Judge: Bridgeton factory not required to let worker use marijuana

Judge: Bridgeton factory not required to let worker use marijuana

Published on 8/14/18

Medical marijuana laws differ all around the United States so it can be tough to know exactly what the rules are for patients on medication and their employers. While some states like Arizona have laws that specifically protect medical marijuana patients from being fired for using their prescribed medication, other states like New Jersey don't have as many protections for patients. One New Jersey medical marijuana patient sued his employer for refusing to let him come back to work without a drug test, a test that the medical marijuana patient surely cannot pass due to his medication. Before his leave of absence as a result of an injury, he was using medical marijuana due to another injury from 2007. His doctor provided him with a note saying despite his medical marijuana prescription that he should be allowed to operate machinery, none of this had been a problem until now when a federal judge recently ruled that his employer does not have to waive the drug test for his job even though he had approval in the past and a current prescription. 

Cotto’s “discrimination claims turn entirely on the question of whether he can compel Ardagh Glass to waive its requirement that he pass a drug test,” the judge said in his ruling. “It is plain that CUMMA does not require Ardagh Glass to do so. We therefore find that (Cotto) has failed to show that he could perform the ‘essential functions’ of the job he seeks to perform. Ardagh Glass is within its rights to refuse to waive a drug test for federally prohibited narcotics.”

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