The path to legalization has seen its share of political opposition, tight polling, and legal roadblocks, but the Florida recreational marijuana initiative advances once again. The campaign to secure a recreational cannabis amendment on the 2026 ballot recently took a major step forward. After a lawsuit from advocacy group Smart & Safe Florida, state election officials have finally pushed the proposal to the next phase of the approval process.
While the legal dispute itself may now be considered moot, the implications of this delay and the subsequent advancement highlight the friction between citizen-led initiatives and the state administration.
For proponents of legalization, the recent developments offer a breath of relief after months of administrative limbo. The group behind the initiative, Smart & Safe Florida, had accused the state of intentionally stalling the verification process required to get the measure before the Florida Supreme Court.
With the state finally issuing the necessary confirmation letter, the focus now shifts from the courtroom back to the political arena. As the campaign gears up for 2026, they are armed with a revised amendment designed to address the specific concerns that caused a similar measure to fail in 2024.
The Lawsuit That Broke the Stalemate For Florida Recreational Marijuana Initiative to Advance
The recent momentum began with a legal confrontation initiated by Smart & Safe Florida against the DeSantis administration. On October 30, 2025, the political committee filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court, seeking a writ of mandamus.
This legal filing essentially asked the court to force Secretary of State Cord Byrd and Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews to do their jobs. The group argued that state officials were refusing to acknowledge that the campaign had collected enough verified signatures to trigger a crucial review by the state Supreme Court.
Florida law requires the Secretary of State to issue a letter to the Attorney General confirming a citizen initiative’s milestone once it gathers verified signatures equal to 25 percent of the statewide total—and meets specific thresholds in half of the state’s congressional districts.
Smart & Safe Florida contended that they had surpassed this threshold months earlier, in June, yet the necessary paperwork had not been issued. The lawsuit alleged that the delay was a deliberate attempt by the administration to slow-walk the initiative and prevent it from qualifying for the 2026 ballot.
The timing of the lawsuit was critical. By late October, the organization had collected more than 660,000 verified signatures, which is nearly three times the initial threshold required for the judicial review trigger.
Despite this overwhelming evidence of support, the state had remained silent, prompting the committee to seek judicial intervention to ensure the democratic process could proceed without further administrative interference.
State Claims the Dispute is Now Moot
In response to the legal pressure, the state abruptly changed course just weeks after the lawsuit was filed. On November 17, 2025, Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews sent Smart & Safe Florida the formal letter they had been demanding.
This document confirmed that the committee had indeed submitted valid forms signed and dated equal to 25 percent of the number of electors statewide, as required by the State Constitution. Furthermore, the state formally submitted the initiative petition to Attorney General James Uthmeier, which is the prerequisite for the Supreme Court to review the amendment’s language.
Following this action, the state’s legal team filed a response with the Supreme Court, arguing for the lawsuit’s dismissal. Their central argument was that the case is now “moot” because the respondents—Byrd and Matthews—had already performed the specific act the lawsuit sought to compel.
The state’s filing argues that because officials have sent the letter and advanced the initiative to the Attorney General, no live controversy remains for the court to resolve.
While this procedural move likely ends this specific legal chapter, it validates the strategy employed by Smart & Safe Florida. The swift issuance of the letter following the lawsuit suggests that the legal pressure was effective in dislodging the bureaucratic logjam.
However, the administration has maintained that the lawsuit lacks merit, arguing that it ignored key regulatory requirements regarding the ballot initiative process.
Comparison to the Failed Amendment 3
The current push for legalization is occurring in the shadow of the 2024 election, where a similar measure, Amendment 3, failed to pass. In Florida, constitutional amendments require a supermajority of 60 percent of the vote to be enacted. Amendment 3 garnered 56 percent support, a clear majority but just short of the high threshold required by the state constitution.
Smart & Safe Florida has used the loss in 2024 as a learning opportunity, restructuring the 2026 initiative to neutralize the most effective arguments used against them. One of the primary criticisms leveled by Governor DeSantis and other opponents was the potential for a pervasive smell of marijuana in public spaces.
The 2024 campaign featured rhetoric warning that Florida would start to “smell like New York City” if the amendment passed. To address this, the new proposal explicitly prohibits smoking and vaping marijuana in any public place.
By hardcoding this ban into the amendment language, proponents hope to assuage voters who are open to legalization but concerned about public nuisance issues.
Another significant change involves the structure of the cannabis market itself. The previous amendment faced criticism for favoring a “monopoly” of large, vertically integrated medical marijuana treatment centers. Critics argued it shut out smaller businesses and prevented individuals from growing their own plants.
The 2026 initiative seeks to soften this opposition by removing the requirement for licensed marijuana companies to control every step of the process—growing, processing, and selling—potentially paving the way for a more diverse market.
Furthermore, the new initiative includes strict language regarding child safety. It explicitly bans advertising that targets minors, a move designed to counter fears that legalization would lead to increased youth consumption.
New Hurdles for Ballot Qualification
Even with the revised language and the recent legal victory, the path to the 2026 ballot is steeper than it was in previous years. In May 2025, Governor DeSantis signed HB 1205, a law that introduced a host of new restrictions on citizen-driven ballot initiatives. These changes have made the signature collection process significantly more expensive and logistically difficult.
One of the most impactful changes is the requirement that petition circulators must now submit completed signatures within 10 days of collection, a dramatic reduction from the previous 30-day timeframe. This tight turnaround increases the administrative burden on campaigns to process and turn in paperwork rapidly.
Additionally, the new law mandates that only Florida residents can circulate petitions, which greatly limits the pool of available workers compared to previous years when campaigns could hire experienced canvassers from out of state.
The law also caps the number of petitions a volunteer can collect, restricting each volunteer to no more than 25 petitions. This forces campaigns to recruit a massive number of individual volunteers rather than relying on a smaller, more efficient team of super-circulators.
Smart & Safe Florida has taken these restrictions to federal court, arguing they violate First Amendment protections, but the impact is already taking a toll. Reports indicate that the campaign’s weekly signature collection rate dropped significantly after the law took effect.
The Road to February 2026
Despite the obstacles, the campaign is moving forward. With the Section 15.21 letter finally issued, the Florida Supreme Court will now review the proposed amendment to ensure it adheres to the single-subject rule and that its ballot summary is not misleading.
This judicial review is a standard but critical step; in the past, the court has struck down initiatives for having confusing language or attempting to tackle too many issues at once.
Simultaneously, Smart & Safe Florida must continue its ground game. While they have crossed the threshold for judicial review, they still need to gather a total of 880,062 verified signatures by February 1, 2026, to officially qualify for the ballot. As of mid-November 2025, the state Division of Elections website reported that the committee had submitted over 675,000 valid signatures.
As the Florida recreational marijuana initiative advances, Smart & Safe Florida must still collect and verify roughly 200,000 signatures in the coming months. New restrictive laws and the state’s attempt to invalidate 200,000 previously collected signatures make this task more difficult.
