Legalizing Cannabis in Florida Is On The 2024 Ballot
Legalizing Cannabis In Florida Is On The 2024 Ballot
On Monday, an industry-led campaign filed a marijuana legalization proposal in Florida for the 2024 ballot.Â
The state Supreme Court is notorious for rejecting previous attempts to legalize adult-use marijuana use. The Smart & Safe Florida Political Committee claims that the language in their proposed amendment to Florida’s marijuana law will not be challenged and will win.
The initiative is spearheaded by Trulieve (the state’s most prominent cannabis operator) as well as musicians from The Bellamy Brothers. Additionally, the musicians were featured in an initial ad for the effort that speaks on the economic potential and civil liberties implications that recreational legalization will provide.Â
The measure, if approved, would allow existing medical marijuana companies such as Trulieve to start selling cannabis to anyone over 21. It includes a provision that will enable but does not require lawmakers to make steps toward approving additional businesses. The proposal, as it stands, would prohibit home grow.Â
The campaign applied for approval to start a signature collection with the state Division of Elections Monday. To be eligible for the 2024 ballot, activists must gather around 900,000 signatures from registered voters.
Adults aged 21 and over would be allowed to buy and possess up to one ounce of cannabis. However, only five grams could be marijuana concentrate products.Â
Equity provisions, such as expungements and other relief for persons with past cannabis convictions, are also absent from the three-page measure.
Legalizing Cannabis In Florida Is On The 2024 Ballot: Big Cannabiz
Trulieve will provide initial seed money of $5 million to help jumpstart the campaign. Kim Rivers, the CEO of Trulieve, states that the company expects other stakeholders in the industry to participate in the financial aspect of the campaign.
Although Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment to legalize medical cannabis in 2016, subsequent attempts at legalizing broader marijuana use were rejected by the state Supreme Court. The court ruled that the language in the Make It Legal Florida (and Sensible Florida ) was misleading and invalidating.
River’s told the News Service of Florida that “every initiative has provided some level of learning.” She continues, “With this initiative, the authors have taken a hard look at the Supreme Court rulings surrounding the previous efforts and taken that into consideration. We believe it’s a very appropriate and narrowly focused amendment that does defer appropriately to the legislature.”
There are approximately 450 shops that sell medical marijuana, with more than 100 being owned by Trulieve. This consolidation could continue without legislative action to increase licensing. Equity concerns could arise. Many people advocate for reform legislation to prioritize licensing to those from the most affected communities by the drug war.
Legalizing Cannabis In Florida Is On The 2024 Ballot
This is what the Smart & Safe Florida marijuana law reform initiative would achieve:
- Adults 21 or older can purchase up to 1 ounce of marijuana for personal use. Five grams is the maximum amount of marijuana concentrates that could be purchased.
- Medical marijuana dispensaries could “acquire and cultivate marijuana products and accessories for adults for personal use.”
- The legislature could authorize, but not require, the approval of additional entities not licensed as cannabis dispensaries.
- The initiative states that nothing in this proposal should prevent the legislature “from enacting laws consistent with the amendment.”
- The amendment also clarifies that nothing in the proposal “changes federal laws,” which appears to be an attempt at avoiding past legal challenges regarding misleading ballot language.
- There is no provision for home cultivation, exoneration of records from the past, or social equity.
- The measure will take effect six months after voters approve it.
For any cannabis reform to be a part of the 2024 Florida ballots, it will need at least 60 percent voter approval to become effective.
Recent polling shows that the majority of Florida voters (59%) are in favor of legalizing adult marijuana use. This narrow margin proves that advocates will have to do a lot more work if the measure becomes law.
A separate poll in February reveals that three-quarters of Florida voters favor legalizing marijuana for adult use. The poll also shows strong bipartisan support. The survey did not include questions about voters’ opinions on regulation of marijuana sales. However, 76% state that they strongly or somewhat support legalizing cannabis possession for adult recreational use.
Pivoting towards 2024 might make it more likely that the group will be able to secure the required supermajority level support. Demographic groups are more likely to support legalization at higher rates during presidential rather than midterm elections.
Subscribe to our newsletter at Sativa University for daily cannabis news updates!
Responses