With legal cannabis on the rise in the U.S., employment protections have been on the lips of legislators in states across the country, ensuring that simply consuming cannabis off the clock is not a fireable offense and will not hinder new job opportunities. That conversation gets a bit sticky when it comes to police work.
Four Jersey City, New Jersey police officers are currently fighting for reinstatement after testing positive for cannabis, Jersey City Times reports. All officers have asked to remain anonymous as their petitions are pending before the Civil Service Commission. The officers all deny using cannabis on the job, according to their lawyer Peter Paris.
However, the city has not accused the officers of using cannabis or being impaired at work, according to papers reviewed by Jersey City Times. Rather, the city says that the officers acted against departmental orders by using cannabis in the first place. The city also claims that, because the officers use cannabis, they cannot legally own a firearm under federal law, another reason they should not be able to return to their posts.
Jersey City also happens to be one of a small number of police departments that require officers to purchase their own firearms. Ironically, the firearm argument comes on the heels of two recent cases in Texas and Oklahoma, when two federal judges ruled that banning cannabis users from possessing firearms is unconstitutional.
New Jersey voters approved a constitutional amendment to legalize recreational cannabis in 2020, and sales officially kicked off in April 2022. The legislation enacted in 2021 expressly barred employers from taking “adverse employment actions” against employees testing positive for cannabis.
Further, in an April 2022 letter, the state Attorney General Matthew Platkin issued a memo alerting police chiefs that law enforcement agencies “may not take any adverse action against any officers because they do or do not use cannabis off-duty,” which was codified in the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance and Marketplace Modernization Act, according to Asbury Park Press.
“They’re saying that despite what the attorney general says, despite what the constitution says, despite what the statute says, in Jersey City, because we make you buy a gun, it doesn’t apply to us,” Paris said. The lawyer represents police officers across the state and added that police officers don’t need a license to carry a weapon. He said that Jersey City’s use of federal law to justify the firing of police officers is insincere, given that the entire New Jersey legal cannabis program “is technically unlawful under federal law.”
The attorney general issued new guidelines after the third and fourth Jersey City officers were fired, which bans cannabis testing for law enforcement, except when there is “reasonable suspicion” that an officer is high on the job. This is also a bit confounding, as there is still no foolproof cannabis test to determine current intoxication, though many companies are working to develop such technology.
The initial memo has received pushback in the year since it was released. John Zebrowski, president of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, penned an op-ed last summer, calling for state lawmakers to establish an immediate exemption for police officers, along with other “safety-sensitive” professionals, to prevent them from using recreational cannabis at any time.
Shortly after the memo was released, Mayor Steve Fulop also chimed in, saying that the law allowing police to use cannabis “is an outlier nationally and one that will put our officers + community at risk with impaired judgment.”
Paris told Jersey City Times that he’s aware of only one other police department in New Jersey that has fired someone for a positive cannabis test. He’s also represented other officers in New Jersey jurisdictions who tested positive but faced no disciplinary action after proving the cannabis was purchased legally. Paris added that all four officers in the current case purchased cannabis from licensed dispensaries.
And legislation to keep police officers exempt from cannabis use has yet to move forward.
“You open up this box where you start regulating people’s behavior when they’re on their own time,” said State Senate President Nick Scutari last year. “I think that’s a very dangerous, slippery slope, that I’m not willing to go down.”
Jersey City officials didn’t respond to Jersey City Times’ request for comment. The four officers will be granted back pay if their petition for reinstatement succeeds, according to Paris, though he added, “The emotional distress is not compensable.”
