New Haven, CT—(ENEWSPF)—September 28, 2018
By: Justin Strekal, NORML Political Director and Keith Stroup, NORML Legal Counsel
A federal judge for the US District Court of Connecticut has ruled that an employer engaged in discrimination by rescinding a job offer to an employee solely based on her status as a medical cannabis patient.
Opining for the Court, Judge Jeffrey Alker Mayer wrote: “[T]here is no legitimate dispute that defendant’s rescinding of plaintiff’s job offer was contrary to plaintiff’s right not to be subject to discrimination because of her status as a qualifying patient under PUMA (the Connecticut Palliative Use of Marijuana Act).” He therefore concluded, “[The] plaintiff is entitled to judgment as a matter of law in her favor on her claim of employment discrimination under PUMA.”
Connecticut’s medical cannabis law explicitly states, “No employer may refuse to hire a person or may discharge, penalize or threaten an employee solely on the basis of such person’s or employee’s status as a qualifying patient.”
The ruling follows that of a similar decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Court in 2017 which determined that state-registered medical cannabis patients may sue a private employer for discrimination if they are fired solely as a result of their off-the-job marijuana use.
By contrast, courts in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington have previously ruled in favor of employers’ ability to sanction employees without cause for their state-sanctioned use of medical cannabis.
The case is Noffsinger v Niantic Operating Company LLC.
Source: www.norml.org
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