Florida officials have arrested two paid canvassers accused of falsifying signatures in petitions for a legalization initiative to be placed on the ballot in 2024.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said last week in a press release that two people are facing multiple felony charges of submitting false petitions.
FDLE has announced that three canvassers, including one who petitioned for a gambling initiative unrelated to the fraud allegations, are facing criminal charges. The Department of Justice stated that “circulators” submitted dozens (or perhaps hundreds) of false marijuana and gambling initiative petitions, without specifying the number signatures affected.
Florida Secretary of state Cord Byrd stated that the Florida Constitution was a sacred document, by which Florida’s voters and citizens were adjudicated. Florida Law provides a detailed procedure by which issues may be presented to Florida voters for their consideration before being added to Florida Constitution.
He said: “To fraudulently misappropriate the process for personal gain, is not only illegal, but also violates trust of law-abiding Floridians throughout the state,”
Mark Glass , FDLE commissioner, said the election process must be free of those who commit voter fraud in order to support a candidate or initiative. In this case “paid petition circulators tried to game the voting systems.”
It’s possible that the alleged crimes may have been committed for personal gain.
Smart & Safe Florida spokesperson told Marijuana Moment the campaign is “fully supporting FDLE’s investigations and we pledge to participate in any way that we can”.
They said that if the allegations were proven, “we hope those involved will be prosecuted in the fullest sense of the law.”
Florida Division of Elections had announced in December that enough activists had signed up to be eligible for the ballot of 2024.
They submitted nearly one million valid signatures for ballot placement . This is well above the required 891,523 and suggests that the petitions in question are not likely to have a significant impact on the campaign’s qualification status.
To be placed on the ballot, a measure must have valid signatures of registered voters that totaled at least 8 percent of district-wide votes in the last presidential election. This is in addition to the number of signatures needed statewide. The marijuana campaign met the threshold exactly in 14 districts.
Even with the signatures, it remains to be seen how the Supreme Court of California will rule on the legalization measure. The Attorney General’s Office wants the measure invalidated before the next election.
Last month, the court heard oral arguments on that case. The main argument of the state is that the ballot measure is affirmatively false, partly because the summary would make it difficult for voters to understand that marijuana will remain illegal at the federal level even if Florida legalizes.
Moody used the same argument against a legalization measure for 2022, and subsequently invalidated.
Both the campaign and its supporters have insisted that the court should respect the intention of the citizen initiative and give voters the chance to decide the issue.
A poll released last month found that nearly seven out of 10 registered Florida voters support the marijuana legalization reform. Majorities in every demographic were also in favor.
Trulieve, a multi-state marijuana firm, has donated over $39 million so far to the Smart & Safe Florida Campaign. In oral arguments, Moody accused the company that it supported the measure to gain a “monopolistic grip” on the cannabis market in Florida.
The measure, if approved, would amend the state Constitution so that existing medical cannabis companies like Trulieve in the state could begin selling marijuana for all 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. 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 the marijuana legalization measure would produce between $195.6 and $431.3 millions of new sales tax revenue each year if it is passed by voters. These figures could rise if lawmakers decide to impose a similar excise tax to those in other legalized states on cannabis transactions.
The governor who is running to be the Republican nominee for president in 2024 has been vocal about his opposition to this policy change. He said that , if he were elected, he would not decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.
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DeSantis said during a recent event that the rise in medical marijuana patients is due in part to users using the law as “pretext” to use recreational cannabis.
DeSantis also signed a law that went into effect this summer. It added restrictions on medical marijuana advertising and manufacturing. This included prohibiting products or messages which promote “recreational cannabis use” while increasing the eligibility requirements for industry workers.
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. All other pharmaceuticals prescribed by doctors may still be allowed.
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.
The organizer of , a separate Florida ballot measure to legalize medical marijuana cultivation by patients withdrew their proposal recently. They explained that the campaign had raised only a little more than $4,000 but could not cover the costs of trying to qualify this measure.
A Florida Republican Senator introduced a bill in the legislature this month that would allow medical cannabis businesses licensed to claim state tax deductions, which they are not allowed to claim at the federal level, under an Internal Revenue Service code (IRS) known as 280E.
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