When Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis takes office next week, the road to marijuana legalization in Florida will begin. Two court appeals that could open up the market and the path to smoking cannabis may be undercut—and a petition drive to put recreational marijuana on the 2020 ballot will gain steam.
An appeals hearing is set for Monday on a decision by former Miami-Dade child advocate and current Tallahassee Circuit Court Judge Karen Gievers that would allow medicinal cannabis smoking in the state. Gievers ruled last June 5 that legislators violated the will of voters—71.5 percent of whom approved medicinal marijuana—by banning smokable cannabis. But in a court document, state House general counsel Adam Tanenbaum held out the "possibility" the Department of Health would remove itself from the case.
