Job seekers and public employees in Florida who use medical marijuana won't face repercussions for drug use from employers.
At least, that's what Democrat state Rep. Mitch Rosenwald hopes for with his new bill, HB 83, filed on Friday.
Under the bill—introduced in 2020 and again in 2024 by Democrat state Sen. Tina Polsky—job applicants and public employees would be shielded from marijuana-positive drug tests if they have a medical marijuana card, inspired by law loopholes that caused a card-carrying Florida correctional officer to be fired from his job and a paramedic to be suspended.
"A public employer may not take adverse personnel action against an employee or a job applicant for his or her use of medical marijuana if the employee or job applicant is a qualified patient," Rosenwald's bill reads. It requires employers to give the employee or applicant notice of a positive drug test within five business days of receiving the result, allowing them to justify why their test came back positive for marijuana.
The employee then has five business days to provide an explanation, which can include proof of their medical marijuana card.
The bill does not apply to employees whose drug use interferes with their job performance and does not require law enforcement agencies to allow employees to use medical marijuana.
Sen. Polsky, meanwhile, will file an identical Senate version of the bill by Tuesday, her office confirmed with The Floridian.
How did we get here?
More than 71 percent of Floridians in 2016 approved a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana. The diagnoses needed to qualify for a medical marijuana card are far-ranging, including everything from TMJ syndrome to trauma to anxiety to cancer.
According to the Office of Medical Marijuana Use, almost four percent of the Florida population, or 895,469 Floridians, have an active medical card—a growth of nearly 12,000 more people since late October.
Despite the legality of the medicinal drug, Florida workers can run into problems at their jobs because the current medical marijuana statute doesn't require employers to accommodate medicinal use and is silent on whether employers must allow for off-site use of the medical drug.
In 2021, Florida Department of Corrections Officer Samuel Velez Ortiz was fired after he failed a random drug test. A military veteran with a medical card, he was deemed unfit to carry a firearm under federal law banning the drug's use.
Last month, a Hillsborough County Judge ruled in favor of paramedic Angelo Giambrone, who was suspended in 2019 after testing positive for cannabis use. Giambrone, who has a medical card, was randomly drug-tested, and his attempt to show his card as an explanation was ignored.
The court decided Giambrone is entitled to back pay, and compensatory damages, and that his attorney fees be paid for.