Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd
Sponsors of a new initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida are facing a mixed bag of court decisions as they attempt to qualify the measure for the 2026 statewide ballot.
On Friday, Judge John Cooper of Florida’s Second Circuit Court in Leon County sided with Secretary of State Cord Byrd and the county’s supervisor of elections, Mark Earley, in a decision that invalidates more than 200,000 voters’ signatures obtained by the initiative’s sponsor, Smart & Safe Florida.
State officials argued in a lawsuit filed last month by Smart & Safe Florida that a mail campaign seeking voter signatures for the initiative failed to follow established procedures because the solicitations didn’t include printed copies of the full text of the measure. The mail-in petition form also included unapproved language on the back of the forms, state officials argued in response to a legal motion by Smart & Safe Florida.
To get the measure on the ballot, sponsors have to submit 880,062 valid signatures by Feb. 1, 2026, according to the Ballotpedia website. Smart & Safe Florida has reported that it collected more than 660,000 signatures, but the invalidation of more than 200,000 of those signatures would be a setback for the campaign.
The group has said that it plans to appeal Cooper’s decision.
The marijuana initiative is similar to a measure that appeared on the ballot in November of 2024. That ballot measure, however, fell about four percentage points short of the 60% threshold required to pass such initiatives. The current measure aims to address previous concerns about recreational marijuana legalization by barring marijuana smoking or vaping in public places and prohibiting the marketing of recreational marijuana in a way that’s directed at minors.
Smart & Safe Florida fared better this month in a legal action before the Florida Supreme Court. The group`s attorneys accused Florida officials of dragging their feet in advancing the measure, contending that Florida elections officials had failed to send Smart & Safe Florida a letter saying that the group has submitted signatures equal to 25% of the petitions required to qualify the initiative in at least 14 congressional districts, as is required by the Florida Constitution.
In addition, Smart & Safe’s Supreme Court petition sought the submission of the initiative to the state attorney general for review. But state officials said in court documents submitted to the high court that both those actions took place as of Nov. 17 and argued that the group’s Supreme Court petition is now moot.
A spokesman for Smart & Safe, Steven Vancore, agreed with that assessment in an email to the Florida Record.
“... The case regarding the transmittal letters has been essentially rendered moot as the state has taken the action requested,” Vancore said.
Meanwhile, the 2024 campaign against the marijuana measure continues to generate accusations that funds were illegally diverted to opponents of Amendment 3. Two Democratic Florida members of Congress, Kathy Castor and Darren Soto, sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in May seeking a Medicaid fraud investigation because state Medicaid funds were allegedly provided to a group with ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis that opposed the ballot initiative.
