FLORIDA — It's a story we've been monitoring since before the November election.
Now, the effort to get recreational marijuana back on the ballot in 2026 just cleared a major hurdle: the Florida Supreme Court will review the proposed amendment after gaining enough signatures.
It’s a divisive issue that divided voters in 2024, looking for its way back on the ballot in 2026.
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Even though Amendment 3 did receive the majority approval of 56%, it fell short of the 60% supermajority needed in the state, resulting in its failure to be passed.
"The supermajority in Florida doesn't work well for getting change enacted,” said voter Mitch Greene
Some say it should be hard to change Florida's constitution.
"It's got to be like, really solidly most of the people want the change, instead of like, 49% of people not wanting it and 51% of people wanting it," voter Tag Wilber said.
Now, "Smart and Safe Florida" wants to see if a few tweaks will help convince more people to support legalizing recreational marijuana.
The petition to get to the next step in the process was 220,000 signatures, and it got close to 380,000.
The new language on this proposed amendment prohibits marketing marijuana toward children, smoking or vaping in public, and would allow people to grow their plants at home.
"No state is as tough as Florida when it comes to proposing general constitutional amendments," Nova Southeastern University Professor Bob Jarvis said.
Jarvis said the retry will be an uphill battle to reach the 880,062 signatures to get it back on the ballot.
"To use a very bad pun, we're in the weeds here," Jarvis said. "It's going to take some more direct hits, and so that may change the result. But clearly the people who are pushing this amendment believe that they're in good shape for 2026 if they can get the signatures, otherwise, they wouldn't be doing it."
