A paramedic and medical marijuana patient is entitled to back pay, compensatory damages and reimbursement of attorney fees from Hillsborough County after he was wrongfully terminated from his job, a judge ruled last month.
Judge Melissa Polo of the 13th Judicial Circuit said in a Dec. 10 opinion that the county violated the Florida Civil Rights Act of Angelo Giambrone, an emergency medical technician in the county Fire Department, after Giambrone tested positive for marijuana as a result of a random drug test in 2019. Hillsborough County has appealed the ruling.
The county put Giambrone on administrative leave without pay even though he held a valid medical marijuana card issued in the wake of state voters approving a constitutional amendment in 2016 that legalized marijuana use to treat certain medical conditions. The plaintiff suffered from anxiety, severe insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the lawsuit.
Both sides acknowledged that there was no evidence Giambrone used cannabis while working or at county properties and that he had no work performance issues during his tenure with the Fire Department.
“... The defendant is … prohibited from discriminating against and must provide an accommodation to employees who present a valid state of Florida Medical Marijuana Card after testing positive for marijuana so long as there is no evidence that the employee was using substances or illegal drugs while at work on county property, in county vehicles or reporting to work under the influence in violation of said written agreements,” Polo said in her opinion.
Giambrone’s attorney called the decision a win for the rights of Floridians who use marijuana to treat medical conditions.
“I would consider the circuit court’s ruling a victory for patients throughout the state,” Michael Minardi told the Florida Record in an email. “It finally puts an end to discrimination against medical marijuana patients and puts them on the same playing field as those patients on more dangerous pharmaceutical drugs.”
He stressed that marijuana offers relief for many people so that they can earn a living and take care of their families, adding that the cannabis plant allows them to go about their lives without the negative side effects present in pharmaceutical drugs.
Polo found that the county’s action against Giambrone constituted a breach of contract with the county’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), that the county failed to update its policies to comply with the Florida Civil Rights Act and that Giambrone was wrongly placed on administrative leave.
“The county's silent agenda as argued at oral argument to ‘single out’ marijuana among all other potential medications and treating substances, against its own policies, constitutes a breach of the CBA and poses an equal protection problem,” Polo said.
The judge’s opinion also noted that an investigation carried out by state officials after Giambrone tested positive for marijuana use was discontinued due to a lack of probable cause against the plaintiff.
In its arguments, the county stressed that there exists “'no valid prescription for marijuana” under federal law despite Florida voters’ approval of medicinal marijuana dispensaries in the state.