The NJ Supreme Court ruled unanimously in April that M&K Construction must reimburse a former employee for the medical marijuana prescription that he uses to relieve back pain caused by a work injury he sustained while working for M&K nearly 20 years ago.

The court’s decision upholds an appellate court decision handed down last year and puts NJ case law into alignment with New Hampshire and New Mexico high court rulings on similar cases, but diverges from opinions reached by high courts in Maine and Massachusetts.

M&K Construction argued before the court that footing the bill for former employee Vincent Hager’s medical marijuana amounted to aiding and abetting in his possession of marijuana, which is illegal under federal law, but not for those who have a prescription for medical cannabis in New Jersey. The court didn’t agree because the construction company’s reimbursement for Hager’s medical marijuana prescription is clearly being compelled by courts.

In 2001 a 28-year-old Vincent Hager was working for M&K on a job site when a truck dumped a load of concrete onto him, resulting in chronic pain. Hager continued to work for M&K on light duty until 2002, when he left his job due to his back pain. Hager would eventually have numerous surgeries, none of which gave him permanent relief for his pain. According to court documents, Hager was prescribed opioids and became addicted to them. As an alternative to the opioids, he was prescribed medical marijuana in 2016, which costs Hager $616 per month. The April ruling affirmed an earlier workers’ compensation court ruling that he has permanent partial disability totaling 65 percent.

Attorney Victor Matthews represented Hager before the high court and told NJBIZ in a recent article covering the case that he was glad his client can now “carry on with his treatment and have the means to pay for it.” Matthews pointed out that Hager has had limited income for the past two decades and that the Medical marijuana prescription is quite expensive.

“Another thing that’s important to understand is this workers’ comp statute is designed as a social contract…to support people, who have been injured over the course of their normal work. That’s what the whole intent is, and if we come to the point where medical marijuana is an effective treatment modality, we have to afford that to those people [that need it],” Matthews said.