A Florida campaign working to put a marijuana legalization initiative on the 2026 ballot has filed a lawsuit in the state Supreme Court, alleging that officials are violating election laws by unjustifiably stalling the review process for the measure.

Smart & Safe Florida filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on Thursday, alleging that the secretary of state has failed to comply with the law’s mandate to “immediately send” enough signatures to the attorney general to initiate a fiscal and legal review.

With 662,543 signatures verified by the Secretary of State so far, that’s more than triple the 220,016 signatures needed to push the review forward. The campaign reached that initial threshold over the summer and notified state officialsbut he says that he has not received an answer.

“It is senseless, and contrary to specific constitutional and statutory orders, that the Secretary (of State) and the Director (of the Division of Elections) indefinitely refuse to issue the Article 15.21 letter and frustrate the constitutional order,” the filing says, referring to the notification that the Secretary of State must send to the attorney general when the signature is received.

Attorneys for the campaign also noted that Smart & Safe Florida is involved in other lawsuits state is taking ‘illegal’ steps to force nearly 200,000 voter signatures to be invalidated has presented Officials say the signatures are invalid because the petitions signed by voters do not include the full text of the initiative.

“Therefore, perhaps Respondents speculate that the Secretary’s Directive may ultimately result in the invalidation of a sufficient number of Petitions to bring the measure below the threshold for issuing Section 15.21,” the Supreme Court said. “It’s a dubious presumption at best that Smart & Safe has collected more than three times the number of valid verified applications required statewide and nearly doubled the number of congressional districts.”

“In any event, speculation about Defendants’ motive is futile here because the law is clear that Smart & Safe has the right, and Defendants have a mandatory statutory duty, to issue a Section 15.21, because the statutory requirements have been met,” it says.

“The Secretary and the Director seem to see that the regional officials are valid and behind the reported requests (and as reflected on the Division’s website). The respondents seem to be refusing Article 15.21, that the fulfillment of the Secretary’s Directive by the county officials can lead to the Request that there is no legal source of the authors.

what the case The goal is to compel the court to “force the Florida Secretary of State to follow Florida law and fulfill his mandatory statutory duty to advance the ballot initiative for Supreme Court review as required by the Florida Constitution,” Smart & Safe Florida said in a statement.

“Florida law clearly states that once a statewide ballot initiative collects more than 25 percent of the signatures, the Secretary of State must begin the Supreme Court review process and forward the language to the state Attorney General,” he said. “For reasons unknown, that has not happened, and we are asking the court to step in and compel the secretary to follow Florida’s long-standing law, as Florida Smart & Safe far exceeded that threshold last summer.”

As for the other issue regarding the state’s effort to cancel the approximately 200,000 signatures already collected, the secretariat initially Smart & Safe sent a letter of resignation to Florida in Marchadvising the campaign on the interpretation of the rules regarding the inclusion of the full text of the proposed initiative in its petitions for signatures.

This is the second vote of the campaign. They successfully got a vote on a version of the 2024 initiative, and a majority voted to pass it, but not enough to meet the state’s 60 percent threshold to pass a constitutional amendment.

In the background of this case, in August a federal judge ruled against Smart & Safe Florida—Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to provide “full relief” from provisions of a law he signed to impose other severe restrictions on signature gathering.

Although the law DeSantis signed in May was not directly aimed at the cannabis initiative, there has been concern among supporters that it could jeopardize an already complex and expensive process to gather enough signatures to put it on the ballot. That’s because it would block non-residents and non-citizens from collecting signatures for ballot measures.

In March, two Democratic members of Congress representing Florida asked the federal government to investigate What they described as an “illegal diversion” of millions in state Medicaid funds Through a group with ties to DeSantis. The money was used to fight a popular ballot initiative the governor vehemently opposed that would have legalized adult marijuana.

The lawmakers’ letter alleges that a $10 million donation from a state legislative settlement was misappropriated to the Hope Florida Foundation, which later sent the money to two political nonprofits, and sent $8.5 million to the anti-Amendment 3 campaign.

The governor said this in February The latest measure to legalize marijuana is in “big trouble” with the state Supreme CourtHe announced that it will be blocked from going before the voters next year.

“There are a lot of different views on marijuana,” DeSantis said. “It shouldn’t be in our Constitution. If you feel strongly about it, you have a legislative election. Bring back the candidates you think will be able to deliver what you think about it.”

“But when you put these things in the Constitution, and I think, I mean, the way they were written, there’s all kinds of things going on here. I think it’s going to have a lot of trouble getting passed by the Florida Supreme Court,” he said.

the last the initiative It was introduced to the secretary of state just months after initial versions failed in the November 2024 election, despite President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

The revised version of Smart & Safe Florida is expected to be successful in 2026. The campaign — which received tens of millions of dollars from cannabis industry players in the last election cycle, notably from multi-state operator Trulieve — introduced some changes in the new version that address criticisms of opponents of the 2024 push.

For example, it now specifically states that “smoking and vaping marijuana in any public place is prohibited.” Another section states that the legislature should adopt rules governing the “time, place and public manner of consuming marijuana.”

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Last year, the governor accurately predicted this The campaign’s 2024 cannabis measure would survive a legal challenge From the state attorney general. It’s not entirely clear why he thinks this version will face a different outcome.

Although there is uncertainty about how the state’s highest court will navigate the measure, a poll released in February It showed the overwhelming support of a bipartisan voter for reform— 67% of Florida voters support legalization, including 82% of Democrats, 66% of independents and 55% of Republicans.

However, the results echo another recent poll by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, a proactive opponent of legalization, which found a majority in favor of reform among likely voters (53 percent). but not enough to be able to set the 60 percent condition.

Another poll of Republican voters in Florida showed only 40 percent of that demographic said they would vote for it of the legalization proposal.

Also, a GOP senator from Florida recently claimed this the legalization campaign “tricked” Trump into supporting the 2024 measure misleading him and the general public about key provisions.

Before the election, Trump said he was sorry last September The 3rd Amendment “would have been great” for the state.

Before commenting, Trump met with Truliev CEO Kim Riverseven with a GOP state senator who favors reform.

Meanwhile, there are medical marijuana officials in Florida actively expunging the records of patients and caregivers with drug-related criminal records. The policy is part of the sweeping budget legislation that DeSantis signed into law earlier this year. The aforementioned provisions address the State Department of Health (DOH). void the records of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if convicted of drug offenses, or pleaded guilty or no contest.

Photo elements courtesy of the user rawpixel and Philip Steffan.