{"id":3787,"date":"2022-01-21T16:16:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T16:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/CBMimwFodHRwczovL3d3dy5tb25kYXEuY29tL3VuaXRlZHN0YXRlcy9oZWFsdGgtc2FmZXR5LzExNTI4NDAvc3VwcmVtZS1jb3VydC1vZi1uZXctaGFtcHNoaXJlLXdlaWdocy1pbi1vbi1yZWFzb25hYmxlLWFjY29tbW9kYXRpb25zLWZvci1tZWRpY2FsLW1hcmlqdWFuYS11c2Vyc9IBAA"},"modified":"2022-01-21T16:16:39","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T16:16:39","slug":"supreme-court-of-new-hampshire-weighs-in-on-reasonable-accommodations-for-medical-marijuana-users-employment-and-hr-united-states-mondaq-news-alerts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/?p=3787","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Of New Hampshire Weighs In On Reasonable Accommodations For Medical Marijuana Users – Employment and HR – United States – Mondaq News Alerts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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United States: <\/span> Supreme Court Of New Hampshire Weighs In On Reasonable Accommodations For Medical Marijuana Users <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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\n
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21 January 2022 <\/p>\n

Seyfarth Shaw LLP <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

To print this article, all you need is to be registered or login on Mondaq.com. <\/p>\n

\n

Seyfarth Synopsis:<\/strong> On January 14, 2022, the
\nSupreme Court of New Hampshire reversed a trial court decision that
\ndismissed a former employee’s complaint alleging his employer
\nfailed to consider whether it could reasonably accommodate his use
\nof marijuana for medicinal purposes. New Hampshire joins a growing
\nnumber of other jurisdictions that have found an employer might
\nhave to consider medical marijuana use as a reasonable
\naccommodation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The former employee alleged that he suffered from Post-Traumatic
\nStress Disorder and that his physician had recommended that he use
\nmarijuana to treat his PTSD. He enrolled in the state’s
\ntherapeutic marijuana program and submitted to his employer a
\nwritten request for an exception from its drug testing policy as a
\nreasonable accommodation for his disability. The former employee
\nadvised that he had no intention of using or possessing during work
\nhours or on the company’s premises. The employer denied the
\nrequest and ultimately terminated him.<\/p>\n

The former employee brought an employment discrimination claim
\nalleging a failure to make a reasonable accommodation for his
\ndisability. The employer moved to dismiss, arguing that because
\nmarijuana is both illegal and criminalized under federal law, the
\nrequested accommodation was facially unreasonable. The trial court
\nagreed with the employer and granted its motion. The former
\nemployee argued on appeal that the trial court erred in ruling that
\nas a matter of law, an employer cannot be required to accommodate
\nan employee’s use of medical marijuana to treat a disability
\nunder state law.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court of New Hampshire agreed with the former
\nemployee and reversed. Focusing on the text of the statute, the
\ncourt agreed with the former employee that the New Hampshire
\ndisability and accommodation statute does not contain any language
\ncategorically excluding the use of medical marijuana as an
\naccommodation. Rather, whether an accommodation for a medical
\nmarijuana user is reasonable is \u201cintrinsically a factual
\ndetermination\u201d that \u201cshould be decided on a
\ncase-by-case basis depending on the facts of the case.\u201d As a
\nresult, the court reversed and remanded.<\/p>\n

New Hampshire is not alone in providing employment protections
\nto applicants and employees using medical marijuana. In recent
\nyears, more states are passing laws, or their courts are
\ninterpreting existing laws, to protect medical marijuana users,
\nincluding in Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New
\nJersey, New York, and Rhode Island, among others. It is likely that
\nlist will grow.<\/p>\n

Employers in all jurisdictions should exercise caution when
\ndealing with applicants and employees using medical marijuana.
\nBefore taking any action against medical marijuana users, employers
\nshould review the laws of the states in which they operate and work
\nwith employment counsel to help navigate this complex and rapidly
\nevolving area of the law.<\/p>\n

The content of this article is intended to provide a general
\nguide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
\nabout your specific circumstances.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

POPULAR ARTICLES ON: Employment and HR from United States<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United States: Supreme Court Of New Hampshire Weighs In On Reasonable Accommodations For Medical Marijuana Users 21 January 2022 Seyfarth Shaw LLP To print this article, all you need is to be registered or login on Mondaq.com. Seyfarth Synopsis: On January 14, 2022, the Supreme Court of New Hampshire reversed a trial court decision that dismissed a former employee’s complaint alleging his employer failed to consider whether it could reasonably accommodate his use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. New Hampshire joins a growing number of other jurisdictions that have found an employer might have to consider medical marijuana use as… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/supreme-court-of-new-hampshire-weighs-in-on-reasonable-accommodations-for-medical-marijuana-users-employment-and-hr-united-states-mondaq-news-alerts.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thcinct.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}