The University of North Florida (UNF) Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) survey found that 70 percent of respondents support somehow or strongly the idea of passing a constitutional amendment to implement legalization, while 29 percent opposes strongly or in some way.
Majority support is also bipartisan, with 75% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans in favor of the proposal. 78% of voters without party affiliation also support the reform.
There is also majority support in every age demographic, according to the survey.
“Efforts to get recreational marijuana in front of voters in 2024 are in the early stages, but support is high across the policy spectrum,” Michael Binder, professor of political science at UNF and faculty director, said in a news release. of the PORL.
“If he gets on the ballot next year, and that’s a big ‘if,’ he has a good chance of achieving the 60 percent absolute majority needed to pass,” he said.
The poll involved interviews with 1,452 registered voters from February 25 to March 7, with a margin of error of +/- 2.57 percentage points.
Meanwhile, signature gathering is underway for a referendum initiative to legalize cannabis in Florida, with the Smart & Safe Florida campaign recently hitting a symbolic milestone, surpassing 420,000 signatures, according to the state’s division of elections.
In late January, the measure cleared a major hurdle, gaining enough signatures to initiate a state Supreme Court review of the language of the measure. This analysis is still pending.
The Florida Supreme Court will seek to ensure that the text of the proposal does not violate the state constitution or mislead voters. If the court rules that the initiative meets those standards, the campaign will need to collect a total of at least 891,589 signatures to vote on next year.
Past attempts to put legalization on the Florida ballot have been challenged and rejected by the court.
Smart & Safe Florida, which filed the cannabis legal proposal last summer, was funded almost entirely by the state’s largest medical cannabis operator Trulieve, which provided the initial funds to get the campaign off the ground and has now contributed $25 million of dollars.
If passed, the measure would allow existing medical cannabis companies in the state like Trulieve to begin selling marijuana to all adults over the age of 21. It also contains a provision that would allow, but would not require, lawmakers to take steps toward approving additional activities. Home cultivation by consumers would not be permitted by the proposal as worded.
Under the proposal, adults aged 21 and older would be able to purchase and possess up to an ounce of cannabis, of which as little as five grams could be concentrated marijuana products. The three-page measure also omits equity provisions favored by advocates such as elimination or other reliefs for people with previous cannabis convictions.
While Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment on medical cannabis in 2016, subsequent attempts to put broader legalization on the ballot were rejected by the state Supreme Court, which ruled that the language of the measures proposed by Make It Legal Florida and Sensible Florida was misleading, invalidating them.
Here’s what the Smart & Safe Florida marijuana legalization initiative would accomplish:
Adults aged 21 and older may purchase and possess up to one ounce of cannabis for personal use. The limit for marijuana concentrates would be five grams.
Medical cannabis dispensaries may “acquire, grow, process, manufacture, sell and distribute marijuana products and marijuana paraphernalia to adults for personal use”.
The legislator would be allowed, but not required, to approve additional entities that are not currently licensed cannabis dispensaries.
The initiative specifies that nothing in the proposal prevents the legislature from “making laws consistent with this amendment”.
The amendment also clarifies that nothing in the proposal “changes federal law,” which appears to be an effort to avoid past legal challenges over misleading voting language.
There are no provisions for home growing, cancellation of previous papers or social equity.
The measure would take effect six months after voter approval.
(from Marijuana Moment of 03/09/2023)
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