A campaign to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida have collected enough signatures to send the proposed ballot language to the state Supreme Court for review, according to election officials.
Smart & Safe Florida, the organization behind last fall’s failed adult-use ballot initiative, submitted more than 377,000 signatures to the state Division of Elections, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
Now, in accordance with state law, the Florida Supreme Court will parse the measure’s language to ensure it meets the “single subject” requirement.
In 2024, the adult-use campaign survived a legal challenge from former state Attorney General Ashley Moody, now a sitting U.S. senator, to make it to the November ballot.
It’s not yet clear whether the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who campaigned against Amendment 3 after Moody’s failed bid to keep legalization off the ballot, will mount a similar effort this time.
However, the Smart & Safe campaign is already nervous that new restrictions on the state’s voter-initiative process that DeSantis signed into law on May 2 could thwart or seriously hinder any legalization efforts.
So, in May, attorneys for the campaign asked the U.S District Court for the Northern District of Florida to partially block a new law that requires signature gatherers to be Florida residents, the Orlando Weekly reported.
But Mark Walker, chief judge for the U.S. District Court, on Wednesday upheld most of the new state law, including the residency requirement, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
Elections officials already are greeting the adult-use effort with hostility: In April, the state fined Smart & Safe $121,850 for alleged violations of campaign laws.
With the biggest medical marijuana-only market in the United States, Florida is considered the next best expansion opportunity for adult-use operators.
As was the case in the 2024 legalization effort, Tallahassee-based Trulieve Cannabis Corp., the largest MMJ company in Florida, is the biggest bankroller of Smart & Safe’s second try.
To date, Trulieve has contributed more than $19.6 million to the campaign, according to Smart & Safe’s finance records.
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