Amendment 3 failed in Florida. What’s next for marijuana in the state?
The multimillion-dollar push for recreational marijuana in Florida has failed.
Amendment 3, which would have allowed adults 21 and older to buy and use marijuana without a medical card, got about 56% of the vote, short of the 60% needed to pass.
The amendment drew opposition from Gov. Ron DeSantis, who in the weeks before the election held news conferences to speak out against the measure. State agencies also ran anti-marijuana ads.
Now that the amendment has failed, here’s what to know about Amendment 3 and marijuana in Florida.
What was Amendment 3?
Amendment 3 would have allowed adults 21 and older to buy and use up to three ounces of marijuana.
The measure was put on the ballot by the group Smart & Safe Florida, which was supported mainly by the marijuana company Trulieve. Trulieve donated more than $100 million to the marijuana legalization effort.
The group collected more than 1 million petitions from Florida voters to put the amendment on the ballot.
Who can use marijuana in Florida now?
Only people with medical marijuana cards can buy and legally use marijuana in Florida. In 2016, state voters approved medical pot through a constitutional amendment.
To get a medical card, patients need an in-person exam from a physician, and must be diagnosed with at least one qualifying medical condition. Such conditions include things like cancer, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic nonmalignant pain or any other medical conditions “of the same kind of class.”
A medical marijuana card costs $75 every time it is issued or renewed, and patients must also pay for the cost of seeing a physician, who determines the amount of marijuana a patient can purchase.
In opposing Amendment 3, DeSantis said that Florida already has legal marijuana. He said that he knows not all of Florida’s more than 880,000 medical marijuana patients have “debilitating illnesses.”
“If you really want it in Florida you can get it already,” he said.
Can groups try again?
Yes. If marijuana advocates wanted to try again for legal pot in another election cycle, they could.
It has happened before. In 2014, a ballot measure that would have allowed for medical marijuana failed. Then in 2016, a similar constitutional amendment allowing for medical use passed. John Morgan, the deep-pocketed Florida lawyer and cannabis advocate, pushed both ballot initiatives.
The campaign behind Amendment 3 raised more than $150 million dollars, the vast majority from Trulieve.
Florida lawmakers have already make the ballot initiative process more difficult and more costly in recent years. And it could be poised to become even harder. DeSantis’ election security office has called for changes to the petition process, though the state has been tight-lipped about what those specific changes may be.
Could marijuana become legal federally?
Former President Donald Trump, a Florida voter, said he would vote yes on Amendment 3. Trump said that he thinks it is “time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use.”
But Trump has not said he would legalize marijuana at the national level if elected.
Kamala Harris has said if elected president, she would legalize recreational marijuana.
