Marijuana legalization supporters thought they had DeSantis on the ropes.
But they were wrong.
And one shocking court ruling just handed Ron DeSantis a crushing victory over marijuana legalization.
Marijuana legalization groups in Florida can't catch a break.
After spending over $150 million trying to legalize recreational pot in 2024 — and falling short despite getting 56% of the vote — the pro-marijuana crowd filed a new initiative for 2026.
They thought they'd learned their lesson from the defeat.
Florida voters rejected Amendment 3 last year after Governor Ron DeSantis led an unprecedented campaign exposing the measure as a corporate money grab that would cement Trulieve's monopoly on the Florida marijuana market.
DeSantis barnstormed the state and used every tool at his disposal to educate voters about what the amendment would actually do — turn Florida into a pot-filled wasteland where the smell of marijuana permeated every public space while one politically connected company raked in billions.
The defeat stung. Hard.
So Smart & Safe Florida — the Trulieve-backed political committee that burned through all that cash — went back to the drawing board and filed a revised proposal for 2026.
They claimed they'd addressed DeSantis' concerns by adding language prohibiting smoking in public places and banning packaging attractive to children.
But DeSantis wasn't buying it.
DeSantis Administration Strikes Back Against Petition Signatures
Here's where things get interesting.
The DeSantis administration noticed something suspicious about the petition forms Smart & Safe Florida mailed to voters.
The approved petition form had a blank back page. But the forms actually sent to voters? Those had a website link on the back directing people where to find the full text of the proposed amendment.
Smart & Safe Florida collected over 200,000 signatures using those altered forms.
https://twitter.com/ganjapreneur/status/1992992941967835354?s=20
Secretary of State Cord Byrd's office sent a cease-and-desist letter back in March telling the committee to stop using the modified petitions.
Then in October, Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews ordered county supervisors to throw out every single one of those 200,000-plus signatures.
Smart & Safe Florida sued, claiming the petitions were identical to the approved version and the link on the back didn't constitute a material change.
Their lawyer Glenn Burhans argued "anybody would say these are identical" since there was "no change within the border of the document."
The marijuana lobby thought they had a winner.
They were dead wrong.
Judge Rules DeSantis Administration Got It Right
Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper sided with the DeSantis administration on Friday in a ruling that wiped out roughly a third of Smart & Safe Florida's petition signatures.¹
Cooper admitted he "wavered back and forth" on the decision but ultimately concluded state law was clear.
"I think Mr. Gibson has pointed out to my satisfaction the statutory provision that says if one is not using the forms prescribed by the secretary of state, then they are not valid," Cooper said.²
The judge acknowledged Smart & Safe Florida appeared to act "in good faith to comply with the law" but found that adding the website link on the back constituted a "material change" to the petition layout that required approval from the Secretary of State's office.³
"What happened on the back of that first form, that's a change of layout," Cooper explained. "Therefore it's a material change that was not approved by the secretary of state, therefore I must find that petitions that were at issue here with that change, are not enforceable."⁴
Smart & Safe Florida now faces a serious problem.
They need 880,062 valid signatures by February 1st to get on the 2026 ballot.
As of Friday, they had submitted 675,307 valid signatures — including those 200,000-plus signatures the judge just invalidated.⁵
Take away those signatures and Smart & Safe Florida drops to around 475,000 signatures — more than 400,000 short of what they need.
And here's the kicker: their lawyer admitted the functional deadline is actually a month earlier because county supervisors need 30 days to process petitions.⁶
That means Smart & Safe Florida has roughly two months to collect over 400,000 new signatures just to qualify for the ballot.
The committee vowed to appeal Cooper's ruling, saying "we fervently but respectfully disagree with this ruling and fully intend to appeal it as voters deserve and overwhelmingly want to have their voices heard on this important matter."⁷
But even that claim about voters "overwhelmingly" wanting legalization is nonsense.
Florida requires 60% approval for constitutional amendments. Last year's version got 56% — meaning 44% of voters rejected it.
That's not an "overwhelming" mandate for anything.
DeSantis has been saying for months the 2026 proposal won't survive judicial scrutiny. Looks like the Governor called it exactly right.
This is what happens when corporate interests try to ram through constitutional amendments using deceptive tactics and procedural shortcuts.
The DeSantis administration caught them cutting corners with the petition forms.
A judge agreed those shortcuts violated state law. And now the marijuana lobby's 2026 dreams are circling the drain.
Florida law exists for a reason.
The Secretary of State approves specific petition forms to ensure uniformity and compliance across 67 counties.
You don't get to modify approved forms without permission just because you think the changes are minor.
Smart & Safe Florida gambled they could slip those modified petitions past election officials.
They lost that bet.
And now they're paying the price with a ruling that essentially kills their 2026 ballot hopes.
DeSantis has made clear he won't let special interests turn Florida into California, where ballot initiatives have made the state "ungovernable" in his words.
This court victory proves the Governor means business when it comes to protecting Florida from the marijuana industry's corporate greed.
¹ Dara Kam, "Judge backs DeSantis administration, delivers blow to marijuana legalization effort," Sun Sentinel, November 21, 2025.
² – ⁷ Ibid.
