Nearly two weeks after a federal judge said he wouldn’t weigh in yet onwhether it’s legal for New Jersey cops to use marijuana, the Civil Service Commission is set to decide the fate of another police officer who was terminated for ingesting cannabis.
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On Wednesday, the commission is expected to hear the case of Mackenzie Reilly, a Jersey City police officer fired in August 2023 after a drug test showed his urine tested positive for cannabis.
Reilly is one of five Jersey City police officers fighting their terminations for cannabis use and seeking to dismiss a lawsuit Jersey City filed against the state in October that argues the federal ban on cannabis preempts the state law legalizing the substance.
An administrative law judge has recommended the commission reverse Reilly’s termination.
New Jersey legalized cannabis in 2021, and after the marijuana legalization act went into effect, the state attorney general said police officers cannot be disciplined for using marijuana legally and off duty.
When the state issued that memo, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop announced the city would defy the state and continue to bar its officers from using cannabis. Fulop is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2025.
Reilly, Omar Polanco, Norhan Mansour, Montavious Patten, and Richie Lopez are the five cops named as defendants in the lawsuit, arguing they should be able to consume legal cannabis and hold their jobs as cops. The Civil Service Commission has already ordered the city to reinstate Mansour and Polanco, though it is unclear if the city has hired them back to their posts.
In its lawsuit against New Jersey, attorneys for the city have argued that police officers are subject to a federal law that bans people from possessing firearms and ammunition if they use cannabis. That federal law, they say, preempts the state’s marijuana legalization law. But the Civil Service Commission and administrative law judges have repeatedly found otherwise.
The five officers and the Jersey City Police Officers Benevolent Association maintain the city has no standing to sue and claim the city filed in federal court only because they have been losing in the state employment proceedings.
The judge overseeing the lawsuit on Aug. 2 declined to step in, staying his findings at least until all the officers fighting their terminations have had their cases heard by the Civil Service Commission.
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