An administrative law judge has ruled that Jersey City should reinstate a police officer fired after testing positive for cannabis, rejecting the city’s argument that federal statutes trump protections in state law.
Jersey City terminated the officer, Norhan Mansour, in April for violating the police department’s drug policy which prohibited the use of cannabis by officers both on and off the job.
Mansour had tested positive for the presence of cannabis in a random urinalysis in September of 2022, a year and a half after New Jersey’s “CREAMM” law, legalizing the personal use of cannabis, had gone into effect.
The court noted that the city had failed to offer evidence that Mansour had used cannabis on the job or that there were signs of impairment during work hours.