“Cannabis in the workplace just got even more complicated. Under Federal law, employers have the right to terminate an employee if they discover that person uses cannabis, whether illegally or legally through state medical and recreational laws.
However, a recent court ruling has added another layer to the liabilities undertaken by employers and their insurance firms.
New Jersey Judge Ingrid French, who has worked with the NJ Dep’t of Labor and Workforce Development, recently ruled in favor of an employee seeking reimbursement for medical cannabis expenses after a workplace injury.
Andrew Watson, a 39-year-old worker, developed intractable neuropathic pain after a power saw accident in Watson enrolled in the state’s medical cannabis program in 2014, and was seeking insurance coverage for both past cannabis expenses as well as future treatments.
Judge French heard expert testimony from a psychiatrists with neurological focuses, and agreed with their assessment that Watson’s condition was well within NJ’s list of qualifying medical conditions for cannabis use.
While the ruling does nothing to protect workers from termination from anti-cannabis employers, it does set an interesting precedent for the legitimacy of medical cannabis to treat injuries sustained in the workplace.
One major consideration for other insurance companies is that covering patients using medical cannabis is going to be far less expensive than subsidizing costly opioid treatments, not to mention the human costs associated with the opioid epidemic.”
Much more in the article…..
#MMJ #Insurance #NJpol #Utpol #GetSerious #TRUCE
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See full article – New Jersey Judge Rules in Favor of Insurance Company Covering Medical Cannabis Expenses
