The Florida Supreme Court will not consider ballot language on a recreational marijuana amendment.
Following a filing by Attorney General James Uthmeier, the court dismissed the matter after the State Department declared that no citizen initiatives met a necessary petition threshold to qualify for the 2026 statewide ballot.
That included Smart & Safe Florida’s push to get a constitutional amendment in front of voters on decriminalizing marijuana. The campaign had called for Justices to consider the measure anyway, as several lawsuits remain underway that could restore thousands of signatures tossed out over new rules imposed by the State Department this year, including several the campaign believes reach beyond what is allowed under Florida law.
The Florida Supreme Court cancelled any oral arguments about the case two days after Uthmeier issued an advisory opinion calling for the state’s voluntary dismissal of a request for a hearing. Uthmeier said after the measure failed to meet a threshold of 880,062 validated signatures to make the ballot, the court should not hear arguments on ballot language, despite the campaign reaching the 220,016 signatures that would normally require judicial review.
“Florida Statutes, in turn requires that the Attorney General ‘must withdraw his or her request for an advisory opinion if the Supreme Court has not yet fulfilled that request,’” Uthmeier wrote in a brief. “That is the case here.”
A state website reports the campaign gathered 783,592 verified signatures, though organizers say around 1.4 million petitions were submitted, and have argued county elections offices verified more petitions than currently included in the state total.
Six of Florida’s seven Supreme Court Justices agreed to dismiss the case. Only Justice Jorge LaBarga, the only member of the court not appointed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, dissented from the decision. LaBarga was appointed by former Gov. Rick Scott, also a Republican.
No written opinions were provided by either side of the court.
The matter may still end up in front of the Florida Supreme Court, but only if the campaign’s lawsuits result in the inclusion of enough verified signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. Officials from the campaign said they intend to keep fighting for ballot access this year.
“Today’s order does not decide the merits of Smart & Safe’s ballot language, and it leaves open the possibility for the court to review the ballot language once the pending disputes over tens of thousands of wrongfully invalidated petitions has been resolved,” reads a statement from a spokesperson for Smart & Safe.
While Smart & Safe says the fight isn’t over, others are proclaiming victory.
“Even after spending $205 million, Big Weed still hasn’t convinced Floridians that legalizing recreational drug use makes Florida’s future any more secure,” Florida Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mark Wilson said Wednesday.
“As I have said time and time again, the more Floridians learn about proposals to import California drug laws into Florida’s constitution, the less high they are on the idea of legalizing recreational drug use. The Florida Chamber will continue fighting to protect our constitution from out-of-state and special interests who believe it is for sale.”
Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at [email protected].
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