Florida Legalization Campaign Nearing Signature Threshold to Put Issue on 2024 Ballot

The Florida campaign seeking to put a cannabis legalization question to voters has collected 94% of the signatures required to get the question on ballots, Ballotpedia News reports. Smart & Safe Florida has collected 841,130 valid signatures of the 891,523 valid signatures required to put the issue on 2024 ballots. 

The campaign began signature gathering in August 2022 and has collected an average of 23,360 valid signatures each week since the approval, the report says.  

Smart & Safe Florida has raised $30.5 million so far, all from multistate cannabis company Trulieve Cannabis Corp. The campaign has so far spent $27.42 million on signature gathering, according to financial reports outlined by Ballotpedia, and has paid Axion Strategies and Vanguard Field Strategies $23.07 million on the signature collecting effort. 

If approved, the initiative would legalize cannabis for adults 21 years old and older and sets possession limits at three ounces of flower and five grams of concentrates. Existing Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers would be authorized under the initiative to sell cannabis to adults for personal use and lawmakers could pass additional laws to license businesses other than current medical cannabis operators to grow and sell cannabis products. 

Medical cannabis was legalized in Florida in 2016 by a 71% to 29% margin. In Florida, constitutional amendments require a 60% supermajority to pass. A University of North Florida poll released in March found 70% of respondents would back a constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis for adult use.