New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (LAD) prohibits disability discrimination.  The recent enactment of New Jersey’s Medical Marijuana Law (MML) has placed many employers in a rather difficult quandary because questions relating to employee’s use of medical marijuana may very well trigger liability under LAD.  Although the MML statute indicates that an employer does not have to physically accommodate the use of medical marijuana in the workplace,  the concern is whether questions and conduct about its use can cause a claim of disability discrimination.

In the state of Oregon, a court has determined that its anti-discrimination laws does not protect an employee’s medical marijuana use outside the place of employment.  In another ruling issued a court in California it was held that disability laws do not mandate an employer to allow medical marijuana use in the workplace.  

In a recent article in the New Jersey Law Journal, the author seems to suggest that the outcome of the issues similar to the ones presented to the courts in California and Oregon may be different in New Jersey largely because the author believes that New Jersey’s courts are employee-friendly and the terms of LAD are broader than those in the other two states.