Puff, puff, no pass: Legislature shuns bills to shield parents, public workers who use medical marijuana

Two weeks from Sine Die, a pair of proposals that would protect parents and public employees who legally consume medical marijuana (MMJ) from being treated like criminal drug users are likely to die without hearings.

One measure (SB 142) would prohibit public employers from taking “adverse personnel actions” against workers who are qualified MMJ patients, including refusing to hire them, firing them or transferring, suspending or demoting them.

The other (SB 146) would afford a similar safeguard for parents with MMJ cards against having a court restrict their custody, visitation rights or parenting time with their minor children.

For parents, there would be “no presumption of neglect or child endangerment” based solely on the parent’s status as a qualified MMJ patient.

For workers, the legislation provides that a public employer may take appropriate action against an employee if a preponderance of evidence shows their cannabis has impaired their ability to perform their job.

Boca Raton Democratic Sen. Tina Polsky, a labor and employment lawyer who sponsored both Senate measures, said Florida’s MMJ restrictions are unreasonable.

“If you had to take a Xanax for a mental health condition, they couldn’t fire you for that, but they can fire you for using medical marijuana for the same mental health condition. It doesn’t make sense,” she told Florida Politics in February.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I substance alongside heroin and considers the drug to have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”

Polsky said that’s a big roadblock; she’s “disappointed (that it) didn’t get taken care of by the (Joe) Biden administration.

“But still,” she said, “if Florida is going to maintain this medical marijuana card, then people should not have adverse employment or parental actions as a result of using something legally as long as it doesn’t affect their job or ability to parent.”

Despite allowing cannabis for medical use, Florida has been unfriendly to broader allowances for the drug in recent years. In November, a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational cannabis fell more than 4 points short of passing.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, First Lady Casey DeSantis, Chief of Staff-turned-Attorney General James Uthmeier, and several advocacy organizations, including the Florida Chamber of Commerce, opposed the effort and poured ample resources into stopping it, including $10 million in allegedly misappropriated state funds that are now the subject of a House probe.

Polsky said Friday that by shunning her legislation, the GOP-dominated Legislature is ignoring the will of the more than 71% share of voters who passed the state’s MMJ amendment in 2016.

“The Governor and the Legislature want to ignore these issues,” she said, “but it is patently unfair for legal users to be penalized and for us not to fix these loopholes.”

Democratic Reps. Darryl Campbell of Fort Lauderdale and Mitch Rosenwald of Oakland Park carried the unheard House companions (HB 83, HB 993) to Polsky’s bills.