Amendment 3, Florida’s 2024 ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana use, failed in November, but on Tuesday its proponents filed a new proposal with Florida’s Division of Elections for a revised constitutional amendment for the 2026 ballot. The language of the new measure—unveiled this week by a political committee funded by Trulieve, Florida’s largest dispensary of marijuana for medical uses—appears to address many of the reasons that Florida voters rejected Amendment 3.
The new proposal responds in explicit terms to each of the points made by state Governor Ron DeSantis and other critics who urged voters to reject the previous amendment. Amendment 3 nearly passed with 56% of the vote but still fell short of the 60% needed to pass an amendment to Florida’s constitution.
Amendment 3 Versus the 2026 Proposal
The wording of Amendment 3 may have been too vague to permit the measure to pass; Governor DeSantis and other opponents of the ballot measure were able to raise objections that mattered to many voters. For example, opponents objected that the measure would have permitted smoking in public spaces, though proponents noted that separate legislation could be passed to prohibit smoking in public. Responding to this objection, the new measure “prohibits smoking and vaping in public.”
Responding to other objections that swayed the 2024 vote, the new proposal prohibits “marketing and packaging attractive to children” and reduces the previously proposed limit on the amount of marijuana that adults over age 21 can have in their possession (from 3 oz to 2 oz).
Other objections raised before the November 2024 election included concerns that only large corporations would be permitted to grow cannabis and that Trulieve and other current suppliers of medical marijuana could potentially create a monopoly in Florida’s cannabis market. This concern was based on language in the previous amendment that permitted medical marijuana providers to dispense the drug for recreational use.
The new measure leaves room for legislators to legalize growing cannabis in private homes for personal use and requires legislators to license other growers as “marijuana entities,” which might open the market to new dispensaries.
The primary lesson that the proposals’ authors appear to have learned from their 2024 setback is that if the language of the proposal isn’t precise, it won’t pass. In order to amend their state constitution, voters want to know exactly what the amendment does, and doesn’t, entail. Opponents, meanwhile, will be quick to point out any possible unintended consequences.
What Might Be Different in 2026
If the new measure is placed on the 2026 ballot, will it be more likely to pass? It is too early to say. Governor DeSantis and other opponents of measures to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida could raise objections that the proposal’s writers haven’t anticipated. Efforts to legalize medical marijuana in Florida followed a similar trajectory; the medical marijuana measure failed to pass in 2014 after opponents raised fears that legalizing medical marijuana might lead to increased crime rates, but it was then passed in 2016.
This time, Trulieve and other proponents of legalizing recreational marijuana may face an additional hurdle to getting their proposed measure on the ballot. The 2024 campaign cost Trulieve $144 million. Governor DeSantis, who has alleged fraud, has called a special session on January 27. While the main items on the agenda include hurricane relief and the governor’s response to President Trump’s planned deportations, DeSantis has also said that he will urge legislators to place additional legal restrictions on the process for gathering and submitting petitions for a new ballot measure. Many things could happen before November 2026, and whatever the outcome, the effort to legalize recreational marijuana remains an uphill battle.
