Valley News – Medical cannabis user fired from transit job loses appeal against state's denial of unemployment benefits

The Vermont Supreme Court has ruled against a Rutland man who applied for unemployment benefits after being fired from his transit job for testing positive for cannabis despite having a legal prescription for its use.

Ivo Skoric worked for the Marble Valley Regional Transit District, the operator of the bus station in Rutland, for about four years until his termination in January 2023. In the transit district, Skoric was responsible for refueling, wiping and cleaning vehicles.

The eight-page ruling, announced Friday by the Vermont Supreme Court, sidesteps the question of whether a patient who uses medical cannabis in Vermont has the right to use cannabis outside of work hours.

Instead, the decision focused on technical problems in filing the appeal.

According to the Vermont Supreme Court decision, Skoric challenged a decision by the Vermont Department of Labor “denying him a declaratory judgment on whether medical cannabis use outside of work hours constitutes 'misconduct' that disqualifies the claimant from receiving unemployment benefits.”

The decision continues: “Since the Ministry was right to refuse to publish a determination notice, we confirm this.”

In an email Friday responding to the decision, Skoric said he plans to pursue more than just the declaratory judgment action, but also appeal the decision denying him some unemployment benefits. “This says absolutely nothing about the real issue,” Skoric wrote of the Vermont Supreme Court's decision.

“Instead,” he wrote, “it is completely lost in the dense legal debate about the timeliness of the appeal, questions of jurisdiction, the dubiousness of demanding declaratory decisions from authorities instead of appealing against their decisions, etc.”

According to court records and oral arguments in the case, Skoric had been prescribed medical marijuana by a doctor in Vermont and was using it off-duty to treat chronic pain. He tested positive for marijuana in a random drug test at his job in the traffic district and was fired, the records say.

Due to Federal Transit Administration (FTA) regulations, the Rutland-based transit authority was required to test its employees.

The state Department of Labor denied Skoric's subsequent application for unemployment benefits, saying he had “misconducted” under state law and was therefore ineligible for full unemployment benefits. As a result of the ruling, Skoric was only eligible for partial unemployment benefits.

Skoric challenged the Department of Labor's decision and filed a petition with the Vermont Employment Security Board, asking for a ruling on whether using medical cannabis outside of work hours constituted “misconduct” under Vermont's unemployment insurance law.

The Vermont Employment Security Board subsequently affirmed the Labor Department's decision, according to case records.

Skoric represented himself in an appeal before the Vermont Supreme Court in May, arguing in his argument before the justices that the state had misinterpreted the law.

“My position is that off-duty cannabis use for state-approved medical purposes cannot and should not be considered state misconduct,” he told the judges.

The Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, along with Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform and Disability Rights Vermont, filed a brief with the court in support of Skoric.

The ACLU of Vermont said in an email through a spokesperson on Friday that the Vermont Supreme Court “ultimately ruled on standing and not on the merits, and we are therefore unable to comment.”

In his email Friday, Skoric said he was awaiting a response from the ACLU of Vermont on whether and how he would pursue further legal action on the appeal.