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“We thought they were going to come in and do the right thing, and they’re not. They’re doubling down, and they’re lying about it, which is even worse.”
By Sophie Nieto-Muñoz, New Jersey Monitor
A state appellate court earlier this month sided with two Jersey City cops who say they shouldn’t have been fired for their off-duty cannabis use, but it’s unknown what the next steps are in this yearslong fight over New Jersey’s marijuana legalization law.
A spokesman for James Solomon, a Democrat who became the city’s new mayor in January, said the city is reviewing the policies of Solomon’s predecessor, Steve Fulop, who argued that federal law prevents armed police officers from using cannabis at any time. But the officers’ lawyer, Michael Rubas, said the city has refused to return them to their old jobs despite several rulings that they should be reinstated.
“I’m very disturbed by the way the Solomon administration has been handling things. We thought they were going to come in and do the right thing, and they’re not,” Rubas said. “They’re doubling down, and they’re lying about it, which is even worse.”
Solomon spokesman Nathaniel Styer declined to respond to Rubas’s charges, but indicated the mayor’s view on police officers using cannabis while off duty differs from how the city operated under Fulop.
“We are reviewing those policies as they are not in line with our views and values,” said the spokesman, Nathaniel Styer.
The dispute dates to 2022, a few months after New Jersey’s legal recreational cannabis market opened. The state Attorney General’s Office told police departments then that the state’s marijuana legalization law does not allow them to discipline officers for using cannabis off duty, but Fulop argued that federal law prohibits anyone who uses a controlled substance from possessing a firearm.
In September 2022, two Jersey City cops, Norhan Mansour and Omar Polanco, tested positive for cannabis they claimed they bought on the legal market. The city suspended and then fired them, but administrative law judges and later the state Civil Service Commission sided with the officers and ordered the city to reinstate them. The officers were placed on modified duty in 2024 but they were not returned to their previous positions.
The city appealed both rulings, and on May 1, a state appellate panel ruled in the officers’ favor. A separate decision involving a third police officer upheld that officer’s termination because he bought cannabis from an unlicensed individual.
Rubas said Mansour and Polanco are each owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay, and have not had their firearm ID cards or their weapons returned to them.
Spokespeople for Jersey City did not respond to multiple requests asking about the officers’ guns. A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office declined to comment.
The officers still have to get their police licenses reissued by the state Police Training Commission, Rubas said, adding that if the city cooperated the officers could be reinstated to their typical posts within a week.
Rubas said he’s reached out to the Solomon administration multiple times, including shortly after Solomon took office, to attempt to resolve the issue. He said he was hoping the city’s stance would change once Fulop left office.
“Nothing’s changed at all. It’s been worse,” he said.
This story was first published by New Jersey Monitor.
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