A federal judge has delivered a win to a Florida campaign seeking to put a marijuana legalization initiative on the state’s 2026 ballot—granting “complete relief” from provisions of a law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that imposed serious restrictions on the collection of signatures.
In response to a motion for a preliminary injunction from the cannabis campaign Smart & Safe Florida, a U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida judge ruled on Thursday that the state’s law forces plaintiffs to “choose between curtailing their First Amendment rights” or “risk invalidation of verified petitions, crippling civil penalties, and further enforcement actions.”
DeSantis didn’t sign the legislation in May to target the cannabis initiative directly, but supporters are concerned it may jeopardize the already complicated and expensive process for collecting signatures. This is because the law would prevent non-citizens and nonresidents from collecting ballot measure signatures.
This idea was presented by the Governor to lawmakers in early this year. He called for a change to the process of collecting petitions that could complicate efforts to reform the system led by citizens.
Mark Walker of U.S. Federal District Court, after hearing from several activist groups and the Cannabis campaign that the policies were unlawful, determined certain restrictions to be illegal.
According to The Tallahassee Democrat, last month the judge upheld many of the provisions in law. However, he stated that preventing residents from collecting signatures amounted an “unacceptably severe burden on political speech.”
The court said Smart & Safe Florida “demonstrated that it is substantially likely to succeed on the merits of its First Amendment claim challenging the State Attorneys’ role in enforcing the residency requirement.”
It was argued that the challenged provisions imposed an unconstitutional limitation on Plaintiffs’ freedom of speech. This is because they prevented noncitizens, who were Plaintiffs here, from gathering signatures.
Walker wrote that the threat the restrictions could be enforced against the cannabis campaign is “a cognizable chill on Smart & Safe’s non-resident petition circulator’s speech, which directly injures Smart & Safe, as sponsor of the marijuana ballot initiative.”
The marijuana campaign is now at more than 75% of signatures required to be on the ballot in 2019.
Smart & Safe Florida began signature gathering for the measure in January, making steady progress as takes a second stab at enacting the constitutional amendment at the ballot after a 2024 version of the legalization measure fell short.
According to the Florida Division of Elections, activists have collected about 50,000 additional valid signatures in the past month, for a grand total of 661 327. For ballot placement, the state needs 880.062 valid signed.
In addition to that signature total from registered voters, Smart & Safe Florida must also gather them from a minimum of 8 percent of voters in at least half of the state’s congressional districts. The campaign currently exceeds the required threshold in 5 of 28 districts. However, it is very close in other districts.
In June, the state affirmed that the campaign collected enough for the 2026 initiative to trigger a fiscal and judicial review.
The governor said in February that the newest measure is in “big time trouble” with the state Supreme Court, predicting it will be blocked from going before voters next year.
DeSantis: “There are a number of perspectives about marijuana”. “It shouldn’t even be mentioned in our Constitution. Elections for the legislative body are available if it is something you strongly feel about. “Go back to the candidates you think will deliver your vision on this.”
“But when you put these things in the Constitution—and I think, I mean, the way they wrote, there’s all kinds of things going on in here. He said, “I think the Florida Supreme Court will have a lot of trouble with this.”
With its current signature total, the campaign already achieved one of its first milestones. Statutorily, the state must now conduct an economic and legal review to determine the measure’s legality and inform voters about it.
The latest initiative was filed with the secretary of state’s office just months after the initial version failed during the November 2024 election—despite an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
Smart & Safe Florida is hoping the revised version will succeed in 2026. The campaign—which in the last election cycle received tens of millions of dollars from cannabis industry stakeholders, principally the multi-state operator Trulieve—incorporated certain changes into the new version that seem responsive to criticism opponents raised during the 2024 push.
The law now states specifically that smoking and vaping marijuana is not allowed in public areas.The law states in another section that “the legislature must approve regulations governing the regulation of time, place and manner for public consumption.”
Last year, the governor accurately predicted that the 2024 cannabis measure from the campaign would survive a legal challenge from the state attorney general. He doesn’t explain why this version of the campaign would have a different result.
While there’s uncertainty around how the state’s highest court will navigate the measure, a poll released in February showed overwhelming bipartisan voter support for the reform—with 67 percent of Florida voters backing legalization, including 82 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents and 55 percent of Republicans.
However, the results conflict with another recent poll from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, a proactive opponent of legalization, that found majority support for the reform among likely voter (53 percent) but not enough to be enacted under the 60 percent requirement.
Another recent poll of Florida Republican voters showed just 40 percent of that demographic said they’d vote in favor of the legalization proposal.
In the background of the campaign’s signature development, DeSantis signed a GOP-led bill in June to impose significant restrictions on the ability to put initiatives on the ballot—a plan that could impair efforts to let voters decide on marijuana legalization next year.
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Separately, a Florida GOP senator claimed recently that the legalization campaign “tricked” Trump into supporting the 2024 measure by misleading him and the general public about key provisions.
Ahead of the election, Trump said in September that he felt Amendment 3 was “going to be very good” for the state.
Before making the comments, Trump met with the CEO of Trulieve, Kim Rivers, as well as with a GOP state senator who is in favor of the reform.
While Trump endorsed the Florida cannabis initiative—as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access—he has since been silent on cannabis issues. On Thursday, however, the CEO of Scotts Miracle Gro said Trump has privately committed to seeing through the rescheduling process in “multiple” conversations since taking office.
Meanwhile in Florida, some medical marijuana patients and caregivers in Florida could see their state cannabis registrations revoked under a bill recently signed into law by the governor.
DeSantis has approved SB 2514. This is a large budget bill which touches on many health issues, including cancer and dentistry. But it also contains a provision that directs the state Department of Health (DOH) to cancel registrations of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they’re convicted of—or plead guilty or no contest to—criminal drug charges.
Below you can read the order of the Federal Court in Florida’s medical marijuana and ballot laws case.
Philip Steffan provided the photo.
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