The Vermont Supreme Court has ruled against a Rutland man seeking unemployment benefits after he was 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, operators of the The Bus in Rutland, for about four years until his termination in January 2023. At the transit district, Skoric fueled, washed and cleaned out vehicles.
The eight-page ruling issued Friday by the Vermont Supreme Court sidestepped the issue of whether a medical cannabis patient in Vermont has the right to use cannabis in the off-hours from work.
Instead, the decision focused on technical issues with the filing of the appeal.
Skoric, according to the Vermont Supreme Court decision, challenged a Vermont Department of Labor decision “declining to provide him with a declaratory ruling as to whether off-duty, medical cannabis use constitutes ‘misconduct’ such that a claimant is disqualified from receiving unemployment security benefits.”
The ruling added, “Because the Department properly declined to issue a declaratory ruling, we affirm.”
In an email Friday in response to the decision, Skoric said he was seeking more than the declaratory ruling, looking to appeal the decision that denied him a portion of unemployment benefits. “It says absolutely nothing about the real issue,” Skoric wrote of the Vermont Supreme Court decision.
Read more
op23-389
