All Florida Cannabis Legalization Campaigns Fall Short

An adult-use cannabis initiative will not be appearing on the 2022 November ballot in Florida, according to WFLA.

To successfully put a proposal on the ballot in Florida, a campaign must gather 222,898 signatures to trigger a judicial and financial review. If an initiative passes judicial muster — the deadline for which was February 1, 2022 — it would then need an additional 891,589 signatures to receive a vote in November. But out of three adult-use initiatives making the rounds in the state, only one made it to the judicial review — the other two fell far short of the needed signatures — and the courts threw out the last proposal out on legal grounds, the report says.

Although three efforts have failed, along with a number of medical cannabis ballot campaigns, a door for adult-use cannabis remains open in the Florida legislature. There are four adult-use bills in the Florida Senate and House with each chamber hosting two of the bills.

But the proposals, which are dependent on each others’ passage, have no bipartisan support — in fact, because of the extremely polarized political climate of Florida‘s legislative body, it is unclear whether any of the bills have a realistic path to the governor’s desk. Additionally, any successfully passed measure would still need the signature of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), something that would not be guaranteed.

Florida passed medical cannabis in 2017 but the state has faced challenges developing an affordable and socially equitable market. Lastly, no adult-use cannabis initiatives have yet to make it to Florida ballots, despite numerous efforts.