In defiance of the state elections officers who declared the marketing campaign kaput on Sunday, the marijuana multistate operator-funded effort to legalize adult-use hashish in Florida mentioned Monday it may possibly nonetheless qualify for the November poll.
In response to Secretary of State Wire Byrd, the Good and Secure Florida marketing campaign failed to gather the required 880,000 legitimate signatures from registered voters by a Feb. 1 deadline.
However Byrd’s declaration on Sunday “is untimely,” a marketing campaign spokesperson mentioned.
Florida is the nation’s largest medical-only hashish market. However with affected person progress within the state slowing, legalization represents a large alternative for the authorized business.
However with Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Republican Get together dead-set towards adult-use marijuana legalization, passing a constitutional modification by way of voter initiative is legalization’s greatest – and solely – probability.
Trulieve Hashish has spent greater than $200 million on marijuana legalization
After spending greater than $150 million on a 2024 legalization bid that fell brief, Tallahassee-headquartered MSO Trulieve Hashish Corp. has poured a minimum of $52 million into qualifying legalization for the 2026 poll, marketing campaign finance information present.
In response to the state Division of Elections, the marketing campaign submitted solely 783,592 verified signatures by Sunday’s deadline, because the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
However that tally is way in need of what the marketing campaign submitted, and county elections officers are nonetheless counting signatures, in keeping with a marketing campaign spokesperson.
“We submitted over 1.4 million signatures and imagine, when they’re all counted, we can have greater than sufficient to make the poll,” a marketing campaign spokesperson informed the Tallahassee Democrat.
Florida marijuana legalization marketing campaign vows to struggle on
State officers – together with DeSantis, who brazenly despises marijuana legalization and has lobbied towards it – have tried to thwart the measure almost each step of the best way, going so far as to make use of legislation enforcement powers to thwart hashish reform.
On Jan. 20, state Lawyer Basic James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ former chief of employees, mentioned that nearly a dozen canvassers had been arrested on suspicion of violating new elections restrictions DeSantis signed into legislation final yr.
That got here after Byrd sought to invalidate almost 200,000 signatures the marketing campaign claimed had been legitimate, sparking a authorized problem that up to now the state has received.
Uthmeier mentioned final week that the election fraud probe has expanded to each county within the state.
The brand new election legal guidelines are the main focus of a lawsuit that has its first courtroom listening to scheduled for Feb. 9.
