MIAMI – In mailboxes now is a petition for voters to sign to get legal marijuana use back on the ballot.
The petition prompted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to say, “There’s a lot of different perspectives on marijuana. It should not be in our constitution.”
It takes hundreds of thousands of signatures and a court sign-off on the language for Florida citizens to get an issue on the ballot, which is typically done when lawmakers will not.
Not only did DeSantis lead a public campaign last fall to tank the marijuana amendment, and the abortion amendment, too, now he wants lawmakers to do that to this bill, to make it harder and more expensive for citizens groups to gather petitions to get their issues in front of voters.
“The constitution should really be for structure of government,” said DeSantis. “For example, limiting tax increases.”
With the new marijuana petition mailings, the group behind it, Smart and Safe Florida, gets out in front of any potential petition-gathering crackdown and also tweaked the language from lessons learned from the first one.
While a majority of Floridians supported the measure in 2024, it fell four points short of the required 60% supermajority threshold, despite bipartisan support — and backing from some law enforcement organizations.
“Even folks on the opposing side, I think there is common ground and I think there is a real path forward here in Florida,” said Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers.
Rivers signaled another try right after the election. This new petition is a sign it’s now underway.
