Florida voters hoping to legalize adult-use cannabis could have three proposed constitutional amendments to consider signing ahead of the November 2028 election.
The state’s Division of Elections approved Floridians for Marijuana’s legalization initiative on Sept. 30, while a separate but similar proposal, sponsored by Let Florida Vote IV, remains pending with the Florida Financial Impact Estimating Conference (FIEC) as of Sept. 29.
Both political committees share Zack Whitson as their chairperson and Gloria Maggiolo as their treasurer. These legalization committees join Trulieve-backed Smart & Safe Florida’s 2028 legalization initiative.
Tallahassee-based medical cannabis company Trulieve contributed more than $145 million to a 2024 adult-use legalization ballot measure that gained 56% support but failed to reach the 60% supermajority required to pass constitutional amendments in the Sunshine State.
Trulieve contributed another $67 million toward Smart & Safe Florida’s follow-up attempt to land another legalization proposal on the 2026 ballot. But that campaign fell short of the required signatures to secure a ballot position after Secretary of State Cord Byrd directed local election officials to disqualify nearly 71,000 signatures. The state’s Supreme Court declined to review the case in March.
Smart & Safe Florida’s legalization campaign remains active for the 2028 election, but the committee must start over on collecting the roughly 880,000 petition signatures required (8% of voters). Once a citizen-initiated campaign collects a quarter of that total, or roughly 220,000 signatures, state officials must conduct a judicial and financial impact review.
While Smart & Safe Florida has been the state’s leading legalization political committee for several years, Floridians for Marijuana and Let Florida Vote IV are now aiming to compete.
Floridians for Marijuana’s proposal would allow adults 21 years and older to purchase, possess and use cannabis from licensed dispensaries with a 2-ounce possession limit, but no more than 5 grams of concentrate.
The proposal would also allow the state’s existing vertically integrated medical cannabis businesses that have held licenses since Jan. 1, 2025, to transition to adult-use operations upon the effective date: six months after voter approval.
New licensees, dubbed “licensed marijuana entities,” would not be required to be vertically integrated and would be allowed to “acquire, cultivate, process, transport or sell marijuana to adults for personal use.”
The petition also stipulates that:
- The marketing and packaging of cannabis in a manner attractive to children would be prohibited;
- The smoking and vaping of cannabis in any public place would be prohibited;
- “Public place” means all parks, beaches, public transit, roads, sidewalks, trails, or other ways or thoroughfares dedicated to public use or owned or maintained by the state or any political subdivision of the state, and all schools, arenas, facilities, buildings and grounds owned, leased, operated, or maintained by the state or any political subdivision of the state; and
- Owners of private property could prohibit the personal use of cannabis within or on their properties.
Nothing in the proposal would prohibit public use of non-smoking or non-vaping products, nor prohibit lawmakers from allowing adults to grow cannabis at home.
“Prior to the effective date, the Legislature shall adopt legislation necessary to provide for the regulation of the time, place and manner of the public consumption of marijuana,” it states. “Prior to the effective date, the Legislature shall adopt legislation for the licensure and regulation of licensed marijuana entities. Nothing herein shall prohibit the Legislature from providing for the home growing of marijuana by adults for their personal use and the reasonable regulation thereof.”
The petition would maintain the state’s prohibition on impaired driving and would not change or immunize violations of federal law. It also stipulates that nothing in its language would prevent the Legislature from taxing cannabis sales and appropriating the revenue.
Meanwhile, the still-pending Let Florida Vote IV petition is similar but contains key differences, starting with allowing medical cannabis companies licensed as of the general election, rather than on or before Jan. 1, 2025, to participate in the adult-use marketplace.
The Let Florida Vote IV proposal would also allow medical cannabis businesses and new adult-use licensees to buy from, sell to and transfer adult-use cannabis among each other, while the other petition doesn’t explicitly provide for this allowance.
The pending petition would also create a “licensing agency” that is specifically designated to license new adult-use businesses, providing that, if no agency is designated, then the Florida Department of Health (DOH), which currently oversees the medical-only marketplace, would be required to do so. The new licensing agency could also adopt rules for testing, packaging and labeling.
The Let Florida Vote IV proposal would also require more specific deadlines for the DOH, should the Legislature fail to adopt rules around public consumption, as well as licensing and regulation for new businesses.
“Such legislation shall provide for the issuance of licenses to any applicant meeting reasonable and objective qualifications and shall not impose fees in excess of the reasonable cost of administration and enforcement,” the Let Florida Vote IV petition states. “If the Legislature has not adopted such legislation by the effective date, the department shall promulgate regulations for the licensure of licensed marijuana entities no later than six months after the effective date and shall begin issuing licenses no later than nine months after the effective date.”
The key differences between the Floridians for Marijuana and Let Florida Vote IV proposals could be an attempt at a backup plan should the latter, more inclusive proposal fail to pass the state’s single-subject rule.
In the years after the Florida Supreme Court struck down a pair of previous adult-use legalization measures ahead of the 2022 ballot, Smart & Safe Florida’s campaign organizers simplified their petitions.
In part, the single-subject rule is why Florida’s three proposed legalization petitions for 2028 have avoided including provisions to allow home cultivation, provide automatic expungements for past cannabis-related offenses, or establish social equity or social justice programs, among other program-specific parameters that may not survive the state’s judicial review.
