Health Law Advisor

With 2019 nearly rolled up, it is time to exhale and recap the latest dose of marijuana laws affecting the workplace.  In the last twelve months, Illinois became the eleventh state to legalize recreational marijuana use by adults[1] and several other jurisdictions passed or modified their existing laws governing marijuana and the workplace.  Below is a summary of this year’s developments and some thoughts about what 2020 might bring.

Illinois Legalizes Recreational Marijuana Use

On June 25, 2019, Governor Pritzker signed the Illinois’ Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act into law ...

On July 2, 2019, New Jersey joined Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, New York City, and Oklahoma in enacting employment protections for authorized users of medical cannabis. New Jersey’s new medical cannabis law (“Law”), which became effective upon signing by Governor Phil Murphy, amends the state’s Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act (“CUMCA”),[1] N.J.S.A. 24:61-2, et seq. Among other measures, the Law prohibits employers from taking an adverse employment action against a current or prospective employee based on the individual’s status as a registered ...

Effective July 26, 2018, Oklahomans will be able to legally use medicinal marijuana under state law. The change follows a June 26, 2018 ballot measure, State Question 788, approved by 56% of voters. Oklahoma’s new law, cheekily coded 63 Okla. Stat. § 420 et seq., expands the prior permissible use of cannabidiol (CBD) oil for limited purposes, now allowing licensed medicinal marijuana consumption. The ballot measure initially appeared in 2016, but was delayed for several years by a series of legal challenges concerning changes to its title, ultimately resolved by the Oklahoma ...

State attorneys general from Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Michigan, Nebraska, and South Dakota have joined Arkansas (collectively the “States”) in an amicus brief to the Eighth Circuit, urging the court not to join the Seventh Circuit and Second Circuit in interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”) to prohibit sexual orientation discrimination.

The States submitted this brief in a case brought by Mark Horton against Midwest Geriatric Management LLC (“Midwest Geriatric”) in which the plaintiff alleges sexual orientation and ...