Florida activists who are working on a campaign to get a marijuana-legalization measure placed on the ballot for 2026 have filed a complaint with the Supreme Court of the state, alleging officials violate election laws in delaying a review required process.
Smart & Safe Florida filed a petition for writ of mandamus in the Supreme Court on Thursday, arguing that the secretary of state has failed to comply with a statutory mandate to “immediately submit” a notice to the attorney general after receiving sufficient signatures to trigger a fiscal and legal review.
The Secretary of State’s Office has so far verified 662.543 signatures, more than three times the required 220.016 to trigger the review. It reached the threshold in summer, notified officials but says they did not respond.
It is absurd and against the Constitution and statutes to give the Secretary of State the authority to do so. [of State] The Director [of the Division of Elections] To indefinitely reject the Section 15.21 letter and frustrate constitutional order”, the filing reads. This is the notification that is sent by the secretary to the attorney-general when the threshold of signatures has been reached.
Attorneys for the campaign also noted that Smart & Safe Florida is involved in other litigation related to allegations that the state is taking “unlawful” steps to force the invalidation of about 200,000 voter signatures it has submitted. The state claims that the signatures were invalid because they did not include the entire text of the initiative in the petitions signed by voters.
In that light, the Supreme Court says that perhaps “the Respondents speculate” that Secretary’s Direction might result in the eventual invalidation a large enough number of Petition such that measure would fall below the threshold to issue the Section 15.21 letters. “A dubious presumption at best given that Smart & Safe has gathered more than three times the number of verified valid petitions required statewide and nearly double the required number of congressional districts.”
“Regardless, such speculation as to the Respondents’ motive is of no moment here because the law is clear that Smart & Safe is entitled to issuance of, and Respondents are under the mandatory ministerial legal duty to issue, the Section 15.21 Letter, because the statutory requirements have been met,” it states.
“The Director and Secretary appear to go beyond the verified petitions that have been reported as valid by county supervisors and reflected on Division’s web site.” They appear to have withheld the Section 15:21 Letter in order for the county supervisors compliance with the Secretary’s Directive could result in the Petition being below the legal threshold. No law grants respondents this authority.
What the lawsuit aims to accomplish is to have the court “compel Florida’s Secretary of State to follow Florida law and perform his mandatory legal duty to advance the ballot initiative for Supreme Court review as required by the Florida Constitution,” Smart & Safe Florida said in a statement.
The statement said, “Florida’s law is clear and unambiguous that the moment a statewide initiative has more than 25 per cent of required signatures it must be submitted to the Supreme Court for review. “For reasons unknown, this has not happened, and we are asking the court to intervene and compel the Secretary to simply follow longstanding Florida law as the Smart & Safe Florida has far surpassed that threshold last summer.”
With respect to the other pending litigation on the state’s effort to invalidate about 200,000 signatures that have already been collected, the secretary’s office initially sent a cease-and-desist letter to Smart & Safe Florida in March, advising the campaign about its interpretation of the rules around including the full text of the proposed initiative on its signature petitions.
The campaign is making its second attempt at the ballot. They successfully secured ballot placement for a 2024 version of the initiative–and a majority did vote to pass it, but not enough to meet the state’s steep 60 percent threshold to approve a constitutional amendment.
In the background of this lawsuit, a federal judge in August delivered a win to Smart & Safe Florida—granting “complete relief” from provisions of a law Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that imposed other severe restrictions on the gathering of signatures.
DeSantis didn’t sign the marijuana initiative law in May, but it was a concern of supporters who feared that this could compromise a complex and expensive process for collecting signatures. It would stop non-citizens and nonresidents from collecting ballot measure signatures.
In March, meanwhile, two Democratic members of Congress representing Florida asked the federal government to investigate what they described as “potentially unlawful diversion” of millions in state Medicaid funds via a group with ties to DeSantis. The money used was to combat a citizen ballot measure that had been vehemently fought by DeSantis, and would have legalized adult marijuana.
A letter from the lawmakers followed accusations that an improper $10 million donation was made by a legal settlement to Hope Florida Foundation. This foundation sent the money later to two non-profit political organizations which then gave $8.5 to a campaign against Amendment 3.
The governor said in February that the newest marijuana legalization measure is in “big time trouble” with the state Supreme Court, predicting it will be blocked from going before voters next year.
DeSantis stated, “there are many different views on marijuana.” It shouldn’t be in the Constitution. Elections for the legislative body are available if it is something you strongly feel about. You can go back and talk to candidates who you feel will be capable of delivering what your vision for that is.”
“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.”
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 any public area.Another section states that rules regulating the manner, time and place of public consumption of cannabis would have to be approved by the legislator.
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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 poll of Florida Republican voters showed just 40 percent of that demographic said they’d vote in favor of the legalization proposal.
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 last 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.
Meanwhile, Florida medical marijuana officials are actively revoking the registrations of patients and caregivers with drug-related criminal records. DeSantis signed the policy into law in early this year. The provisions in question direct 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.
Images courtesy of Rawpixel and Philip Steffan.
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