PA courts clarify employee rights for medical cannabis patients

Pennsylvania courts recently issued a series of decisions clarifying medical marijuana patients’ employee rights—one related to unemployment compensation (UC) and the others focusing on private rights of action (or claims) under the state’s medical cannabis statute.

‘Not ineligible’ for jobless benefits

In 2019, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority terminated Terrance Suber for a positive drug test. At the time, he was lawfully using medical cannabis under the state’s Medical Marijuana Act (MMA).

The employer’s substance abuse policy stated employees were permitted to use prescription medications and rebut positive drug test results by verifying the prescriptions for any medicine that triggered the tests. If they did so, the medical review officer (MRO) in charge of the test results was supposed to report them as “negative.”

In compliance with the policy, Suber presented a certification for lawful medical marijuana use under the MMA after his drug test. Nevertheless, the MRO reported a positive result to the employer. Suber was terminated and filed a claim for UC benefits. The employer opposed the claim.

The Scranton UC Service Center denied Suber’s claim under Section 402(e.1) of Pennsylvania’s UC law, which says an employee is ineligible for UC benefits for any week “in which his unemployment is due to discharge . . . due to failure to . . . pass a drug test conducted pursuant to an employer's established substance abuse policy, provided that the drug test is not requested or implemented in violation of the law or of a collective bargaining agreement.”