Civil rights — Public employees — Discrimination — Disability — Accommodations — Drug use — Medical marijuana — County EMT, who has a valid license to use prescription medical marijuana, placed on administrative leave after testing positive for marijuana in random urine screening — Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment granted — Plaintiff is a disabled individual under Florida Civil Rights Act where it is undisputed that he suffers from anxiety and insomnia which significantly impact his day-to-day life when unmedicated — Plaintiff is a qualified medical marijuana patient under section 381.986(2)(k) — Article X, section 29 of constitution requires that “qualified patients” be allowed to use medical marijuana off-site, and employers are required to make accommodations — By not making an accommodation for plaintiff to use medical marijuana off-site, county violated FCRA — Wrongful termination — County violated its own drug-free workplace policy, which requires it to treat a positive drug screen as a negative one when an employee provides a prescription for that positive result, where plaintiff provided county with his medical marijuana certification within contractually enumerated period — Medical marijuana certification is considered a prescription, or akin to a prescription, and county was required to accept it as justification for test result under verbiage of policy where it was undisputed that plaintiff did not utilize marijuana while in course and scope of his employment — Collective bargaining agreement also required county to accept medical marijuana card as sufficient justification for positive result because medical marijuana falls within CBA’s definition of prescription or non-prescription drug
Legal Topics
Civil rights — Public employees — Discrimination — Disability — Accommodations — Drug use — Medical marijuana
Dec 16th, 2025 in by admin
