New Jersey employers it’s time to sit up and take notice of how medical marijuana may affect your human resource policies in the wake of a recent disability discrimination lawsuit against Amazon. The case has relevant employment law lessons for employers of all sizes ranging from companies with one employee to large corporate entities.
The suit was filed in October 2019 in Middlesex County by a former Amazon employee working at its Edison warehouse who was terminated for testing positive for marijuana in July 2018. (The case was moved to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on November 8.) The employee was lawfully registered with the state’s medical marijuana program. Following the positive test result, the employee advised Amazon of his status in the program. Like many other New Jersey residents, he was using the substance to treat a medical disability — in his case, an anxiety and panic disorder. Based on this disability, the employee submitted paperwork to Amazon requesting a reasonable accommodation for his use of medical marijuana.
However, at the time of the employee’s request for an accommodation 16 months ago, an employer’s legal obligation in this situation was not crystal clear, and remains so today. In July 2018, New Jersey’s disability discrimination laws did not seem to obligate an employer to provide accommodations for an employee’s use of medical marijuana. Given that interpretation, Amazon terminated the employee. This occurred despite the employee providing the requested documentation to Amazon.