On Election Day, Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana use for adults 21 and older in Florida, was narrowly defeated statewide — 56% to 44% — after failing to reach the required supermajority of 60%.
In Collier County, however, the no votes prevailed by 53% to 47%.
The defeat of the amendment came after the Smart & Safe Florida political committee spent more than $150 million on a campaign to pass it, with the majority of that amount — more than $140 million — coming from Trulieve, the largest medical marijuana company in Florida and the fourth largest in the country.
Trulieve had a lot at stake in the effort. Headset, a data company focusing on marijuana, estimated in an April 2024 blog post that Trulieve was projected to generate “a staggering $1.69 billion in total sales during the first year of adult-use legalization” had legalization occurred.
If Amendment 3 had passed, Florida would have joined the ranks of 24 other states and the District of Columbia that have legalized recreational marijuana use for adults, and the 25 companies currently licensed by the state to grow and sell marijuana for medical use — legal since 2016 — would have been able to do the same for recreational marijuana. If passed, the law would have allowed adults 21 and older to possess up to 3 ounces (approximately 85 grams).
Gov. Ron DeSantis was a staunch foe of the amendment, citing concerns ranging from making access too easy for school kids to the smell of marijuana permeating public places.
Next steps for the legalization effort
This was the fifth time a campaign had been launched to legalize recreational use via a constitutional amendment. What, if any, next steps may already be in the works regarding future recreational marijuana legalization efforts on Trulieve’s part?
Anyone could launch another campaign to legalize recreational use of marijuana in Florida for adults 21 and older with a future ballot initiative. Another option is to focus more on legislative action, as opposed to a constitutional amendment. In a written statement, Trulieve spokesman Steve Vancore did not address future constitutional efforts, but he did mention legislative efforts.
“On November 5th, a strong majority of Floridians voted in support of legalizing recreational marijuana for adults,” Vancore said in the statement. “While the results of Amendment 3 did not clear the 60% threshold, we are eager to work with the governor and legislative leaders who agree with us on decriminalizing recreational marijuana for adults, addressing public consumption, continuing our focus on child safety, and expanding access to safe marijuana through home grow.”
Will Trulieve be involved in any efforts to promote nationwide legalization for adults 21 and older at the federal level?
“It was a positive step forward that not only did President-elect Trump support Amendment 3, we remain hopeful that his support will also lead to broader reforms in national cannabis policy including rescheduling cannabis and passing the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act,” Vancore said.
The SAFER Banking Act, introduced in 2023, “provides protections for federally regulated financial institutions that serve state-sanctioned marijuana businesses,” according to a summary of the act available at congress.gov. The summary says that currently “many financial institutions do not provide services to state-sanctioned marijuana businesses due to the federal classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 controlled substance.”
One of the organizations that came out strongly against Amendment 3 was the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which based its opposition on the fact that legalization was being attempted by a constitutional amendment rather than statutorily by the Legislature.
Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber, told Gulfshore Business prior to the election that “if this looks like an end run around our governor, the cabinet, the state Legislature — the very people we elect to set policy — then we will almost always oppose it from going in the Constitution; even if it’s something that we like, we would still oppose it.”
In a late November phone interview, Wilson said the Chamber would continue to oppose any potential future constitutional amendment efforts regarding legalizing recreational marijuana use.
“They’ll keep coming back and if they go through the legislative process, we’ll work with them and see if there’s kind of a right way to do it or not,” Wilson said. “If they want to go around the representative democracy process and try to buy their way into the Constitution, we’ll stop them there in their tracks.”
This story was published in The Naples Press on Nov. 29.
