Florida’s 2026 Marijuana Vote Takes Shape as Legalization Effort Returns to the Ballot

CLEARWATER, Fla.— Florida’s long-running fight over adult-use marijuana is shifting into a higher-stakes phase as the Smart & Safe Florida campaign tries to put legalization back on the November 2026 ballot—this time amid tighter election rules, new court fights, and an increasingly familiar political divide over who gets to shape the state constitution.

The push is a sequel to 2024’s Amendment 3, which won a clear majority but fell short of Florida’s 60% constitutional threshold—a result that campaigners now describe as proof the state is “close,” while opponents point to as evidence that legalization can’t clear the bar.

What’s different in the 2026 attempt is as much about process as policy. Smart & Safe Florida is again pursuing a constitutional amendment that would legalize possession and purchases for adults 21 and older while also including limits such as prohibitions on smoking or vaping in public and restrictions on marketing that targets children—language designed to address public safety and youth-access concerns that often dominate late-cycle advertising.

But the campaign’s immediate challenge is getting past the state’s increasingly contested ballot-initiative pipeline. In recent months, the effort has been pulled into litigation over how state election officials handle petition verification and certification—steps required before the Florida Supreme Court can review the proposal’s wording for compliance with the state’s single-subject and clarity standards. The campaign argues it has submitted far more petitions than needed and that delays risk pushing it into a time crunch ahead of key statutory deadlines.

At the same time, Smart & Safe Florida has faced a separate procedural setback: state officials invalidated a large block of petitions, a decision upheld by a circuit court. The campaign opted not to appeal and instead emphasized that it believes its overall totals remain strong enough to qualify.

Those signature totals matter because Florida requires ballot initiatives to clear statewide thresholds and meet distribution requirements across congressional districts. The state’s own initiative-tracking database publicly reports verified signatures by county and district—numbers that can shift daily as supervisors of elections process submissions.

The environment for collecting signatures has also changed. After the near-miss on marijuana and abortion measures in 2024, Florida lawmakers approved a package of stricter rules governing petition drives—raising compliance costs, shortening deadlines, and creating new penalties aimed at preventing fraud. Supporters call the changes a necessary guardrail; critics say the reforms are meant to make citizen initiatives prohibitively difficult. A federal judge has largely allowed major portions of the new regime to take effect while legal challenges continue.

Money is again a defining feature. Reports and filings show Trulieve—Florida’s largest medical cannabis operator—remains the campaign’s dominant financial backer, continuing a pattern established during the 2024 effort and accelerating funding as the 2026 push ramps up.

Even if Smart & Safe Florida clears signatures and Supreme Court review, the politics of 2026 are unlikely to be quiet. Florida’s recent history suggests legalization campaigns must not only persuade swing voters but also withstand aggressive opposition messaging—now in a state where the rules of the ballot-measure game are themselves a centerpiece of the debate.