Recreational marijuana in question
(c) Can Stock Photo / svanblar
The deadline for collecting enough voter signatures to put proposed amendments to Florida’s constitution on this November’s ballot was yesterday (February 1) but it will likely be a few weeks before we know which measures made it − and which didn’t. Two proposals have already been placed on the ballot directly by the 2025 Florida Legislature: budget stabilization and an exemption of agricultural land from tangible personal property taxation. The current legislature, in session right now, is working to put another measure or possibly more on the ballot that would reduce or eliminate property taxes.
Many ballot initiatives are still in the running, including one legalizing recreational marijuana, as organizer Smart & Safe Florida tries to gather the signatures necessary to get the issue back on the ballot. The 2024 measure fell just short of the necessary 60% voter approval after making it onto the ballot – a proposal unpopular with many of the state’s leaders, including Governor DeSantis.
Now, Smart & Safe is embroiled in a further legal battle with Attorney General James Uthmeier, who has asked the state Supreme Court to block the proposal due to the invalidation of more than 70,000 signatures on the petition. The court reviews proposals to make sure they address a single subject and that the ballot summary reflects the amendment’s full text. These signatures could be life or death for the ballot initiative, which needs 880,062 valid signatures to meet the threshold. (As of last night, February 1, the state’s website showed 783,592 signatures, but it’s not clear if that’s truly the latest figure.) Secretary of State Cord Byrd’s office issued two directives, one claiming 411,894 signatures are “inactive voters” and the other invalidating 28,752 signatures because the petition gatherers were non-Florida residents, which a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal recently upheld.
It’s crunch time for Smart & Safe Florida, who have filed an emergency motion for a full appeals court review, stating that the inactive voters are still legitimate, registered voters. As for the out-of-state gatherers, things are a little more complicated. A law prohibiting out-of-state gatherers was passed in 2025, before Smart & Safe and other groups challenged the law in federal court, where an injunction to block the law was issued. Groups including Smart & Safe began using the extra hands, but then a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of the injunction, allowing the law to be enforced in the meantime – which has caused quite the stir in this ongoing battle.
The wording of the proposal has also come under fire, with opponents, like Uthmeier’s office, claiming a disparity between the ballot summary and the longer amendment text, the latter barring smoking or vaping in “any public place.” The ballot summary only bans smoking and vaping “in public,” which leaves a lot of room for interpretation, and perhaps, a lot more room for smokers in shared spaces like parks, beaches, roads, and arenas. Smart & Safe contends that these are the same “recycled arguments” that didn’t work in 2024, imploring the court to “again allow Floridians to resolve the marijuana question at the ballot box.” The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the case this Thursday (February 5, 2026).
LMA Newsletter of 2-2-26
