A campaign backed by the marijuana industry to put a legalization initiative on the 2024 ballot has passed its first test. Enough people have signed a petition for the state Supreme Court to look over its language, according to a report by Marijuana Moment.
Smart & Safe Florida filed the measure last summer. So far, the campaign has turned in 294,037 valid signatures to start the review, which is a key step toward getting on the ballot. For the court to look at the initiative, they needed 222,898 signatures.
The Florida Supreme Court will look at the wording of the proposal to make sure it doesn’t break the state constitution’s “single subject” rule and doesn’t give voters false information.
If the court decides that the initiative meets those requirements, the campaign will need to get at least 891,589 signatures in order for it to be on the ballot next year.
In the past, people in Florida have tried to put legalizing marijuana for adults on the ballot, but the court has stopped them.
Almost all of the money for the Smart & Safe Florida political committee initiative comes from Trulieve, the largest medical cannabis company in Florida. The company gave the campaign its start-up money and has now given $20 million to the effort.
If the measure passes, medical marijuana companies in the state, like Trulieve, would be able to start selling pot to all adults over 21. It has a part that says lawmakers can take steps toward letting more businesses open, but they don’t have to. As written, the proposal would not let people grow marijuana at home.
Adults over the age of 21 would be able to buy and keep up to an ounce of marijuana, but only five grams of that could be marijuana concentrate. The three-page bill also doesn’t have any of the fairness provisions that supporters like, like expungements or other help for people with past cannabis convictions.
