Vermont medical marijuana user fired after drug test loses appeal over unemployment benefits

Associated Press

A Vermont man who was fired from his job after he said a random drug test showed he used medical marijuana while off duty for chronic pain has lost his appeal to the Vermont Supreme Court over unemployment benefits. An administrative law judge and the state say he was disqualified from those benefits because he was discharged for misconduct. He requested a ruling on whether the disqualification applied to the off-duty use of medical cannabis, but state did not provide one. The Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Labor Department properly declined to issue a declaratory ruling noting that his violation of workplace policy was the source of the disqualifying misconduct.