JERSEY CITY, N.J. (PIX11) — Recreational marijuana use is legal in New Jersey. However, federal law prohibits anybody with a history of drug use from owning a gun. Because of that requirement, said Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and law enforcement leaders, they’ve filed a lawsuit seeking to ensure that federal law and state law jibe. Some of the people served by Jersey City Police, however, said that the city is wasting its resources.
Fulop explained the city’s legal action at a Wednesday morning news conference.
“We want clearly allowed, in federal rules,” Fulop said from the podium, “that a police officer that consumes cannabis is not permitted to be a police officer.”
Jersey City terminated five police officers, the mayor and Public Safety Commissioner James Shea confirmed, after the officers used marijuana after being warned against doing so.
However, they explained, it was not the marijuana use itself that led to the officers’ dismissal. Instead, said Shea, “We can no longer arm them and provide them with ammunition.”
“They have been terminated,” he continued, “because they can no longer carry a firearm” legally.
To bolster his point, the public safety commissioner also displayed the federal government’s directives that prohibit an active marijuana user from possessing a firearm or ammunition.
That contradicts New Jersey state…
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