The Florida Supreme Court officially killed recreational marijuana’s chances of appearing on the 2026 ballot Wednesday, dismissing Smart & Safe Florida’s case in a 6-1 vote. Only Justice Jorge Labarga dissented.
Within hours, Attorney General James Uthmeier took to X to celebrate the decision with a victory lap that would make even the most cynical political operative cringe: “Even with all the fraud and forgery, the latest weed initiative couldn’t garner enough public support to make the ballot. The Florida Supreme Court appropriately just dismissed the case. Floridians can continue to breathe the free air for another election cycle.”
Free air.
Let that sink in for a minute. While people sit in jails and prisons across the state and the country for cannabis offenses – some facing decades behind bars under the state’s mandatory minimum sentencing laws for trafficking.
The Numbers Don’t Lie – But Uthmeier Does
Uthmeier’s claim that the initiative “couldn’t garner enough public support” is laughable when you look at the facts. Smart & Safe Florida submitted over 1.4 million petition signatures. That’s not a lack of support – that’s an abundance of support compared to the required 880K.
But the state determined only 784,000 signatures were valid – roughly 96,000 short of the 880,000 threshold needed to qualify. But here’s what Uthmeier conveniently left out: the state found ways to disqualified more than 600,000 signatures through a verification process that even some county elections supervisors found suspicious.
That’s ALMOST HALF of the signatures collected – many initially validated – that the state decided just don’t count anymore.
Approximately 200,000 signatures were thrown out because they came from mailed petitions. Another 70,000 were invalidated because they were collected by out-of-state residents or signed by voters classified as “inactive.” Smart & Safe maintains that when all counties finish their final tallies, they’ll exceed the requirement – but will we ever see the real final numbers?
The campaign called the state’s announcement “premature,” noting that “the final and complete county by county totals for validated petitions are not yet reported.
But the Supreme Court decided not to wait and find out.
The Fraud Narrative Falls Apart Under Scrutiny
Uthmeier loves talking about fraud. In January, his office announced 46 new criminal investigations and subpoenaed Smart & Safe Florida, claiming the campaign “knew about fraud” and failed to report it.
There’s just one problem… Smart & Safe says they reported every suspected fraudster to authorities themselves.
In fact, the woman charged in one of the fraud cases—Teagen Targhuhanuchi—was reported to authorities BY the campaign. When asked about the investigations, Smart & Safe told CBS12: “The people in question who are apparently under investigation were all reported to authorities by the Smart & Safe campaign. Further all of the initiative petitions that were suspect were also reported by the campaign.”
Uthmeier’s office investigated 50 petition circulators who submitted more than 21,000 petitions. They flagged 14,500 as problematic and invalidated them. But it doesn’t end there – 7,100 of those signatures were initially VERIFIED by state election officials and then later used as evidence of the campaign’s negligence.
So, if the state’s own election officials verified fraudulent signatures, how exactly was it Smart & Safe’s fault?
Broward County Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott didn’t mince words about the state’s process, suggesting it seemed “focused on trying to stop” the amendment rather than ensure ballot integrity.
This Isn’t Uthmeier’s First Rodeo
If this all feels familiar, that’s because we’ve seen this all before.
In 2024, a similar marijuana legalization measure – Amendment 3 – actually made it onto the ballot but failed to reach the 60% threshold required for passage. During that campaign, the state went all-in to defeat it.
A December 2025 investigation by the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald found that Florida spent at least $36.2 million in taxpayer funds on advertising against Amendment 3 and another ballot measure. Money came from the Department of Children and Families, the Department of Health, and – here’s the best one – opioid settlement funds.
Let that irony sit with you for a moment: Florida used money specifically earmarked to help people struggling with deadly opioid addiction to campaign against legalizing a plant that research suggests could help some of those same people reduce or eliminate opioid use.
It makes perfect sense. If you’re a pharmaceutical company about to lose a massive chunk of the painkiller market.
But wait, there’s more!
Separately, $10 million from a Medicaid settlement was funneled through Hope Florida Foundation – a charity founded by Casey DeSantis – to nonprofits that funded Keep Florida Clean PAC. That PAC fought Amendment 3, and it was run by none other than James Uthmeier himself, back when he was Governor Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff.
Now Uthmeier is Attorney General. And he’s investigating the 2026 effort.
This isn’t impartial law enforcement. This is political opposition weaponizing the AG’s office.
Who’s Really “Breathing Free Air”?
Uthmeier’s “free air” comment is particularly infuriating when you remember who’s NOT breathing free air in Florida.
People imprisoned for cannabis offenses. Floridians facing decades behind bars under the state’s harsh trafficking laws. The thousands of Floridians with criminal records for a plant that’s legal in 24 other states, that 60% of Americans nationwide agree should be legal.
When CBS12 asked its viewers whether recreational marijuana should be on the ballot, 77% said yes. That’s not fringe support – that’s a supermajority.
But Florida voters won’t get to decide for themselves because the state moved the goalposts mid-game, criminalized petition circulators, and then dismissed the case before counties even finished counting.
The Fight Isn’t Over & We’re Ready For It
The state can block the ballot, but they can’t stop the movement.
Cannabis reform is coming to Florida. It’s not a question of if – it’s a question of when. And every time the DeSantis-Uthmeier machine deploys taxpayer dollars, criminal investigations, and bureaucratic roadblocks to prevent voters from deciding for themselves, they prove exactly why we need this change.
Because right now, the only people breathing “free air” in Florida are the ones with enough power to rig the game.
Related Reading from All Things Cannabis:
- Florida Declares Cannabis Initiative Dead—Campaign Says ‘Not So Fast’
- Smart & Safe Florida Hits 760K Signatures – But Time’s Running Out
- From Verified Signatures to Jail Cells: How Florida Rewrote the Rules to Kill Cannabis Legalization
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