A recent poll from the Florida Chamber of Commerce shows that marijuana legalization still enjoys majority support among Florida voters–but still not enough support to put any reform proposal before voters in 2026 elections. Advocates hope to put legalization back on voters’ ballots at that time.
According to a poll by an organization that opposed legalizing adult-use cannabis in 2024, 53 percent of likely voters now support its legalization in California.
At 54.7% in support, cannabis legislation barely made an impression during last year’s elections; 56 percent supported its passage during then. The Chamber of Commerce sees this result as evidence that reform efforts failed to build momentum.
“This poll from the Florida Chamber demonstrates this potential constitutional amendment has fallen far short of meeting the 60 percent threshold,” it stated. This comes despite over $150 million spent to pass it during 2024 elections – over 145 million of that from Florida’s leading medicinal marijuana provider alone!
“Polling shows that voter perception of legalized recreational marijuana legalization continues to shift negatively as more information becomes known about legalization efforts,” according to the Chamber.
Polling on the 2024 legalization measure provided mixed results; results varied but consistently indicated majority support for ending prohibition.
Florida Politics reported on this latest poll conducted from February 2-8 among 600 likely Florida voters and featured an expected margin of error of +/-4 percentage points.
At the center of this poll lies Smart & Safe Florida, an organization behind Florida’s 2024 marijuana proposal which recently filed an amended initiative hoping for another try at passage in 2026.
Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) publicly expressed concern that his state Supreme Court may block his legalization initiative from going before voters next year.
“People have different ideas on marijuana,” DeSantis observed. “If it is important to you, vote in elections for state legislature and support candidates who share your view and can deliver.”
“However, once they put these provisions into the Constitution–and considering how they’ve written them–there will likely be lots of loopholes and different interpretations that I believe may cause problems at Florida Supreme Court level,” he observed.
Last year, Governor Scott successfully predicted that a 2024 cannabis measure from his campaign would pass muster with state attorney general, making his prediction exact. Why this version might produce different results is unknown to us.
Smart & Safe Florida made several modifications in response to concerns raised during its 2024 push, in an apparent response to critics of that campaign.
At present, it explicitly prohibits “smoking and vaping marijuana in any public place”. Furthermore, another section indicates that legislation must adopt rules concerning “regulation of time, place and manner for public consumption of marijuana”.
Newly adopted legislation contains clarifying language to prohibit sales of marijuana products that might appeal to children, and specifically prohibits those that target children with their marketing.
This latest iteration goes further to guarantee home grow options are included within its provisions; specifically stating nothing would prevent legislators from legislating to allow adult homegrown marijuana for personal use within reasonable regulations and that nothing prohibits home grow operations by adults for personal consumption by themselves and reasonable regulation thereof. Such clarification may help appease advocates who criticized its absence in its original proposal.
Initiative 688 would also enable medical marijuana operators licensed as of January 1, 2025 to begin offering adult use sales as of the effective date.
Unknown is how these changes might impact their chances in 2026; which would likely see more conservative voters than average being represented – yet their campaign appears confident of succeeding.
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However, even with President Donald Trump endorsing legalization on his campaign trail in 2024, its success fell just shy of 56% to 44% and DeSantis is one of the loudest opponents to the measure he opposed then and will probably still oppose any similar initiative this time around.
Florida Republican senator Matt Caldwell claimed recently that Trump may have been duped into supporting Amendment 3 through deception by legalization campaigns who mislead both them and the general public about key provisions. Prior to its approval by voters on election day, Donald stated he believed Amendment 3 was going to be very good for Florida.
Before issuing his comments, Trump met with both Kim Rivers of Trulieve, as well as an Iowa GOP state senator who supports reform efforts.
Since supporting Florida cannabis initiative as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access in 2016, Trump has been increasingly silent on cannabis policy matters; his cabinet appointments seem to differ on this matter.
CRS recently issued a report asserting that much remains uncertain with regard to Trump’s marijuana policy in his second term, including whether the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) finalizes a proposed rule to reschedule cannabis.
Virginia Plan To Legalize Marijuana Sales Reaches the Governor After Passage in both Legislative Chambers
Marijuana Legalization Gains Major Support In Florida But Does Not Succeed, Says New Poll By Opposition Group – MEDCAN24
