The Florida Supreme Court does not agree with expanding access to cannabis in the state.
In a 5-2 ruling, the state's highest court found a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana to be misleading, as stated in the opinion.
The initiative, titled "Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol to Establish Age, Licensing and Other Restrictions," also would have allowed Floridians to grow cannabis at home.
Justices Charles Canady, Ricky Polston, Carlos Muñiz, John Couriel and Jamie Grosshans concurred that Sensible Florida’s ballot initiative misled voters because the 75-word summary of the proposed amendment was unclear on the word "use."
"We have been waiting for the Supreme Court opinion for a long time to determine how to move forward," said Michael Minardi, an attorney with Regulate Florida in an email to the Florida Record. "First, we will explore our options on whether we want to request a rehearing or not."
He said that they have already prepared alternate versions of the ballot initiative.
"The delay in the opinion minimizes the time we have to get it done for '22, but we believe it is still early enough to accomplish our goal of ensuring the people of Florida will get to vote on legalization in '22," Minardi said.
In its opinion, the state's highest court said that the opponents take issue with the language in the ballot summary that states the proposed amendment would regulate marijuana "for limited use and growing by persons 21 years of age or older."
"They contend that the text of the proposed amendment itself does not limit the personal 'use' of marijuana and that the ballot summary therefore affirmatively misleads voters. We agree," the opinion details.