Florida voters could decide as soon as next year if they want to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
But Florida’s attorney general is already indicating she will oppose it in papers filed with the state Supreme Court.
Florida is one of 15 states that allow medical marijuana but not recreational marijuana. Twenty-three states and Washington, D.C., permit the personal use of cannabis, and the Sunshine State would join them in legalizing “personal consumption” of marijuana if 60% of voters statewide vote “yes” in the Nov. 2024 election. Many predict it will pass just as medical marijuana passed in 2016.
There are about a hundred medical marijuana treatment centers across the state, and during the past two years alone, the number of medical marijuana patients has grown by 71%.
Patients WESH 2 talked with say recreational cannabis just makes sense.
“I like it. I think it’s a good move. I think it will raise some revenue and taxes, so I’m all for it,” Tim Kellihurt said.
“Yeah, I do. I think it will help with the taxes, collecting taxes on it. Everybody’s already doing it anyway,” a patient named Patrick said.
The state’s largest medical marijuana company, Trulieve, is bankrolling the effort by Smart & Safe Florida, pouring $38.5 million into the campaign so far.
This week, the Florida attorney general filed her request for an opinion from the Supreme Court of Florida as to whether the ballot language is valid.
She concluded, “I believe that the proposed amendment fails to meet the requirements of Florida statute and will present additional arguments through briefing at the appropriate time.”
A spokesperson for Trulieve provided this statement to WESH 2 News: “As a majority of American adults now enjoy the freedom to use cannabis for personal consumption, we hope the court will agree that the Smart & Safe amendment meets Florida’s ballot sufficiency laws and will allow the voters to have a vote on this important matter.”
As for what the amendment might do to the election, a study by NORML, the cannabis advocacy group, found that infrequent voters tend to turn out when pot is in play and overall turnout increases by 10%.
Right now, Smart & Safe Florida has nearly 800,000 of the nearly 892,000 valid signatures to have the recreational marijuana measure placed on the ballot.
H/T: www.wesh.com
