Photo of Chase Stoecker

Chase Stoecker is a versatile attorney who supports clients nationwide with legal solutions, including employment counsel, insurance-related advisory services, and commercial and financial services litigation. Active on the Cannabis industry team, Chase also advises clients with a wide range of contracts, compliance issues, and more. Chase is especially versed in the overlap of cannabis and employment law, has been widely published on these issues. He can be found at conferences throughout the country including the Employment Practices Liability Insurance Conference and CannaTech Expo.

On January 8, 2024, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (Cabinet) published its long-anticipated first proposed set of medical marijuana regulations. These proposed regulations set forth the operating requirements for various types of operators within the program (including cultivators, processors, producers, and dispensaries), and rules for cannabis transportation

Continue Reading Kentucky’s Proposed Medical Marijuana Regulations

Federally legal CBD products may, under some circumstances, cause consumers to fail drug tests. An employer’s right to terminate employee-consumers on that basis is not prohibited by federal law, including the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Many of us are familiar with CBD products. In some states, they can be found

Continue Reading CBD & The Workplace, A Word to The Wise

While States Continue to Regulate Employers’ Right to Refuse to Hire, Discipline, or Terminate Employees Based on Their On- and Off-Duty Marijuana Use, Some Legal Tools Remain for Maintaining Drug-Free Employees and Workplaces.
Continue Reading Use of Cannabis by Workers in Safety-Sensitive Positions

Recently an individual employed by Trulieve Inc., who was responsible for grinding and handling cannabis at Trulieve’s cultivation site in Massachusetts, died due to asthma-related complications following exposure to “occupational quantities of whole and ground cannabis,” according to an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) hazard letter issued in June 2022.  Under a settlement agreement with OSHA, Trulieve agreed to study the potential hazards of ground marijuana dust.
Continue Reading Employers Subject to Workplace Safety Laws Despite Marijuana’s Illegal Status

With an increasing number of states passing laws to protect employees who utilize marijuana off-duty, employers throughout the country are presently tasked with redesigning their marijuana-related policies and practices to avoid the risk of suffering discrimination, retaliation, and other claims for wrongfully taking adverse action against an employee for their marijuana legal use.
Continue Reading Budding Workplace Marijuana Impairment Laws Put Employers in a Bind

With an increasing number of states passing laws protecting employees who utilize marijuana, employers throughout the country are presently tasked with redesigning their marijuana-related policies and practices to avoid the (significantly increased) risk of suffering discrimination, retaliation, and other costly claims. With many relevant state laws going into effect throughout the next twelve months, the clock is ticking.
Continue Reading Employers: Clock is Ticking to Update Marijuana Policies

We often look to the federal judiciary as the gold standard of American jurisprudence. However, when it comes to the rapidly evolving cannabis industry, the federal judiciary has been anything but consistent.
Continue Reading To Put It Bluntly, the Federal Judiciary’s Inconsistent Approach to the Cannabis Industry Is (Reefer) Madness

On its face, it appears to be counterintuitive: United States federal courts recognizing and enforcing workplace rights for employees working in an illegal industry. After all, we would not expect a judge to lend a sympathetic ear to the employee of an arms trafficker or an interstate fraud ring. However

Continue Reading Federal Discrimination Statutes and the Cannabis Industry: An Illegal Industry Still Subject to Federal Laws