-man admitted to smoking the drug marijuana on the morning before he went to the Great Bear Adventures park where he was required to enter the pen to give the bears food. One bear attacked and the man received severe injuries including a dislocated kneecap.
His injuries required $70,000 worth of medical treatment.
In court, the owner of the park argued that the young man was merely a volunteer and was not therefore entitled to work accident compensation for his personal injuries.
The judge, however, ruled that as the park owner regularly gave the bear attack victim money for the "favours" he did at the park, he was therefore employed and as such was entitled to personal injury compensation just as any other worker would be.
The judge said, "[The work accident victim's] use of marijuana to kick off a day of working around grizzly bears was ill-advised to say the least and mind-bogglingly stupid to say the most.
"However, I have been presented with no evidence by which I can conclude that [his] marijuana use was the major contributing cause of the grizzly attack."
