Florida Supreme Court to decide if legalized pot goes up in smoke

The Florida Supreme Court will review oral arguments on an Adult Personal Use of Marijuana citizen initiative that could lead to a constitutional amendment for voter consideration, with legalization in effect as soon as May 2025 if 60% or more of voters approve.

The amendment, titled “Adult Personal Use of Marijuana,” would allow non-medical use of the narcotic and prohibit any law subjecting use to criminal liability or civil sanctions. It would also clear all licensed Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers in the state to start making and selling recreational cannabis products.

The hearing is set for Nov. 8, with each side getting 20 minutes to make the case about whether the initiative should be put on next year’s General Election ballot.

If the amendment should make the ballot, it will be with the opposition of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody.

“We have medical in our Constitution, we have medical marijuana, we enforce that, you know, we abide by it, but to take action now to make it even more available, I would not do that,” DeSantis said in Iowa this summer, adding that legalization in Colorado has only expanded the “black market.”

Florida voters in 2016 passed a constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana only for medical uses. That laid the groundwork for a still-growing industry in the state and a host of regulations around the product. However, it’s still not legal for residents and visitors of Florida to use marijuana without a prescription.

He had previously indicated olfactory objections to the aromatic plant.

“What I don’t like about it is if you go to some of these places that have done it, the stench when you’re out there, I mean, it smells so putrid,” he told reporters in 2022. “I could not believe the pungent odor you would see in some of these places. I don’t want to see that here. I want people to be able to breathe freely.”

Attorney General Moody holds to the same opinion she did in 2019, the last time a citizens’ initiative sought to put the adult use question to voters, saying the drafted amendment was overbroad.

“I believe that the proposed amendment fails to meet the requirements of Section 101.161(1), Fla. Stat., and will present additional arguments through briefing at the appropriate time,” she wrote in May.

In Florida, marijuana use hasn’t been decriminalized, but medicinal use is allowed.

Moody cited a law requiring constitutional amendments to touch on just a single subject, and expressed doubt whether this one complies with all technical requirements of state law.

Smart and Safe Florida, behind the push for the citizens’ initiative, already has more than a million verified signatures, meeting the threshold needed for ballot inclusion should the Supreme Court back its position. The committee has raised more than $39 million, almost entirely from Trulieve, the leading dispensary chain in the state in terms of number of storefronts.

Polling this Spring from Mason-Dixon suggests the amendment would have 50% support on the ballot, ensuring it falls short of ratification. However, given that the vote would happen on a presidential General Election ballot, it’s all but assured that turnout will be juiced compared to that of most off-year election cycles, and anti-cannabis Republicans may suffer a backlash as a result.

(Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics contributed to this report.)

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at AG@FloridaPolitics.com or on Twitter: @AGGancarski.