DeSantis predicts Florida will vote on recreational marijuana in 2024, site says

After months of will-it-or-won't-it battles over whether recreational marijuana will go before Florida voters this November, one prominent Floridian predicted that it probably will.

“I think the court is going to approve that,” Gov. Ron DeSantis told cannabis lobbyist Don Murphy at his last New Hampshire campaign stop, according to cannabis media site Marijuana Moment. “So it’ll be on the ballot.”

It wasn't clear if DeSantis, who dropped out of the 2024 Republican presidential race days later, was speaking from a sense of how the Florida Supreme Court will rule over the challenge to the proposed constitutional amendment or if he was just making his best guess.

If the measure makes it to the statewide ballot and voters pass it, anyone 21 years old and up would be able to use and possess up to 3 ounces of marijuana with not more than 5 grams in a concentrated form (with assorted restrictions).

Under the proposed amendment, pot could be sold through marijuana dispensaries without the need for a medical marijuana card.

Marijuana possession, sales, transportation and use would still be against federal law, however.

Will legal weed be on the Florida General Election ballot in November?

That's up to the state Supreme Court, and then (depending on their decision) the voters. The Court heard arguments last November for and against the proposed recreational marijuana constitutional amendment.

The proposed amendment, backed by Smart & Safe Florida, was challenged by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody in May 2023 when she filed to block the recreational marijuana amendment from the 2024 ballot.

She explained that the proposed ballot language was not clear and didn't stick to a single subject requirement. Attorneys for the state expanded on that before the Supreme Court, saying the wording didn't make it clear that marijuana was still illegal under federal law and that the amendment would empower the small cartel that currently supplies medical marijuana.

Moody previously has said the measure would give an unfair advantage to the state's largest marijuana purveyor, Trulieve, which contributed all but 124 dollars of the $39 million raised to promote the amendment.

The Florida Supreme Court previously struck a similar amendment from the 2022 ballot for "affirmatively misleading" language.

However, after hearing remarks from the state, the justices appeared to favor the amendment. Chief Justice Carlos G. Muñiz disagreed with the claim that the language was unclear in the amendment's summary.

When will the Florida Supreme Court decide on the recreational marijuana amendment?

The Florida Supreme Court has until April 1 to issue an opinion. If no decision is handed down by that time, then the measure would be cleared to be on the November ballot.

Does Gov. DeSantis back recreational marijuana?

Early in his tenure, Gov. Ron DeSantis initially backed ending the Florida Legislature's argument over limitations to the medical marijuana amendment that voters approved in a landslide in 2016. Since then, he has since spoken out against legalizing or decriminalizing recreational marijuana on multiple occasions, at least once because of the smell.

"I think a lot of those other areas that have done it, you know, have ended up regretting it," DeSantis said during a 2022 press conference in Tallahassee. "I could not believe the pungent odor ... in some of these places and I don't want to see that here. I want people to be able to breathe freely."

During his short-lived campaign to be the 2024 GOP presidential candidate, DeSantis made opposition to legal marijuana a regular point, often tying it to the fentanyl crisis. In June, he called medical marijuana "very controversial."

"I don't think we would do that," DeSantis said, when asked about decriminalizing marijuana during an event in South Carolina. "But I think what I've done in Florida is, we have a medical program through our constitution that the voters did, and so the veterans who are in those situations in Florida, they're actually allowed access. It's very controversial because obviously there's some people that abuse it and are using it recreationally."

At an event in Iowa last August, he called it a "real, real problem," saying "the drugs are killing this country," and declared he would not legalize pot because it was more potent now, Florida Politics reported.

"I think it’s a lot different than stuff that people were using 30 or 40 years ago. And I think when kids get on that, I think it causes a lot of problems,” the governor said. “And then, of course, you know, they can throw fentanyl in any of this stuff now.”

However, at a campaign event in Iowa in January, DeSantis said if he was elected president he would "respect the decisions that states make” on marijuana legalization, although he got some digs in on "places like California and Colorado" where he said legalization "definitely caused a negative impact on their workforce.”

What do Florida voters say about recreational marijuana in Florida?

We can't know for certain unless the amendment makes it on the ballot and the votes are counted. But the amendment received 1,033,769 signatures, over 142,000 more than needed, according to MyFloridaElections.com, although these are not official until the Secretary of State issues a certificate of ballot position. Polls consistently show strong – and growing – support.

In 2014, a Quinnipiac poll found that 55% of Florida voters supported recreational marijuana. By 2019, a poll by the University of South Florida reported that 64% favored outright legalization of marijuana. A poll released in March 2023 by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab found that 70% of the respondents supported the amendment.

To pass, the recreational marijuana amendment would have to receive 60% of the vote, although in 2023 Republican legislators attempted to raise that threshold to 66.67%. A medical marijuana amendment, which allowed marijuana sales to patients diagnosed with one of a small list of ailments and conditions, was overwhelmingly approved by Florida voters in 2016 with 71% of the vote.

Would the amendment make recreational marijuana completely legal?

Not according to the federal government, which still considers marijuana a controlled substance and a Schedule I drug, defined as drugs "with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." The amendment would not stop the federal government from charging you.

Other Schedule I drugs include heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), ecstasy and peyote. Cultivating, distributing and possessing marijuana violates federal drug laws.

Still, the recreational use of cannabis has been legalized in 25 states, three U.S. territories, and D.C. so far. The Biden administration has been working to, if not legalize it, send clear signals that the previous approach to marijuana use was wrong.

In October 2022 President Joe Biden announced he was pardoning people with federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana, blocking future federal prosecutions for simple possession, and asking the departments of Justice, and Health and Human Services to review how marijuana should be scheduled under federal law.

In April 2023, Biden unveiled a criminal justice reform initiative involving about 100 policy actions across 20 agencies to provide people getting out of prison with additional access to housing vouchers, Pell grants for education and small business loans, and he issued nearly three dozen commutations for people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.

And in December last year, Biden announced a "full, complete, and unconditional pardon" to every American who uses marijuana or has in the past.

If the Florida recreational marijuana amendment passes, what does it legalize?

The proposed amendment would:

• Legalize marijuana for adults age twenty-one or older for personal use.
• Legalize the possession, use, processing, and transporting of marijuana, marijuana products and marijuana accessories.
• Preserve current medical marijuana law by repealing Note 1 A. of Florida Statute 381.986 2020, which would otherwise cause the current medical marijuana to expire six months after s. 29 Article X of the State Constitution is amended or "a constitutional amendment related to cannabis or marijuana is adopted."
• Prevent legislature from limiting marijuana's tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) percentage.
• Not permit the selling of marijuana for anyone besides licensed dispensaries.
• Not immunize against federal law violations.

Editor's note: The amendment would allow marijuana to be sold only by licensed dispensaries, and not as otherwise reported.