The organizer of an upcoming Florida ballot initiative that would have legalized home cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes by patients withdrawn the proposal. He explained that the campaign had raised only $4,000, and could not cover the costs of trying to qualify the measure.
Moriah Barhart, a Marijuana Moment reporter, said this week that, despite her efforts to collect signatures, including in some state-licensed marijuana dispensaries she was unable to cover the fees required to validate those signatures by state officials.
In a telephone interview on Tuesday, she explained that they received a large number of late signatures. Florida law states that this can cost between $50 and $500. “I was facing owing millions to the government.”
Barnhart stated that while the campaign applied for a waiver it was delayed in processing the request. This caused further complications.
Barnhart explained that they had to wait months to receive their affidavits of undue hardship, which would have allowed them to avoid paying for signature verifications.
Barnhart told Barnhart that some volunteers still needed to collect signatures. When they returned to submit the signatures, Barnhart informed her she would be expected to pay fees as the campaign had not raised enough money to cover these costs.
She said, “This thing won’t go anywhere until people pay to send it somewhere.”
Barnhart first announced the measure in nearly a year ago . He explained that it would “run parallel” with an initiative supported by industry to legalize marijuana use for adults. The proposal would keep home cultivation illegal. It received more than one million signatures, and it could be on the ballot in 2024 despite ongoing legal disputes.
Barnhart, a Marijuana Moment reporter in September shortly after the signature campaign started, said that the supporters of the medical homegrow measures relied heavily on volunteers from clinics, dispensaries, and other businesses who were sympathetic to the cause, for the purpose of collecting signatures.
She said, “By the end of January, we’d like to have a million signatures.” “That’s our big goal.”
She added that if we had 200 locations across the state, and were able to collect 1,000 signatures per month, “we would have one million by the end the year.”
The most recent fundraising figures show that the campaign has collected 4,060–a sum which hasn’t changed since September.
has spent over $39.5 million on the ballot initiative for adult-use marijuana legalization, funded by Trulieve (a multi-state cannabis operator). Trulieve, the second largest MSO in the country, is believed to have spent more than $39.5 million.
A Trulieve spokesperson said to Marijuana Moment more than a year earlier that Trulieve was “supporting” Barnhart’s initiative, and “liked” the idea of letting voters choose a homegrow.
According to records, the company didn’t donate any money for the campaign.
Barnhart stated that Trulieve told the Wise and Free Florida campaign that they would be carrying the homegrow petition at their dispensaries. It’s unclear whether this actually happened. Marijuana Moment sent multiple emails to the company at that time. It did not respond.
Barnhart, in a Miami New Times article published this week, said that Florida’s high standard for qualifying a ballot initiative–campaigns must collect more than 891 523 verified signatures of registered voters- means most grassroots medical marijuana initiatives lack the resources necessary to demand change.
Barnhart said to the newspaper that only billion-dollar conglomerates and companies can influence Florida law. She also said that she hopes Trulieve, or another company, will sponsor a 2026 homegrow initiative as a gesture to the patients.
She remained optimistic in her comments to Marijuana Moment, this week. She said that if the measure is re-filed in 2024 it could eventually appear before voters as early as 2026.
She said that 2024 would be the year in which we raise funds to refile this initiative, but the funds must come first.
She added that the project is far too advanced to abandon it at this stage.
“We have the gold in our hands.” “All the hard work is done,” she said. We have found a CPA willing to accept this huge liability. We found an attorney willing to argue in front of Supreme Court. He himself served on the Supreme Court. We have done all the work. We have the petition. “Now people understand that we cannot put the cart in front of the horse.”
She continued: “Let’s raise the money to refile the petition and pass it this time.”
The state Supreme Court is reviewing the Trulieve-backed ballot initiative for recreational legalization.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court, claiming that the proposed ballot initiative was misleading. Her office claims that voters wouldn’t be able understand the summary, which states that marijuana will remain illegal at federal level.
Moody used the same argument regarding misleading ballot language in relation to a legalization measure for 2022, and subsequently the Supreme Court invalidated it.
Trulieve has been accused by Moody’s of also supporting the legalization measures in order to gain a “monopolistic stranglehold on the cannabis market within the state.”
The Smart & Safe Florida Campaign, which is behind this proposed reform, said that it was “far beyond the point of belief” to believe that most voters are unaware that marijuana is prohibited at the federal level.
The measure, if approved, would amend the state Constitution so that existing medical cannabis companies in the state like Trulieve could begin selling marijuana to adults older than 21. The measure contains a clause that allows, but does not force, lawmakers to move forward with the approval of new businesses. The proposal would prohibit home cultivation by consumers.
Adults aged 21 or older could purchase and possess cannabis up to an ounce, of which only five grams would be marijuana concentrate products. The three-page document also excludes equity provisions that are favored by supporters, such as expungements and other reliefs for people who have prior cannabis convictions.
Separately economists from the Florida Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, estimates that voters would generate new sales tax revenues of between $195.6 and $431.3 millions if the marijuana legalization measure is passed. These figures could rise if lawmakers decide to impose a similar excise tax to those in other legalized states on cannabis transactions.
A recent poll found that almost seven out of 10 registered Florida voters support the marijuana legalization measure. Majorities in every demographic were also in favor.
The legalization campaign should not expect support from Governor. Ron DeSantis is a Republican presidential candidate for 2024 who has stated that , if elected, he will not decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.
DeSantis has signed a bill which went into effect this summer. added restrictions on medical marijuana advertising and manufacture. This includes prohibiting products or messages which promote “recreational cannabis use” while also adding stricter eligibility requirements for industry workers.
In July , he signed legislation prohibiting the sale of any consumable products — including cannabis “chewing-gum”– to people under 21. This was an extension of an existing ban on young people having access to smokable weed.
In June, the Governor approved a bill that explicitly prohibited sober living homes from allowing their residents to possess or to use medical marijuana. This is true even if a patient has been certified by a physician to use cannabis legally therapeutically according to state law. However, all other pharmaceuticals prescribed by a doctor may be allowed.
A Florida Republican Senator filed a bill this week to permit licensed medical marijuana businesses to claim state tax deductions they are prohibited from claiming on the federal level, under an Internal Revenue Service code (IRS) known as 280E.
Photo by Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
The article Florida Initiative to Legalize Medical Marijuana Home Cultivation Will Not Appear on Ballot 2024 first appeared on Marijuana Moment.
