Just months after a Florida marijuana legalization initiative failed at the ballot, the campaign behind the proposal has filed a revised version in hopes of getting a second shot in 2026.
Smart & Safe Florida’s 2024 measure did receive a majority of the vote in November, but it fell short of a steep 60 percent threshold to pass constitutional amendments under state law. Advocates wasted little time preparing a new initiative, titled “Adult Personal Use of Marijuana.”
The campaign—which received tens of millions of dollars from cannabis industry stakeholders, principally the multi-state operator Trulieve—made certain changes to the 2026 version that seem responsive to criticism opponents raised during the 2024 push.
For example, it now specifically states that the “smoking and vaping of marijuana in any public place is prohibited.”Another section asserts that the legislature would need to approve rules dealing with the “regulation of the time, place, and manner of the public consumption of marijuana.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) had repeatedly condemned the 2024 initiative over that issue, claiming there were not parameters to prevent public smoking, while expressing his distaste for the smell of cannabis.
There’s also new clarifying language prohibiting the sale of marijuana products that are marketed in a way that might be appealing to children.
This latest iteration further explicitly states that nothing in the measure would “prohibit the legislature from providing for the home growing of marijuana by adults for their personal use and the reasonable regulation thereof.” That clarification may assuage concerns from certain advocates who criticized the lack of a home grow option in the original proposal.
The initiative, first reported by Florida Politics, would also make it so medical marijuana operators that have been licensed as of January 1, 2025 would be able to start providing for adult-use sales starting on the effective date.
Another nuance in the new proposal concerns licensure for businesses that want to enter the space in the future. Some worried that the prior version could effectively create a monopoly benefitting the existing medical marijuana operators alone because it simply said the legislature wasn’t prohibited from allowing additional licenses, without a mandate to actually take up that issue.
The new measure says lawmakers must “adopt legislation for the licensure and regulation of Licensed Marijuana Entities” outside of the existing program. However, it doesn’t appear they would have any specific mandate to provide for any substantial number of additional licenses; they would just be required to establish the infrastructure for licensing.
The 2026 initiative also stipulates that any new licensees “shall not” be required to control all aspects of the cannabis operation from seed to sale, as is the case with existing medical marijuana businesses through a system known as vertical integration.
It’s unclear whether the changes might affect the outcome if it ultimately qualifies for the 2026 ballot—which would be a midterm election where conservative voters will likely be more represented—but the campaign evidently feels confident it can prevail.
That said, even with President-elect Donald Trump’s endorsement of the legalization initiative on the campaign trail, the 2024 measure failed 56 percent to 44 percent. And the prospects of DeSantis, one of the loudest and most influential voices who opposed the last initiative, shifting his position next year seem dubious.
Here’s the proposed summary of the latest measure:
“Allows adults 21 and older to possess, purchase, or use marijuana for non-medical consumption. Establishes possession limits. Prohibits marketing and packaging attractive to children. Prohibits smoking and vaping in public. Maintains prohibition on driving under influence. Applies to Florida law; does not change, or immunize violations of, federal law. Allows Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers to acquire, cultivate, process, transport, and sell marijuana to adults. Provides for creation of licenses for non-medical marijuana businesses.”
Another uncertainty is whether the GOP attorney general of Florida, Ashley Moody, will once again seek to intervene in the new measure’s ballot placement through the courts as she unsuccessfully did during the last election.
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Last year, the Smart & Safe Florida campaign took in over $150 million—with funding coming primarily from large cannabis companies such as Trulieve, the multi-state operator that contributed tens of millions of dollars to the campaign.
Trulieve separately filed a defamation suit against the state’s Republican Party, alleging it’s knowingly deceived voters about the proposed constitutional change known as Amendment 3.
Smart & Safe Florida rolled out a series of ads in September—including one calling out the hypocrisy of criminalizing cannabis while alcohol is legally available and another featuring a county sheriff making the case for ending marijuana prohibition.
In October, advocates aired another pair of ads, including one that features clips of Trump endorsing the cannabis reform proposal—with a call for voters to “join” him in supporting the measure.
The promotion came just weeks after Smart & Safe Florida released a separate ad highlighting the fact that both major party presidential nominees—Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris—as well as their running mates share at least one thing in common: They don’t believe in criminalizing people over cannabis.
The Florida campaign also released another ad featuring state Sen. Joe Gruters (R), who endorsed the initiative. In that ad, the GOP senator and former chair of the Florida Republican Party said he’s “as MAGA as they come,” referencing his support for Trump.
Bipartisan Florida senators hit back at the governor over the use of taxpayer dollars to fund anti-marijuana ads ahead of the legalization vote—with one Republican member saying state agencies “owe an explanation” if reports are true that millions were diverted from an opioid-related settlement account to promote the cannabis “propaganda.”
Meanwhile, Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party and a former state agriculture commissioner, had also endorsed Amendment 3. And the chair also laid out a framework for regulating cannabis that she thinks the legislature should enact if voters do approve the reform. That involves automatic expungements for prior marijuana convictions, taking steps to mitigate the risk of monopolization in the industry and directing tax revenue to Black communities and education.
While polling consistently demonstrated that the ballot measure enjoyed majority support from Democrats and Republicans alike—and despite the fact that Trump has endorsed it as well—Florida’s governor did not relent in his crusade to defeat it.
DeSantis has faced allegations of weaponizing state departments to push anti-legalization narratives through various PSAs in recent weeks—prompting one Democratic state senator to sue over what he claimed was an unconstitutional appropriation of tax dollars. A Florida judge has since dismissed that lawsuit due to what he claimed to be a lack of standing and claim of injury.
Ads from multiple state agencies—including the Departments of Transportation, Education, Health and Children & Families—have aired in recent weeks. The one that a Democratic senator sued over came from the transportation department, which asserted that “DUI crashes increase in states with legalized marijuana, putting everyone at risk.” That was dismissed by a state circuit court, however.
Opponents of Amendment 3 hired a number of right-wing influencers—including former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, actor Kevin Sorbo and affiliates of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA—to post critically on social media about the policy proposal, claiming, for example, that it would hand control of the cannabis market to “greedy” corporate actors and that the smell of marijuana would be “EVERYWHERE.”
The former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under then-President Bill Clinton had urged Florida voters to reject the marijuana legalization initiative, arguing that it would create a “new addiction-for-profit industry” in the state.
A political committee opposing the legalization measure received a half-million-dollar contribution from an organization that Elon Musk reportedly used to quietly support DeSantis before he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. At the same time, the pro-legalization campaign has officially exceeded $100 million in total contributions.
Polling on Amendment 3 fluctuated over the course of the election cycle, though it fairly consistently found majority support for the proposal—even if it hasn’t always reached the 60 percent threshold.
An Emerson College Polling/The Hill survey that was released last month found that support for Amendment 3 is at 60 percent, while 34 percent are opposed and 6 percent remain undecided.
Meanwhile, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which publicly opposed the cannabis measure, also came out with its latest poll on the issue last month. It found support for the reform from likely voters at 57 percent—a majority but not quite enough to secure passage.
A previous survey from the chamber that was released in September 2024 found that 59 percent of likely voters in the state backed Amendment 3.
A poll from the James Madison Institute (JMI) from August 2024 showed 64 percent of likely voters in Florida were in favor of the legalization proposal.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
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