Medical marijuana user who lost his job after drug test files unemployment case in Vermont Supreme Court

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – A Vermont man who lost his job after he said a random drug test showed he had used medical marijuana off-duty for chronic pain has appealed to the Vermont Supreme Court, saying he should be given part benefit should not have been denied. are state unemployment benefits.

Ivo Skoric, 59, who represented himself, told the judges on Wednesday that he was legally prescribed the medicinal cannabis by a doctor and that his work performance is excellent and unaffected by the drug. Still, he said, he was fired from his job at the Marble Valley Regional Transit District in Rutland in January 2023 for misconduct following a drug test. He said his job was to clean and fuel buses, and he drove them in and out of the garage and onto a lot. The misconduct disqualified him according to the state of benefits.

“As a medical cannabis patient in Vermont who is required to treat disabling conditions under the Fair Employment Practices Act of the Vermont Disability Regulations, I should be protected by government agencies. I should not be disqualified from unemployment,” Skoric said.

An attorney for the ACLU of Vermont, which also represents Criminal Justice Reform and Disability Rights Vermont, also argued that the benefits should not be denied.

Skoric had appealed to the Vermont Employment Security Board after he was found to be ineligible for state unemployment benefits for the weeks ending January 14, 2023, through February 18, 2023, and his maximum benefit amount was capped at 23 times his weekly benefit, according to the board.

In September 2023, the board agreed with an administrative law judge who said Skoric engaged in conduct prohibited by the employer’s drug and alcohol policy, which “subjected him to disciplinary action, including termination of his employment,” and that because he was dismissed for misconduct, he was disqualified from those benefits.

The board wrote that it recognizes that Skoric engaged in conduct that is legal in Vermont and that he “had a legitimate and compelling reason to use medical cannabis for treatment.”

But “employers may adopt workplace policies that prohibit otherwise lawful conduct,” the board wrote, saying it agreed with the administrative law judge that the minimum disqualification is appropriate.

The board later denied Skoric’s request for a declaratory judgment on whether the misconduct disqualification provision applied to off-duty use of medical cannabis. He asked the state Supreme Court for review.

Jared Adler, an attorney representing the Vermont Department of Labor, said the court should uphold the board’s decision because he was fired for misconduct for violating a recognized workplace safety policy and because “Vermont’s drug code does not guarantee unemployment benefits to people who test positive during a random drug screen.”

When asked by a judge whether there is a distinction between consumption and impairment, Adler said that in the case of cannabis, there is “no clean way” for an employer to distinguish between consumption and impairment because, unlike other drugs, can exist for a longer period of time. period of time in an individual’s system after its consumption. Skoric also said that even though he used the medical cannabis off-duty, it can show up in someone’s system days later, making testing pointless.

There is a balancing test to protect both the public and employers’ need to bring their policies into compliance with federal law, Adler said. Skoric acknowledged that his employer received up to 60% of their funding for their business from federal grants, Alder said.

So it was extremely important to make sure the employer was following these federal rules and not risking losing that revenue, Adler said.

Skoric said his position is that “off-duty use of cannabis for state-sanctioned medical purposes cannot and should not be classified as state misconduct.”

“I should not have to choose between state benefits and the medical care the state has provided me,” he said. “I should never be put in that impossible position of choosing between benefits and the legal medications I take.”

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