Florida: Supreme Court rejects plan to legalize cannabis

The Florida Supreme Court dealt a critical blow efforts to legalize cannabis in the state, by rejecting an initiative that hundreds of thousands of voters had already signed and forcing them to start all over again if they want to appear on the 2022 ballot.

In a 5-2 decision, the court ruled that the reform initiative sponsored by Make It Legal Florida is unconstitutional. The argument is based on the fact that the initiative’s summary is «deliberately misleading» in stating that cannabis for adult use would be legalized in the state without explicitly acknowledging that it would remain illegal under federal law.

Breaking: The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that the ballot summary for the initiative to allow adults 21 and older to possess, use, purchase, and transport up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and paraphernalia is misleading.

Read the opinion here: https://t.co/cCTzmKpfY2#FlaPol

— Peter Schorsch (@PeterSchorschFL) April 22, 2021

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The main consequence is that the bill’s sponsors will have to start all over again—from drafting the measure to collecting signatures—if they hope to appear on next year’s ballot.

The group had already collected 556,049 valid signatures out of the 891,589 needed to put the initiative before voters. At least 60 % of voters would then have had to approve it for it to be adopted.

The Court conducted a legal review of the initiative at the request of the office of State Attorney General Ashley Moody, who subsequently filed a brief opposing the petition for legalization.

The problem, according to the majority of the judges in their ruling, is the use of the word «permitted» in the summary of the amendment when referring to activities such as the possession and purchase of cannabis by adults aged 21 and older. Because the initiative does not acknowledge that such activity would not be permitted under federal law, they ruled the summary «misleading» and therefore unconstitutional, even though the proposed amendment explains that a cannabis user or distributor would remain subject to potential prosecution under federal law.

Similar questions have already been brought before the Florida Supreme Court. When the state was considering whether to allow a ballot measure legalizing medical cannabis on the 2016 ballot, the initiative’s supporters avoided this pitfall. The sponsors of the 2016 measure stated in their ballot summary that their initiative would not have «immunized» Floridians from «violations of federal law.».

The judges had unanimously approved the wording of this ballot, and 71% of the voters voted in favor of the Legalization of medical cannabis in Florida in 2016.