Florida election officers are lastly permitting a proposed constitutional modification that may legalize adult-use marijuana to advance in the direction of the November 2026 poll.
However the state’s acknowledgment Monday that legalization marketing campaign Sensible & Protected Florida collected sufficient legitimate signatures got here solely after a lawsuit alleging the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis was attempting to sabotage the method.
The state Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews on Monday issued a letter confirming that the Sensible & Protected marketing campaign submitted sufficient signatures to set off legal professional basic and state Supreme Court docket evaluation, in accordance with the Florida Phoenix.
The motion prompted Legal professional Common James Uthmeier to ask the state Supreme Court docket on Tuesday to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the state has now complied with the group’s calls for.
The present proposal will now be despatched to the legal professional basic, who will ahead it to the Supreme Court docket to evaluation its language.
It’s the second lawsuit Sensible & Protected has filed in opposition to the administration concerning the proposed 2026 poll initiative.
The primary swimsuit, filed in circuit courtroom in October, challenged an earlier order to discard almost 200,000 signatures.
Sensible & Protected will in the end want 880,000 legitimate signatures from registered voters to seem on the poll.
When will Florida legalize adult-use marijuana?
Florida, the strongest medical-only marijuana market within the U.S. with $1.8 billion in annual gross sales, is taken into account the highest prize for the nationwide hashish business.
Sensible & Protected’s prior try to legalize leisure hashish in 2024 narrowly failed.
Greater than 56% of voters solid ballots in help, however that fell in need of the required 60% threshold wanted to turn into a part of the state Structure.
Medical marijuana firms supported Sensible & Protected Florida to the tune of $153 million in 2024, most of it from Trulieve Hashish Corp., the state’s main operator.
Trulieve is once more spending closely on Sensible & Protected’s adult-use marketing campaign, contributing $25.8 million to this point.
The 2024 marketing campaign confronted robust opposition from Gov. Ron DeSantis and different high officers, a few of whom stand accused of leveraging state assets to defeat marijuana on the poll.
A grand jury continues to be reportedly investigating these allegations, in accordance with the Phoenix.
