The New Jersey Supreme Court will hear the case of a man who was fired from his job as a funeral director after his employer found out he used medical marijuana to treat his cancer.
It comes not long after Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law an overhaul of the state’s medical-marijuana program that deals in part with employee protections.
“It strikes me that it’s disability discrimination to terminate a disabled person who tests positive for medical marijuana even though there’s no claim that the employee was using marijuana on work hours,” said Elizabeth Zuckerman, an employment attorney who wrote an amicus brief in this case.
While working a May 2016 funeral, Justin Wild was driving a vehicle that was struck by another vehicle that ran a stop sign, according to court documents.
At the hospital, Wild told a doctor that he used medical marijuana, and the doctor said he did not appear intoxicated.
But once his employer Carriage Funeral Holdings found out that Wild used medical marijuana, they insisted he take a blood test. The test was positive for marijuana, and Wild was fired.