A new poll from the Florida Chamber of Commerce finds that marijuana legalization maintains majority support in the state—but still not at a high enough level for a reform proposal to be enacted at the ballot under state law as advocates work to put the issue before voters again in the 2026 election.
According to the survey from the organization—which actively opposed a 2024 adult-use cannabis ballot initiative—53 percent of likely voters in the state now back legalization.
That’s a lower percentage compared to the vote results of last year’s election, where 56 percent of voters supported the cannabis measure. The Chamber of Commerce claims this is evidence of a “failure to build momentum” for the reform.
“This is the sixth consecutive poll from the Florida Chamber indicating this potential amendment remains short of the 60 percent threshold required for passage” of a constitutional amendment,” it said. “The lack of support from Floridians over the past two years comes despite more than $150 million being spent to try and pass the amendment during the 2024 election, over $145 million of which came from Florida’s largest medicinal marijuana provider.”
“This failure to build momentum for the amendment in polling displays that the more voters learn about legalizing recreational marijuana, the less they like what they learn,” the chamber said.
Of course, there was a mixed bag of polling around the 2024 legalization measure—with results fluctuating but consistently showing majority support for ending prohibition.
This latest survey, first reported by Florida Politics, involved interviews with 600 Florida likely voters from February 2-8, with a +/-4 percentage point margin of error.
In the background of this poll, the Smart & Safe Florida campaign behind the 2024 marijuana proposal recently filed a revised version of the marijuana initiative in hopes of getting a second shot in 2026.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said last month that the latest version of the legalization initiative is in “big time trouble” with the state Supreme Court, predicting it will be blocked from going before voters next year.
“There’s a lot of different perspectives on on marijuana,” DeSantis said. “It should not be in our Constitution. If you feel strongly about it, you have elections for the legislature. Go back candidates that you believe will be able to deliver what your vision is on that.”
“But when you put these things in the Constitution—and I think, I mean, the way they wrote, there’s all kinds of things going on in here. I think it’s going to have big time trouble getting through the Florida Supreme Court,” he said.
Last year, the governor accurately predicted that the 2024 cannabis measure from the campaign would survive a legal challenge from the state attorney general. It’s not entirely clear why he feels this version would face a different outcome.
Smart & Safe Florida campaign made certain changes to the 2026 version, which seem responsive to criticism opponents raised during the 2024 push.
For example, it now specifically states that the “smoking and vaping of marijuana in any public place is prohibited.”Another section asserts that the legislature would need to approve rules dealing with the “regulation of the time, place, and manner of the public consumption of marijuana.”
There’s also new clarifying language prohibiting the sale of marijuana products that are marketed in a way that might be appealing to children.
This latest iteration further explicitly states that nothing in the measure would “prohibit the legislature from providing for the home growing of marijuana by adults for their personal use and the reasonable regulation thereof.” That clarification may assuage concerns from certain advocates who criticized the lack of a home grow option in the original proposal.
The initiative would also make it so medical marijuana operators that have been licensed as of January 1, 2025 would be able to start providing for adult-use sales starting on the effective date.
It’s unclear whether the changes might affect the outcome if it ultimately qualifies for the 2026 ballot—which would be a midterm election where conservative voters will likely be more represented—but the campaign evidently feels confident it can prevail.
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That said, even with President Donald Trump’s endorsement of the legalization initiative on the campaign trail, the 2024 measure failed 56 percent to 44 percent. And it’s clear that DeSantis, one of the loudest and most influential voices who opposed the last initiative, isn’t planning on shifting his position this round.
A Florida GOP senator claimed recently that the legalization campaign “tricked” Trump into supporting the measure by misleading him and the general public about key provisions.
Ahead of the election, Trump said in September that he felt Amendment 3 was “going to be very good” for the state.
Before making the comments, Trump met with the CEO of Trulieve, Kim Rivers, as well as with a GOP state senator who is in favor of the reform.
While Trump endorsed the Florida cannabis initiative—as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access—he has since been silent on cannabis issues. And his cabinet choices have mixed records on marijuana policy.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) said in a recent report that it “remains to be seen” how Trump will navigate marijuana policy in his second term, and it’s “unknown” whether the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) will finalize a proposed rule to reschedule cannabis.
Virginia Plan To Legalize Marijuana Sales Heads To Governor’s Desk Following Passage By Both Legislative Chambers
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
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