The effort to legalize marijuana in Florida stinks, AG told the high court

A marijuana lobbyist based in several states to legalize marijuana in Florida is trying to mislead voters around — among other things — the smell of marijuana, the state’s attorney general said.

Attorney General James Uthmeier’s lawsuit, filed in the state Supreme Court and supported by key business groups, including the state Chamber of Commerce, is the latest in a series of efforts to block the legalization of marijuana in the nation’s largest medical-only market.

And it comes amid an ongoing challenge for signatures gathered by the legalization campaign Smart & Safe Florida, which is primarily registered by Tallahassee-based MSO Trulieve Cannabis Corp.

Florida’s marijuana legalization campaign is misleading the smell of marijuana, AG says

With more than $1.8 billion in medical marijuana sales, Florida is poised to become one of the largest adult-use markets in the country after legalization.

Despite the support of President Donald Trump, the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis seems determined to stop it.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Uthmeier — a former chief of staff to DeSantis, who opposed the 2024 legalization effort — called the Smart & Safe campaign “fatally flawed” and unconstitutional and misleading.

In addition to allegations that the amendment violates state law limiting constitutional amendments, Uthmeier paid close attention to the smell of marijuana — and said that while the Smart & Safe amendment prohibits the use of marijuana “in public,” there’s no guarantee Floridians won’t smell marijuana.

“Abridged voting will lead voters to believe that voting yes will ensure that there is no marijuana — or the smell of it — in the ‘public,’ when the actual amendment provides no such thing,” the attorney general said in a statement, according to the Times.

“The abstract ‘public’ language would similarly mislead Florida parents into thinking that this measure would prohibit smoking marijuana near their children in hotels, restaurants, stadiums and other public places.

Smart & Safe’s response will appear in court on Jan. 12.

Will Florida legalize adult-use marijuana in 2026?

In a statement sent to the Times, the campaign revealed that a similar attempt by the DeSantis administration to defeat the 2024 campaign in the state Supreme Court failed.

“5.9 million voters approved this measure in 2024, and more than one million Florida voters signed petitions to put the current language on the ballot, and we hope their voices will not be ignored,” the statement read.

In order to pass a constitutional amendment in Florida, 60% approval is required. The 2nd amendment that was actually supported failed in November 2024 despite spending more than 150 million dollars in campaign spending and endorsements from Donald Trump, then the Republican presidential nominee.

Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers is credited with convincing Trump to issue a landmark executive order on December 18 to downgrade marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug.

However, there are many problems at this time at the state level in Florida.

In a separate court case, Smart & Safe is fighting state election officials over their decision to invalidate tens of thousands of signatures.

Smart & Safe must submit at least 880,062 valid signatures by Feb. 1.

The campaign has submitted just over 675,000 official signatures so far, according to the state’s election website. Trulieve has put at least $25 million into the campaign so far, according to campaign finance records.