Florida Marijuana Legalization Campaign Joins Lawsuit Against New Ballot Initiative Restrictions Signed By DeSantis

Smart & Safe Florida said the new restrictions will “effectively destroy the people’s right to invoke the citizen initiative.”

By Christine Sexton, Florida Phoenix

The group seeking to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida has joined a legal challenge to a newly approved crackdown on ballot initiatives.

Smart & Safe Florida over the weekend asked to intervene in a federal lawsuit filed last week by an organization seeking to place Medicaid expansion on the 2026 ballot. U.S. Chief District Judge Mark Walker granted Smart & Safe’s request on Monday. Walker, meanwhile, has set a telephonic conference on May 14 to discuss scheduling for the lawsuit and how to move forward.

Smart & Safe Florida, the group behind the proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational use of cannabis in 2024, is actively working to get another measure on the ballot in 2026 and didn’t respond to a request for comment.

But in a lengthy court filing, Smart & Safe Florida called the new restrictions signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “legislative gaslighting” that is not designed to block fraud in the initiative process as contended by the governor and others but will “effectively destroy the people’s right to invoke the citizen initiative.”

The group, which has been largely financed by the medical marijuana giant Trulieve, was behind the 2024 initiative that fell just short of the 60 percent threshold needed to get approved. They have already started gathering petitions to try to make the 2026 ballot and have more than 200,000 signatures verified.

Smart & Safe Florida says some of the restrictions in the law, including a ban on using out-of-state residents to collect petition signatures, have already hampered their efforts. The organization has halted mailing out petition forms to registered voters due to a new requirement to turn over signed petitions within 10 days.

The law prohibits felons, noncitizens, and non-Florida residents from acting as petition circulators; requires additional personal identifying information for voters signing petition forms and for petition circulators; and includes a requirement to place a financial impact statement drawn by a state-controlled panel on petition forms.

That financial impact statement requirement violates its First Amendment rights, Smart & Safe Florida argues.

While the Legislature, mostly the House, fought with the governor throughout the session, the Republican leadership did come together to pass HB 1205. DeSantis signed it into law three days after receiving the bill.

The new law stems from a report from the DeSantis administration that alleged fraud in the petition-gathering process.

The January report published by the state’s Office of Election Crimes and Security asserts that more than 100 representatives of the group attempting to pass the abortion-rights amendment last year committed crimes related to gathering petitions.

Meanwhile, Florida Decides Healthcare filed the the lawsuit last week. The group has been working to get its proposed constitutional amendment on expanding Medicaid on the statewide ballot in November 2026.

In a press conference last week, Florida Decides Executive Director Mitch Emerson called the law a “calculated and cowardly attempt by politicians in Tallahassee to rewrite the rules, not to serve the people, but to protect their own power.”

This story was first published by Florida Phoenix.

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