Florida's Marijuana Legalization Initiative Fails To Pass

A majority of the state's voters said yes to Amendment Three, but that wasn't enough to clear the 60 percent threshold required to pass a Florida ballot initiative.

A Florida ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana failed to hit the supermajority threshold required to pass, dealing a high-profile defeat to the most well-funded legalization campaign in U.S. history.

Although a majority of voters—57 percent, with 95 percent of votes counted—voted yes for Florida's Amendment 3, the initiative to legalize adult recreational marijuana fell short of the 60 percent required to amend the state constitution. Notably, Miami-Dade County rejected the amendment 51–48 percent.

For now, Florida will continue to arrest and prosecute thousands of people a year for marijuana possession. The Tampa Bay Times reports that prosecutors filed more than 16,000 charges against people for possession of small amounts of marijuana last year.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and a constellation of allied political action groups opposed Amendment 3, falsely claiming in press conferences and advertisements that it would forbid lawmakers from regulating public consumption and would lead to New York–style dysfunction. (Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, however, endorsed Amendment 3.)

Amendment 3 would have legalized recreational marijuana, allowing adults 21 and older to possess up to three ounces of marijuana and five grams of concentrated THC. Only companies already licensed to sell medical marijuana would have been allowed to sell recreational marijuana at first.

Those same companies, mostly large multi-state marijuana corporations, spent more than $90 million on the Yes on Amendment 3 campaign, making it the most well-funded legalization drive in U.S. history.

"This is clearly one of Big Marijuana's biggest defeats yet," Kevin Sabet, president of the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said in a press release. "Floridians have dealt a remarkable blow to one of the largest commercial marijuana companies in the U.S. and others in the addiction industry."

The restricted market that Amendment 3 would create led to criticisms—fair ones—that it was a naked money-grab for the select companies that already had medical marijuana licenses.

Still, many legalization advocates saw Amendment 3, flawed as it was, as preferable to a status quo that results in thousands of arrests and prosecutions a year for marijuana use and possession. That status quo will continue.

Meanwhile, the Miami Herald recently reported that the state's lightly regulated hemp shops are selling black market marijuana labeled as hemp, much of it tainted with banned pesticides.

Truly, what a victory for prohibitionists concerned about public health.