Reefer Madness: Funeral Director May Seek Reasonable Accommodation for Off Duty Medical Marijuana Use March 30, 2019

On March 27, 2019, the New Jersey Appellate Division in Wild v. Carriage Funeral Holdings Inc. reversed the dismissal of an action under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD) alleging failure to accommodate out-of-office use of medical marijuana for cancer treatment. The Court held that New Jersey Compassionate Use Act’s mandate that employers need not accommodate medical marijuana users in the workplace does not foreclose an action under the LAD when the employee was suffering from a disability and was not seeking to use marijuana during work.

Background Facts

Justin Wild, a licensed funeral director, was employed by Carriage Funeral Holdings (Carriage). In 2015, Wild was diagnosed with cancer and was prescribed medical marijuana as part of his treatment. In May 2016, while working, Wild was in a car accident and was taken to an emergency room. Wild disclosed to the hospital that he had a license to use medical marijuana. Because Wild did not appear to be under the influence of marijuana at the time, the treating physician declined to perform a blood test.

The trial court dismissed Wild’s LAD and defamation claims, citing the New Jersey Compassionate Use Act’s mandate that that nothing “require[s] . . . an employer to accommodate the medical use of marijuana in any workplace.” N.J.S.A. 24:6I-14.

Appellate Division Reverses and Allows Wild His Day In Court: Because the case arrived after a motion to dismiss, the Appellate Division was constrained to accept as true Wild’s allegations. In this context, the Appellate Division held, Wild plainly pleaded the prima facie elements of a LAD claim: he alleged that he was disabled because he had cancer, he was able to continue to work as a funeral director, and that his employment was terminated.

Bottom Line: As norms evolve with respect to the use of marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes, employers must be extremely careful with respect to employee use of marijuana. In New Jersey, the Compassionate Use Act allows employers to prohibit the use of medical marijuana at work and do not need to accommodate marijuana use at-work. The Wild decision is a reminder for employers to engage in the interactive process and exercise caution if an employee is using marijuana outside of work and is not under the influence on the job. Termination of an employee solely on that basis will be problematic and may lead to liability under the LAD.

For complete article — Marijuana Mayhem — Employees need to be sober to work!

Marijuana and psychosis: Real data, real bad

April 2019  By , Op-Ed Contributors

The pitfalls and perils of marijuana legalization are well-documented. But whenever we discuss that research here on BreakPoint, we’re accused of not having the right research. What that means is that we’ve used studies that contradict the very vocal advocates of weed.

Well, let’s see what happens when we cite The British journal The Lancet, which, along with the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, is considered the “gold standard” for peer-reviewed medical research. It doesn’t get more “real” than being published in The Lancet.

A just-published study in The Lancet involving, among others, researchers at King’s College London, compared 900 people who had been treated for psychosis with 1,200 people who had not. Sample participants were drawn from across Europe and Brazil.

By “high-potency” the researchers meant marijuana with a THC content of more than ten percent. To put that figure in context, a study of the weed seized by the DEA between 1995 and 2014 found the THC content went from about 4 percent in 1995 to 12 percent in 2014.

Today, it’s not uncommon to read of marijuana that’s legally-sold in places like Colorado with THC content above 20 percent, occasionally 30 percent! Legalization advocates minimize the exponential growth in potency by saying that twenty or more years ago, Americans didn’t have access to “the good stuff.”

Well, that misses the point by several astronomical units. The point is that those people who daily use “the good stuff” are five times more likely to find themselves in a hospital suffering from delusions and hallucinations, to name only two symptoms of psychosis.

Now, critics will respond, “That’s correlation, not causation.” And that’s the criticism leveled at journalist Alex Berenson, author of “Tell Your Children: The Truth about Marijuana, Mental Illness and Violence,” a book I recommend highly. But as I heard Berenson say just last week in Denver, of course it’s correlation and not causation. The only way to prove causation would be to ask half a sample group to experiment with something that may harm them. That’s not ethically possible. By the way, all the studies that made us believe that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer were correlated studies too, but that was enough to convince us all.

Even so, writer Ron Powers doesn’t need a peer-reviewed study to convince him of the link between marijuana use and psychosis. In his 2017 book, “Nobody Cares About Crazy People,” he tells the moving story of his two sons, Dean and Kevin, who were both diagnosed with schizophrenia in their late teens.

As Powers tells readers, while there is a strong genetic component to schizophrenia, there is no “schizophrenia gene.” Instead, it’s a constellation of genetic and environmental factors that make people susceptible to schizophrenia. One of these, as Powers painfully learned, is heavy marijuana use, especially in the teenage years.

Of course, some people will tell you that they and most people aren’t mentally ill, so there’s little if any risk. But for a host of reasons, no one can know that with certainty. In fact, all pronouncements about how safe marijuana legalization is simply overstates the case.

For complete story Weed is REALLY BAD!

Proposed Law Raises Legal Age To Buy Tobacco, Nicotine Products To 21 In Denver: CBS Denver March 30, 2019

DENVER (CBS4)— The City and County of Denver Department of Public Health & Environment wants to raise the legal age to buy tobacco and nicotine products to 21. It’s a step health officials say will prevent thousands of teens from accessing these products.

“If somebody wants it they’ll end up getting it,” said Johann Gottschalk, the manager of Hush Vapor Lounge.

City leaders say usage of tobacco and nicotine products in increasing rapidly and research shows those who try e-cigarettes are more likely to smoke tobacco later in life. The policy change could stop the trend and promote public health, according to the health department.

“I don’t think that’s fair, I’m personally 19 and I’d be out of a job,” said Gottschalk. “I don’t see that three years making a huge difference.”

He started smoking when he was 16 and eventually switched to vape products. He says they are now a part of his daily life, both for work and personal use. He worries that teens can still sidestep this change by asking someone older to buy them the products they want.

“You could just have your friend who is 21 go into a vape store while you stand outside and I check his ID,” said Gottschalk.

The new law would not only raise the legal age from 18, it would also remove the sale of tobacco products from vending machines. One of the concerns related to vape products is the variety of flavors, options that can appeal to young teens. For complete article Colorado Cannabis Chaos Continues

Dame Sally sees sense over cannabis — she can’t say we didn’t warn her

BETTER late than never, but it’s a pity that the Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, did not see fit to warn against the perils of legalising medicinal cannabis when she had the chance to stop it.

Dame Sally’s recommendation allowed ‘cannabis-based medicinal products’ to be ‘rescheduled’ — in effect legalised — although the evidence of efficacy from her own review was extremely limited, the problems associated with the medicalisation of cannabis were well known and the testimonial evidence that so influenced the Home Secretary fell far short of the standards required for the approval of other drugs, i.e. ‘adequately powered, double blind, placebo controlled randomised clinical trials’.

Since then medical researchers have warned against unrealistic expectations for the treatment of epilepsy.

Patients, she told them, believe (falsely) that the drug can cure multiple conditions. Furthermore, ‘despite being recently legalised for medical use’, there was currently insufficient evidence to prove the products are both effective and safe. Now she tells us.

Ironic but welcome, not least to hear her voicing her concerns about safety: ‘THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) we know has an impact on the brain and causes depression, schizophrenia, brain development problems in young and adolescents.’ It was also welcome to hear her comment, ‘If a pregnant mother was taking it I’d be very worried.’ For good reason too. Gestational cannabis has been linked with a clear continuum of birth defects in a range of longitudinal studies, as well as increased foetal death, and reflects a worldwide increase in high cannabis-using areas. It’s high time we had full public health information about quite how dangerous (in so many ways) this addictive and therefore difficult to treat drug can be.

At least Dame Sally is now listening. Perhaps she might now encourage the Home Secretary to review his ill-considered decision.

For complete article  Dame Sally Sees Sense on Cannabis

Children aged NINE are damaged by cannabis: Shocking toll of young patients admitted to hospital with mental disorders

• More than 3,400 patients under 19 went to hospital due to mental and behavioural illnesses brought on by cannabis last year
• NHS figures show the number of admission has risen 38 per cent since 2013/14
• Teenagers say cannabis has become more accessible through social media sites
• Dealers may post cannabis bag pictures on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram
• James Hamilton had a cannabis addiction aged 14 and developed depression

By SOPHIE BORLAND HEALTH EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL 25 March 2019

Children as young as nine are being admitted to hospital with severe disorders caused by cannabis, figures reveal.

More than 3,400 patients under the age of 19 were admitted last year because of mental and behavioural illnesses triggered by the drug.

Doctors are seeing a ‘whole new generation’ with serious problems, who are increasingly buying cannabis via social media websites.

NHS figures show that admissions for disorders caused by the drug among under-19s have risen by 38 per cent since 2013/14, and by 10 per cent in the past year alone.

Last week a major study in the Lancet Psychiatry journal revealed that potent forms of the drug increased the risk of psychotic disorders five-fold. A shocking 30 per cent of new cases of psychosis in London are linked to skunk cannabis, the King’s College London researchers found.

For complete and disturbing article go to Evil Drug Destroying Lives

A Yale Doctor Warns of Dangers of Pot Legalization

One of the state’s most vocal opponents of legalizing recreational marijuana in recent years has been Dr. Deepak D’Souza, a research scientist and professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.

In testimony before the legislature and in his role as a member of the state medical marijuana program’s board of physicians, an advisory group for lawmakers, D’Souza has laid out what he says are the dangers of legalization. His four areas of concern are the impact on young people and the developing brain; the anticipated increase in cannabis use disorder; the negative impact on people with serious mental illness; and increased motor vehicle accidents. For complete article Yale Professor of Slams Pot!