In May 2011 Florida enacted a law, signed by Governor Rick Scott, requiring every applicant for welfare cash assistance to pay for and pass a drug test, and testing began on July 1, 2011. In under four months, only about 2.6% of those tested came up positive, and federal courts later struck the law down as an unconstitutional search in Lebron v. Wilkins.
What Happened
The law, Section 414.0652 of the Florida Statutes (passed as HB 353), applied to people applying for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the federal-state cash welfare program. Applicants had to give a urine sample to a state-approved lab and pay for the test themselves, with reimbursement only if they tested negative. The panel screened for marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, barbiturates, methadone, PCP and propoxyphene. It did not test for alcohol. A positive result meant one year without benefits, or six months with proof of completed treatment, with a separate tested “protective payee” able to collect on a child’s behalf.
At the time, a family of two could receive at most $241 a month in TANF cash, according to the federal court record.
The program ran from July 1 to October 24, 2011. The results, laid out in the court’s December 2013 ruling:
| Florida TANF drug tests, July 1 to Oct. 24, 2011 | Number |
|---|---|
| Applicants tested | 4,046 |
| Tested positive | 108 (about 2.6%) |
| Positive for marijuana | 44 |
| Positive for benzodiazepines | 24 |
| Positive for cocaine | 10 |
| Tested negative | 3,938 |
| Eligible applicants with no test result | 2,306 |
Marijuana accounted for 44 of the 108 positives, the largest single group. The state argued that thousands skipped the test because they expected to fail. The court found no evidence for that and noted that some counties had no approved testing site at times.
Background: Scott’s Other Drug-Testing Order
The welfare law was not Scott’s only drug-testing push. On March 22, 2011, he signed Executive Order 11-58, ordering random, suspicionless drug tests for state employees in agencies under his control. The ACLU of Florida sued on behalf of the state workers’ union AFSCME Council 79 on May 31, 2011. On June 10, 2011, Scott issued a memo suspending the testing while the case proceeded, which the ACLU called a retreat.
What Happened Next
Navy veteran Luis Lebron, a single father who said he had never used illegal drugs, refused the test and sued on September 6, 2011. U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven issued a preliminary injunction on October 24, 2011, stopping the program statewide. The state restored benefits to about 1,727 families and reimbursed test fees.
The Eleventh Circuit upheld the injunction on February 26, 2013, writing that “there is nothing inherent in the condition of being impoverished” suggesting the poor are prone to drug use. Scriven declared the law facially unconstitutional and permanently blocked it on December 31, 2013. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed in December 2014, and according to the ACLU of Florida, the state chose not to appeal to the Supreme Court in March 2015.
The state-worker case went differently. Judge Ursula Ungaro blocked Executive Order 11-58 in April 2012, but in May 2013 the Eleventh Circuit sent it back for a job-by-job review, since testing workers in safety-sensitive jobs can be lawful. The Supreme Court declined the case in April 2014. In an April 2015 settlement, Scott agreed not to test employees in 1,133 of about 1,400 affected job classes, leaving a narrower program for safety-sensitive positions.
Where It Stands in 2026
Florida’s suspicionless welfare-testing law remains permanently enjoined. By early 2017, about 15 states had passed welfare drug-testing laws, according to a summary of state programs, and later ones such as Georgia’s limited testing to cases of “reasonable suspicion” instead of testing everyone. Florida runs a large medical marijuana program but has not legalized adult use. See our Florida marijuana laws guide for current rules, the war on drugs overview for the broader history, and cannabis news for more archive stories.
Florida Welfare Drug Testing FAQ
Does Florida drug test welfare recipients?
Not under the 2011 law. Federal courts permanently blocked Florida’s suspicionless TANF drug-testing statute in 2013, and an appeals court affirmed in 2014.
How many Florida welfare applicants failed the drug test?
108 of 4,046 tested between July 1 and October 24, 2011, about 2.6%. Marijuana was the most common positive, at 44.
Why was Florida’s welfare drug testing law struck down?
Courts held that a drug test is a search under the Fourth Amendment, and the state showed no “special need,” such as public safety, to justify testing people without suspicion.
Did Rick Scott drug test state employees?
He ordered it in 2011, then suspended it under a lawsuit. A 2015 settlement limited testing to safety-sensitive job classes.
Originally reported by The Weed Street Journal; rewritten and updated in October 2026 with what happened next.