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‘employment’

New Study of Diversity and Opportunity in Denver’s Marijuana Industry

Jun. 9, 2020—In June 2020, the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses released a new report on opportunity in the Denver area marijuana industry. The full Cannabis Business and Employment Opportunity Study is available here. Using a survey of participants in the local marijuana industry, the report seeks to identify the extent to which different factors –...

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Update: Connecticut Employment Discrimination Case (Noffsinger v. SSC Niantic)

Sep. 24, 2018—A federal judge in Connecticut has issued another notable ruling in Noffsinger v. SSC Niantic Operating Co., LLC. In particular, the judge just granted summary judgment for the plaintiff on her claim that the defendant company violated Connecticut’s medical marijuana law (known as PUMA—the Palliative Use of Marijuana Act) when it rescinded her job offer after she...

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UPDATE: Maine Supreme Court Holds State Worker Compensation Law Preempted

Jun. 28, 2018—Last week the Maine Supreme Court issued its decision in Bourgoin v. Twin Rivers. For the full opinion, see here. I blogged about the case back in October: see Cases to Watch: Bourgoin v. Twin Rivers and Workers’ Compensation. In this post, I’ll briefly describe the court’s recent holding and then provide a few thoughts...

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Cases to Watch: Bourgoin v. Twin Rivers and Workers’ Compensation

Oct. 6, 2017—State marijuana reforms spawn a host of interesting (by which I mean complicated) questions for employers. To date, the question that has drawn the most attention concerns whether employers are required to accommodate employees’ use of marijuana off the job. That issue is discussed in my book at pages 662-681 and on this blog here and here....

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Federal District Court Finds Connecticut Law Barring Employment Discrimination Against Medical Marijuana Users is NOT preempted

Aug. 15, 2017—The decision in Noffsinger v. SSC Niantic Operating Co., LLC (Dist. Conn. 2017), is significant because it departs from a handful of earlier decisions that have found or at least assumed state employment protections were preempted. Those decisions are discussed on pages 672-81 of the book. Even though I largely agree with the result in...

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Massachusetts court finds employers must accommodate employee’s off-duty medical marijuana use

Jul. 21, 2017—Massachusetts’ highest court has ruled that employers have a duty to accommodate their employees’ off-duty use of medical marijuana.  The ruling in Barbuto v. Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC (Mass. 2017), concerned a state handicap discrimination law (similar to the ADA) which makes it unlawful for any employer “to dismiss or refuse to hire . ....

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