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On April 25, 2023, in Henson v. Daimler Truck North America LLC, Civil Case No. 22-cv-6479 (RBK/MJS), United States District Judge Robert B. Kugler ruled that the wrongful termination suit filed by an employee who was fired after testing positive for cannabis may proceed. Judge Kugler, however, determined that the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act (“CEPA”) whistleblower claim should be dismissed due to the lack of a causal nexus between the employee’s communications regarding New Jersey drug testing law and his firing.
NJ Supreme Court’s Decision in State v. Gomes
The New Jersey Supreme Court reversed. It held that “persons who received pre-CREAMMA conditional discharges for specified marijuana offenses — just like persons who had pre-CREAMMA convictions for those marijuana offenses — are no longer categorically precluded from future admission into PTI.” Going forward, prosecutors and reviewing courts must consider the merits of their PTI applications, without regard to the existence or circumstances of the earlier marijuana-related conditional discharges.
Exactly 296 days after New Jersey’s governor signed the Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization Act (the Act) into law, the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) began accepting license applications to operate specific cannabis businesses. The first day applications were accepted was Dec. 15, 2021, which date will undoubtedly go down in history and marks the first step toward creating New Jersey’s personal, adult-use cannabis market.
