New Florida Senate Bill Aims To Protect Medical Marijuana Patients’ Parental Rights

A new bill introduced in the Florida Senate on Tuesday aims to protect parents who use medical marijuana by preventing state courts from restricting certain rights based solely on their status as qualified cannabis patients.

The bill, SB 146, from Sen. Tina Scott Polsky (D), would further prohibit the presumption of child neglect or endangerment based on a parent’s medical marijuana status alone.

“A court may not deny or otherwise restrict a parent’s custody of a minor child or the parent’s visitation rights or parenting time with a minor child based solely on the parent’s status as a qualified patient,” says the one-paragraph proposed addition to state law.

“There is no presumption of neglect or child endangerment based solely on the person’s status as a qualified patient,” it continues. “In determining the best interests of the child with respect to custody or dependency, the provisions of this section apply.”

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) vetoed similar parental rights legislation for medical cannabis patients in that state last year.

Meanwhile, introduction of the new Florida measure comes days after the filing of separate legislation in the state that would protect medical marijuana patients from discrimination in government jobs by preventing agencies from punishing public workers based solely on their legal use of cannabis while away from work.

That bill, HB 83, was introduced last Friday by Rep. Mitch Rosenwald (D). It would bar public employers from taking actions such as firing workers, refusing to hire a qualified applicant or demoting employees based on their medical marijuana use or registration. Agencies could still take disciplinary action against people who are high on the job, and law enforcement agencies could also continue to restrict even off-duty medical marijuana use by police officers.

Public employers would also need to give written notice to employees and applicants informing them of their right to explain or contest a positive marijuana test result within a five-day period after receiving the result.

Sen. Polsky, for her part, introduced a separate bill this time last year, the Public Employee Protection Act (SB 166), that would would have protected state employees against “adverse employment action” for legally using medical marijuana.

Both employee protection measures were partially inspired by the firing of a Florida Department of Corrections worker, Velez Ortiz, following a positive test for THC in 2021. Ortiz, who had a doctor’s recommendation to use cannabis to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, sued over the firing, but a state appeals court ultimately upheld his termination. Early last year, Florida’s Supreme Court declined to review the case.

In a separate case, a state judge sided last month with a paramedic and medical marijuana patient who was suspended by a county fire and rescue department in 2019 over a positive cannabis test.

The court ruled that the county cannot discriminate against workers with medical marijuana cards who test positive for the drug and must provide reasonable accommodations—so long as there’s no evidence that the employee was high at work or consumed the cannabis on county property or in a county vehicle.

Judge Melissa Polo wrote in the decision that the “undisputed facts” of the case established that the paramedic had anxiety and a sleep disorder that “significantly impacts his day-to-day life when unmedicated.” The definition of disability in the Florida Civil Rights Act, she added, includes both physical and mental ailments, and Florida’s 2016 constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana states that “qualified” patients are allowed to use medical marijuana away from work and that employers are required to make accommodations.