Yo, check it out, homies! We got a crazy situation going down in New Jersey. So, last year, the Attorney General of New Jersey said that police officers could smoke weed when they off-duty, right? But now, there’s a lawsuit tryna stop them from toking up, even when they ain’t on the clock. Damn!
According to the New Jersey Monitor, James Shea, the Public Safety Director of Jersey City, filed a big-ass complaint on October 16th. This dude is tryna argue that since federal law says you can’t have a firearm if you use drugs, Jersey City can’t have cops smokin’ that ganja. He got Mayor Steven Fulop and some other police department peeps to back him up too.
In this lawsuit, they list all the players involved: the State of New Jersey, Matthew Platkin as Attorney General, the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, and a bunch of other folks. They all up in this legal drama.
The lawsuit is sayin’ that federal law stops cops from carryin’ ammo ’cause they be smokin’ that good stuff. Now they sayin’ that means cops can’t even be cops no more.
Here’s what the lawsuit actually says: “The Federal Gun Control Act prohibits regular users of controlled dangerous substances, including marijuana/cannabis, from possessing or receiving firearms and ammunition.” Basically, if you smoke weed and you want to be a cop in Jersey City, you’re shit outta luck.
They also mad at New Jersey for not addressin’ this issue when they legalized recreational weed. They say that the state shoulda thought about how it would affect cops who gotta carry guns as part of their job.
But here’s the thing. Shea said that every citizen in New Jersey has the right to smoke weed. But if a cop wants to light up, they can kiss their badge goodbye. They can’t do the job no more. It’s that simple.
Now let’s take a look at how all this mess got started. Back in April 2022, the Attorney General, Matt Platkin, said that cops in New Jersey could smoke weed when they off-duty. But then some drama went down in Jersey City. The Civil Service Commission said that the city had to rehire a cop who got fired for testin’ positive for weed. And get this, three other cops who got fired for the same reason are fightin’ back too.
The CREAMM Act, which passed in December 2020, gave the Cannabis Regulatory Commission the power to make rules about adult-use weed. But Shea ain’t happy with them. He say they ain’t payin’ attention to the fact that federal law says you can’t have a gun if you smoke weed.
Shea even offered the fired cops other jobs in his department that didn’t involve guns. But the city said nah and refused to give them their old jobs back. The reason they got fired was ’cause they can’t carry firearms no more, which means they can’t be cops.
But the Civil Service Commission is sayin’ there’s nothin’ in the CREAMM Act that lets employers fire someone for smokin’ weed outside of work. So basically, Jersey City can’t fire cops just ’cause they test positive for weed, especially if they smoked weeks ago.
And guess what? The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agrees with ’em! They said last March that if you smoke weed, you can’t have a gun under federal law. So now we got a big legal mess on our hands.
Damn, this situation is gettin’ crazy! Will the cops in New Jersey be able to smoke weed or not? I guess we’ll have to wait and see how this lawsuit plays out. Stay tuned, my peeps!