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Florida Marijuana Legalization Initiative
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Election appointment
November 8, 2022
Topic
Marijuana
Status
Not on the ballot
Blazon
Constitutional amendment		 Origin
Citizens

The Florida Marijuana Legalization Initiative (#xvi-02) is non on the ballot in Florida as an initiated constitutional subpoena on Nov 8, 2022.[1]

On June 17, 2021, the Florida Supreme Court ruled 5-2, with the majority opinion written by Chief Justice Charles Canady, that the measure's ballot linguistic communication was misleading and therefore could non announced on the ballot.

Measure design

The amendment was designed to legalize possession of upwards to i ounce of marijuana by residents at least 21 years sometime. Residents would have been allowed to cultivate upwardly to 6 plants per household, but only three or fewer plants could be mature or flowering. The plants would accept needed to be grown in "an enclosed, locked space," and users would not hve been permitted to sell the plants they abound.

Under the subpoena, marijuana would have been treated like alcohol—it would have been prohibited for residents under 21 years of age, consumers would accept needed to evidence proof of age earlier purchasing marijuana from retail facilities, and it would take been illegal for anyone to drive while impaired or under the influence of marijuana. The subpoena would also have outlined regulations for marijuana cultivation, retail marijuana sales, and manufacturing marijuana products.[1]

Text of measure out

Ballot title

The proposed ballot title would have been as follows:[1]

"

Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol to Establish Age, Licensing, and Other Restrictions.[2]

"

Ballot summary

The proposed ballot summary would have been as follows:[1]

"

Regulates marijuana (hereinafter "cannabis") for limited use and growing by persons twenty-one years of historic period or older. Land shall adopt regulations to issue, renew, suspend, and revoke licenses for cannabis tillage, product manufacturing, testing and retail facilities. Local governments may regulate facilities' time, place and mode and, if land fails to timely human action, may license facilities. Does not affect empathetic use of depression-THC cannabis, nor immunize federal law violations.[2]

"

Full text

The full text is available hither.

Sensible Florida, Inc. sponsored the initiative.

Groundwork

Recreational marijuana in the Usa

See too: Marijuana laws in the United States

As of November 2020, 16 states and the District of Columbia had legalized marijuana for recreational purposes; nine through statewide citizen initiatives, and ii through bills approved past state legislatures and signed by governors. Colorado and Washington both opted to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012. In a subsequent Colorado measure, voters enacted a statewide marijuana taxation system. The three ballot measures that passed in 2014 were Oregon's Mensurate 91, Alaska's Mensurate 2, and the District of Columbia's Initiative 71. Voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada approved recreational marijuana legalization election measures in November 2016. The Vermont State Legislature approved a nib in mid-Jan 2018 to let recreational marijuana, and Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed it into law on January 22, 2018. Gov. Scott vetoed a previous bill to legalize marijuana in May 2017. On June 25, 2019, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a beak into law legalizing the employ and possession of recreational marijuana. Initiatives legalizing recreational marijuana were on the ballot in November 2018 in Michigan and Due north Dakota. The Michigan initiative was approved, and the N Dakota initiative was defeated. Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota approved legalization through initiatives in 2020. New Bailiwick of jersey approved legalization through a legislatively referred constitutional subpoena in 2020.[three] [4]

The map below details the status of recreational marijuana legalization in the states as of November 2020. States shaded in green had legalized recreational marijuana usage (the shades of dark-green betoken the years in which ballot measures were adopted; light light-green indicates measures approved in 2012, medium greenish indicates measures canonical in 2014, medium-dark green indicates measures canonical in 2016, and dark green indicates measures approved in 2018 and 2020). The states shaded in dark gray had defeated ballot measures that proposed to legalize recreational marijuana. States in blue had recreational marijuana approved by the state legislature and signed by the governor. The remaining states (those shaded in lite gray) had non legalized recreational marijuana.

Recreational marijuana legalization measures, 2012-2020

The post-obit tabular array provides information on the political context of us that had voted on legalization measures as of 2020.

Click "Show" to expand the table.

Path to the election

Encounter also: Laws governing the initiative procedure in Florida

The state process

In Florida, the number of signatures required for an initiated ramble subpoena is equal to viii% of the votes bandage in the preceding presidential election. Florida as well has a signature distribution requirement, which requires that signatures equaling at least 8% of the commune-wide vote in the last presidential ballot be collected from at least half (14) of the state'southward 27 congressional districts. Signatures remain valid until February 1 of an fifty-fifty-numbered twelvemonth.[5] Signatures must be verified by Feb i of the full general ballot year the initiative aims to appear on the ballot.

Proposed measures are reviewed by the country attorney full general and state supreme court after proponents collect 25% of the required signatures across the state in each of one-one-half of the state's congressional districts (222,898 signatures for 2022 election measures). Afterward these preliminary signatures accept been collected, the secretary of state must submit the proposal to the Florida Chaser General and the Financial Touch Estimating Briefing (FIEC). The attorney full general is required to petition the Florida Supreme Court for an advisory stance on the measure's compliance with the single-bailiwick dominion, the appropriateness of the title and summary, and whether or not the measure "is facially valid nether the United States Constitution."[half-dozen]

The requirements to get an initiative certified for the 2022 ballot:

  • Signatures: 891,589 valid signatures
  • Deadline: The deadline for signature verification was Feb 1, 2022. As election officials take 30 days to cheque signatures, petitions should be submitted at to the lowest degree one month before the verification deadline.

In Florida, proponents of an initiative file signatures with local elections supervisors, who are responsible for verifying signatures. Supervisors are permitted to utilize random sampling if the procedure can estimate the number of valid signatures with 99.v% accuracy. Enough signatures are considered valid if the random sample estimates that at least 115% of the required number of signatures are valid.

Details about this initiative

  • Equally of June eighteen, 2021, the Florida Division of Elections showed that proponents had gathered 29,172 valid signatures. Proponents likewise nerveless 66,513 signatures that had expired later 2 years.[seven]
  • Chaser General Ashley Moody argued that the measure's linguistic communication was unclear. Moody said, "There is no way x pages of the law tin be summarized clearly in 75 words or less and would adequately convey to the voters what exactly they volition exist voting on. That is why I will ask the Florida Supreme Courtroom to seriously consider the sheer length and ambiguous language chosen by the sponsor when reviewing the legality of this proposed initiative."[8] The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments regarding the measure out'due south ballot language on February four, 2020. [9]
  • On June 17, 2021, the Florida Supreme Court ruled 5-two, with the majority opinion written by Chief Justice Charles Canady, that the mensurate's ballot linguistic communication was misleading and therefore could not appear on the election.[10]
Lawsuit overview
Event: Whether the subpoena's ballot language is misleading
Courtroom: Florida Supreme Court
Ruling: Ruled in favor of Attorney General
Plaintiff(s): Chaser General Ashley Moody Defendant(due south): Sensible Florida
Plaintiff argument:
The amendment's election linguistic communication is misleading		 Defendant statement:
The ballot language is not misleading

Source: Florida Supreme Court

Endeavour to authorize in 2016

This initiative was originally approved for circulation on March 17, 2016, targeting the November 2016 ballot. Supporters needed to collect a minimum of 68,314 valid signatures to have the petition reviewed by the Attorney General of Florida and 683,149 signatures to qualify the measure out for the November 2016 ballot. The Regulate Florida entrada announced in Dec 2015 that it would not exist able to obtain the required number of signatures. Campaign managing director Michael Minardi said, "We had an uphill battle, honestly with getting a million signatures realistically from the end of August until December. We did believe with the movement and the momentum that nosotros had that nosotros could get this done, simply unfortunately, we don't think we're going to at this point."[eleven] [12]

See also

  • 2022 ballot measures
  • Florida 2022 ballot measures
  • Laws governing the initiative procedure in Florida

External links

  • Florida Partition of Elections: Initiatives Database
  • Initiative 16-02
  • 2021 Supreme Court Ruling

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Florida Section of State Division of Elections, "Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Like to Alcohol to Establish Age, Licensing, and Other Restrictions full text," accessed August 12, 2019
  2. ↑ ii.0 2.one Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Whatsoever inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  3. ↑ The Hill, "Vermont governor vetoes marijuana legalization," May 24, 2017
  4. ↑ Associated Printing, "Illinois becomes 11th state to allow recreational marijuana," June 25, 2019
  5. ↑ Before the passage of Florida Senate Pecker 1794 of 2020, signatures remained valid for a menses of ii years
  6. ↑ Florida State Senate, "Florida Senate Bill 1794," accessed April xiii, 2020
  7. ↑ Florida Partitioning of Elections, "Initiative 16-02," accessed August 12, 2019
  8. ↑ WPTV, "Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody tries to scuttle marijuana amendment," accessed September 13, 2019
  9. ↑ WLRN, "Florida Supreme Court Set February Arguments On Assault Weapons, Pot," accessed September 24, 2019
  10. ↑ Patch, "Florida Supreme Court Blocks A Second Pro-Pot Citizens Initiative From The 2022 Ballot," accessed June eighteen, 2021
  11. ↑ "Initiative Information," accessed September ten, 2015
  12. ↑ Florida Politics, "BID TO LEGALIZE RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA WILL Not Brand IT ON 2016 BALLOT IN FLORIDA," December 9, 2015

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