By Liv Caputo, Florida Phoenix
In Summary:
Florida election officials have taken the procedural step needed to advance a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana—just weeks after the pro-marijuana group Smart & Safe Florida sued the DeSantis administration for allegedly stalling the process. The Division of Elections sent the required letter acknowledging the initiative had enough verified signatures, prompting Attorney General James Uthmeier to ask the Florida Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit. The move comes amid ongoing legal and political battles surrounding the administration’s efforts to defeat marijuana legalization in 2024, a failed campaign now reportedly under grand jury investigation.
Weeks after a pro-marijuana group sued the DeSantis administration in the Florida Supreme Court for allegedly slow-walking the process to put an amendment on the ballot, Florida election officials announced that they have taken that step.
Related: Floridians react to federal legislation that could ‘devastate’ state’s hemp industry.
Attorney General James Uthmeier asked the court in a brief on Tuesday to dismiss the case because, a day earlier, Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews completed the step that Smart & Safe Florida sued the state over in late October.
This involved issuing a letter acknowledging that the organization had enough support to advance its proposal to legalize recreational marijuana.
“The sole relief sought by Smart & Safe’s petition is an order ‘compelling Respondents to issue the … letter, thus advancing the [Initiative] Petition,'” the state’s response petition reads. “Respondents have now sent the demanded … letter to Smart & Safe and submitted the initiative petition to the Attorney General.”
This is the second lawsuit Smart & Safe had filed against the DeSantis administration over its proposal, and came months after the pro-marijuana group nearly legalized recreational use of the drug during the 2024 election cycle. Although the initiative garnered 56% support from Floridians, it fell short of the 60% threshold needed to become part of the state Constitution.
That failure came on the heels of a massive and expensive statewide campaign by Gov. Ron DeSantis, First Lady Casey DeSantis, and other top officials who were vehemently opposed to legalizing weed, alleging in a slew of press conferences that everything from the smell to corporate greed would damage the state.
Uthmeier, the governor’s former chief of staff, came under fire after his political committee to defeat the amendment received millions of dollars from a Medicaid settlement distributed to Casey DeSantis’ charity, Hope Florida.
A grand jury is now reportedly investigating the DeSantis administration’s role in defeating the 2024 measure and Hope Florida’s financials.
What happened?
In Smart & Safe’s October 31 lawsuit against the state, the organization claimed it had notified Matthews and Secretary of State Cord Byrd in August that the proposal had secured more than three times the number of verified petitions (more than 660,000) needed to make it to the ballot.
Smart & Safe had asked the officials to take the next step in the ballot initiative process, which would be to send Smart & Safe a letter acknowledging that its petition had enough signatures, so that the state could submit the proposal to the attorney general, who then would forward the initiative for Supreme Court review. The organization needs 880,000 total signatures to win ballot space.
But that didn’t happen.
Smart & Safe, in its petition demanding the Florida Supreme Court force the state to send the letter, alleged that Florida was purposely roadblocking the marijuana amendment by attempting to stall out Smart & Safe’s proposal, as the Phoenix previously reported.
That referred to Byrd’s October 3 order to county supervisors to trash as many as 200,000 signatures — nearly one-quarter of what’s needed to qualify for next year’s ballot — because organizers failed to provide the entire amendment to the people it reached out to by mail.
This was the basis of Smart & Safe’s October 19 suit against the administration in circuit court.
Key Points:
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Smart & Safe Florida sued the DeSantis administration for allegedly delaying a required step in advancing its recreational marijuana ballot initiative.
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One day before Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a dismissal request, state election officials sent the letter acknowledging the petition had sufficient verified signatures.
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This is the second lawsuit Smart & Safe has filed over alleged roadblocks, including the state’s order to discard up to 200,000 petition signatures.
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The 2024 marijuana initiative received 56% support but fell short of Florida’s required 60% threshold, following a heavily funded opposition effort led by Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis.
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A grand jury is reportedly investigating the administration’s role in defeating the 2024 amendment and the finances of Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida charity, which was tied to political funding.
