The supply-and-demand issues hindering the state's 12 medical marijuana dispensaries and 100,000 medical marijuana patients could worsen after a judge ruled that the process for issuing state dispensary licenses was rife with flaws.
Appellate Judge Clarkson Fisher, Jr. ruled in favor of eight losing dispensary applicants who argued the state Department of Health hadn't appropriately considered their 2018 applications, stating that the "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable" process was full of errors.
While the Court opined that employers are not required to accommodate the use of medical cannabis by patients “in any workplace,” the justices also acknowledged that the plaintiff’s marijuana use, in this case, took place solely during off-work hours. “[T]he Compassionate Use Act’s refusal to require an employment accommodation for a user does not mean that the Compassionate Use Act has immunized employers from obligations already imposed elsewhere,” the Court determined, explicitly citing New Jersey’s laws against discrimination.
New Jersey law can prohibit employers from firing employees who use medical marijuana off-hours, a court ruled late last month — a decision one law firm says could have "sweeping effects on New Jersey employers with drug-free workplace and drug-testing policies."
"If you enforce zero-tolerance policies, be prepared for future challenges to such policies," Epstein, Becker and Green wrote in an analysis of the decision last week.
A New Jersey appeals court has reopened the lawsuit of a funeral director who was fired after his employer found out he was using medical marijuana.
Justin Wild’s suit claimed he was unlawfully discriminated against for using medical marijuana as part of his cancer treatment as permitted under the state’s Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. A trial judge held Wild’s Law Against Discrimination suit could not go forward because nothing in the Compassionate Use Act requires an employer to accommodate a medical marijuana user.