A committee had advanced the bills without a recommendation to pass them.

By John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight

State senators voted against discussions on banning hemp-derived consumables and kratom on Thursday at the South Dakota Capitol in Pierre.

Separate bills to ban the use, possession, sale or consumption of those intoxicating substances advanced out of a Senate committee on Wednesday, but the committee voted to send them to the Senate floor with no recommendation, rather than a recommendation to pass them.

By Senate rules, bills that land on the full chamber’s calendar without a recommendation need the support of a majority of senators before they’re eligible for a debate, and ultimately for a vote.

Sen. Kevin Jensen, R-Canton, moved to put the bills on the Senate’s calendar for Monday. He said both bills had drawn spirited debate and survived attempts by some committee members to defeat them.

On the bill to ban hemp-derived intoxicants for anyone without a medical marijuana card, Senate Bill 61, Jensen said there are amendments in the works to address its opponents’ concerns.

He offered similar comments, without referencing possible amendments, when he moved to place Senate Bill 77’s ban on kratom products on the Senate calendar.

“It’s

The post South Dakota Senate Rejects Debate On Banning Intoxicating Hemp And Kratom appeared first on GrowCola.com.

“The people have spoken. I’m proud to see this funding distributed across Ohio and look forward to seeing the ways these funds will benefit local communities.”

By David Beasley, The Center Square

For cities and towns in Ohio that have allowed recreational marijuana dispensaries, it’s payday time.

A 10 percent tax on cannabis products, approved by Ohio voters in 2023, goes to cities and towns with dispensaries at 36 percent rate of the tax revenue, according to state law.

This month, cities and towns with dispensaries are receiving their first checks, a total of $33 million.

The city of Piqua is one of those, with a check for $438,000, which it plans to use for park improvements.

“Local governments—including Piqua—decided to allow recreational marijuana sales within their communities based on the understanding that funds would come back to local control to best serve the individual needs of the community,” city manager Paul Oberdorfer said in a statement.

A small town called Seven Mile Village, which has a population of only 712 people and an annual budget of about $75,000, received a check for $400,000, State Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, told The Center Square.

Huffman, a medical doctor, opposed legalizing

The post Ohio Cities Begin Receiving Marijuana Revenue To Support Local Programs And Services appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Bipartisan congressional lawmakers are stressing the importance of strategically advancing psychedelics reform in a way that mitigates bureaucratic conflict and the influence of outside interests. Even just one misstep could threaten to upend the movement, they say.

At a public forum in Washington, D.C.—hosted by the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition (PMC) and Mission Within Foundation (MWF) last week—Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA), Jack Bergman (R-MI) and Morgan Luttrell (R-TX) spoke about the work ahead to provide access to psychedelics for patients.

Much of the focus centered around the need to give military veterans alternative treatment options for serious mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Psychedelics like MDMA and ibogaine could help fill that gap, the legislators said.

Luttrell said a key challenge supporters are up against is the inaccessibility of data from private research institutions that could demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelics—something that he argued would likely move the needle for members who are on the fence on the issue.

The congressman said he and colleagues have pressed agencies such as the Department of Defense (DOD), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) about the problem.

“How do you get

The post Bipartisan Lawmakers Warn That Even One Mistake In Push For Psychedelics Access Could Derail Progress appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Bipartisan congressional lawmakers have filed a new bill to regulate consumable hemp products—offering a potential alternative to the outright THC ban that was included in a spending bill President Donald Trump signed late last year.

House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health Chairman Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and Rep. Marc Veasey (D-TX) introduced the Hemp Enforcement, Modernization, and Protection (HEMP) Act on Thursday as the future of the market sits in limbo.

The proposal would affirmatively allow the sale of consumable hemp products to adults 21 and older. That includes edibles, beverages and inhalable items. Certain provisions have been amended since the GOP sponsor first circulated a discussion draft of the legislation in August.

“Despite raising repeated concerns about the ongoing confusion regarding the safety, consumption and sale of CBD-containing products until a discussion draft of this bill was circulated, I believe we have yet to see meaningful progress at the federal level,” Griffith said in a press release.

“I am proud to lead the effort in the House along with Representative Veasey to present a path forward for the federal regulation of CBD products,” he said. “After discussions with stakeholders, federal officials and other relevant authorities, I believe the HEMP

The post New Bipartisan Congressional Bill Would Regulate Hemp Products, In Contrast To Ban Trump Signed appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Virginia senators have advanced a bill to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana sales—one of several reform proposals under consideration as the 2026 session gets underway.

The Senate Rehabilitation & Social Services Committee on Friday took up two marijuana sales legalization measures. After amending one of the proposals from Sen. Lashrecse Aird (D) with a substitute version, it passed the panel in a 8-7 vote.

The bill largely aligns with recommendations released last month by the legislature’s Joint Commission to Oversee the Transition of the Commonwealth into a Cannabis Retail Market.

Since legalizing cannabis possession and home cultivation in 2021, Virginia lawmakers have worked to establish a commercial marijuana market—only to have those efforts consistently stalled under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who twice vetoed measures to enact it that were sent to his desk by the legislature.

“In 2021 Virginia became the first southern state to legalize adult use cannabis, and five years later, Virginia has yet to implement the marketplace we originally envisioned,” Aird said. “Each year that we go without a marketplace, the illicit market grows and health and safety concerns rise for our citizens.”

“The legislation establishes a market, once and for all, that will protect consumers, protect

The post Virginia Senators Approve Bill To Legalize Marijuana Sales Under New Pro-Reform Governor appeared first on GrowCola.com.

A South Dakota legislative committee has rejected a bill that would have allowed terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals and hospices.

The House Health and Human Services Committee voted 12-1 on Thursday to defer the measure to the 41st day of the session, effectively killing it.

Rep. Eric Emery (D), the sponsor of HB 1053, said it is a “narrow and carefully constructed bill that addresses one specific issue: ensuring that terminally ill patients who are already legally authorized to use medical cannabis under South Dakota law may continue the treatment when they enter the hospital or a hospice facility.”

“Under the current law, a patient may legally use medical cannabis at home with their approved practitioner. But once that same patient is admitted into a hospital or hospice facility, that access is abruptly ended—and not because the doctor has changed their mind, but because the facilities’ policies vary widely across the state,” he said. “For terminally ill patients, this disruption can mean unplanned pain, nausea, anxiety or even loss of appetite when care is no longer focused on the cure but comfort and dignity.”

“I’ve seen firsthand the pain and the suffering that often accompany… this

The post South Dakota Lawmakers Reject Bill To Let Terminally Ill Patients Use Medical Marijuana In Hospitals appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Massachusetts officials have rejected a challenge to a ballot initiative that seeks to significantly roll back the state’s marijuana legalization law by repealing regulated sales.

Weeks after cannabis activists filed a complaint with the State Ballot Law Commission under the Secretary of State’s office—alleging that petitioners with the anti-cannabis campaign used misleading tactics to convince voters to support its ballot placement—the body on Thursday overruled the objection.

The commission said advocates who challenged the ballot measure raised “unsupported allegations” about the propriety of the signature gathering process that they said warranted official scrutiny.

The claim “rings hollow given that absolutely no admissible evidence has been presented or offered supporting the allegations made,” the commission’s ruling said.

“With this decision, the certification of this round of petitions has now formally ended, and all eleven initiatives are now before the Legislature,” Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin (D), who chairs the commission, said, referring collectively to all ballot petitions advancing in the state this year including on other unrelated issues. “If the Legislature chooses not to pass any of the initiatives, the petitioners will have the opportunity to begin the final round of signature gathering in May.”

This represents a setback for

The post Massachusetts Officials Reject Challenge To Marijuana Legalization Rollback Initiative Amid Allegations Of Deceptive Petitioning Tactics appeared first on GrowCola.com.

NH legalization hearing; WA medical marijuana in hospitals; Alcohol coalition on hemp drinks; Study: 10M Americans microdosed psychedelics in 2025

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The New Hampshire Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on a bill to legalize marijuana, with the sponsor saying President Donald Trump’s federal cannabis rescheduling order means it’s time for the state to act.

The Washington State House Health Care & Wellness Committee approved a bill to allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and

The post MA voters regret signing anti-cannabis ballot petition, poll shows (Newsletter: January 23, 2026) appeared first on GrowCola.com.

New Hampshire senators took up a bill to legalize marijuana in the state on Thursday.

The Senate Judiciary Committee did not vote on the legislation, but members heard testimony both in support of and against the measure.

If enacted into law, SB485 would allow adults over the age of 21 to legally possess up to four ounces of cannabis in plant form and 20 grams of concentrated cannabis products, as well as other products containing no more than 2,000 milligrams of THC.

“New Hampshire is now the only state in New England that has not legalized and regulated cannabis. Every single one of our neighbors has figured this out,” Sen. Donovan Fenton (D), the bill’s lead sponsor told the panel. “Meanwhile, we’re still pretending prohibition is working, while people just drive to Massachusetts, Maine or Vermont legally and bring it back home.”

He called President Donald Trump’s recent federal marijuana rescheduling executive order a “clear signal that even the federal government now recognizes what most Granite Staters already know: Cannabis is not the same category as the most dangerous drugs, and it should be handled with smart and regulated adult approach.”

“So question for New Hampshire is simple, do we lead

The post New Hampshire Senators Debate Bill To Legalize Marijuana, With Sponsor Saying Trump’s Rescheduling Move Means State Must Act appeared first on GrowCola.com.

“I’d hate to take a product away from people who are using it responsibly.”

A South Dakota Senate panel advanced—but did not endorse—bans on hemp-derived intoxicants and kratom on Wednesday at the Capitol in Pierre.

Both bills were sponsored by Sen. John Carley, R-Piedmont.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted unanimously to put the two prohibition bills in front of the full state Senate with no recommendation. Committees generally give a “do pass” recommendation to the bills they send out for a floor vote.

The votes came one day after the Senate Judiciary Committee offered its unqualified support for a bill meant to restrict the sale of certain hemp-based products to people older than 21. That bill came from Attorney General Marty Jackley (R).

In testimony about Carley’s bills, business owners and consumers of products like hemp-derived THC seltzers and kratom said they helped people kick opioids or alcohol. They also mentioned sales taxes collected on consumable products and the value of hemp to South Dakota farmers. That led some committee members to oppose the bills and sparked failed attempts to block the proposals. Ultimately, however, the committee opted to let the state Senate weigh in.

“We need

The post South Dakota Senate Panel Advances Bills To Ban Intoxicating Hemp And Kratom—But Without Recommendations For Passage appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Nearly half of Massachusetts voters who signed a petition to put a marijuana legalization rollback initiative on the ballot say they were misled by the anti-cannabis campaign’s signature collectors, according to a new poll.

The survey involved more than 2,300 residents who signed the petition for the measure backed by the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts. It found that 1,163 voters said they would not have supported its ballot placement had they known it would repeal key parts of the state’s cannabis law allowing commercial sales.

Massachusetts officials are already reviewing complaints about allegedly deceptive signature gathering tactics for the initiative, which the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s Elections Division certified for the ballot last month after the campaign turned in a sufficient number of petitions.

This latest poll, spearheaded by the pro-legalization Committee to Protect Cannabis Regulation, adds to suspicions that petitioners working on behalf of the Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts were either deliberately misleading voters or failing to disclose the initiative’s intent.

It showed that numerous voters were under the impression that the initiative petition they signed was meant to tackle non-marijuana issues such as public education, mitigating the fentanyl crisis and expanding housing opportunities, for example.

Of

The post Nearly Half Of Massachusetts Voters Who Signed Anti-Marijuana Initiative Petitions Feel Misled By Campaign Workers, Poll Finds appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Washington State lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in healthcare facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and hospices.

The House Health Care & Wellness Committee advanced the legislation, sponsored by Rep. Shelley Kloba (D), in a 17-1 vote.

“This bill here builds on what we have as a decades-long experience with medical cannabis, in very controlled kind of environment,” Kloba said at a hearing before the panel last week. “I believe that with this bill we have struck a balance between a process that works for hospitals and gives them the kind of safeguards that they want and meets the needs of terminal patients who would like to try something maybe a little different than the standard care for a palliative situation.”

If enacted into law, HB 2152 would mandate that hospitals and other specified healthcare facilities allow terminally ill patients to use medical marijuana on the premises beginning on January 1, 2027, subject to certain rules and restrictions.

“The medical use of cannabis may support improved quality of life for a qualifying patient…with a terminal condition,” the bill’s text says. “It is the intent of the legislature to promote

The post Washington Bill To Let Seriously Ill Patients Use Medical Cannabis In Hospitals Advances appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Actor Woody Harrelson apparently got kicked out of two bars for smoking marijuana indoors—with the mother of fellow star Matthew McConaughey.

The two laughed about the shenanigans during a recent podcast appearance with Ted Danson.

While McConaughey has long been associated with cannabis culture in various movie roles such as his character in Dazed and Confused, he has decided to abstain from today’s potent cannabis because it “doesn’t agree” with him—saying he fell out of trees and chipped teeth three times while high and looking at the full moon.

The trio of actors shared anecdotes about their marijuana experiences on an episode of Danson and Harrelson’s podcast “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” that was released last week.

McConaughey disclosed that Harrelson and his mother have “a major crush on each other” and have “been kicked out of two bars for smoking ‘mar-i-ja-wanna,’ as my dad would call it—for smoking joints together—setting off fire alarm in one. The other one was [the staff was] just like, ‘That’s illegal. What the hell y’all doing? Get out of here.’ And they ran.”

“You got away both times, didn’t you?” he asked.

Harrelson confirmed: “Both times we got out of trouble.”

Danson

The post Woody Harrelson Got Kicked Out Of Two Bars For Smoking Marijuana With Matthew McConaughey’s Mom appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Nearly 10 million American adults microdosed psychedelic substances such as psilocybin, LSD or MDMA in 2025, according to a new analysis.

The results of the RAND Corporation survey indicate that microdosing—which involves ingesting a small amount of a drug to improve mood and well-being without experiencing hallucinations or a full-scale trip—is a popular practice in the U.S.

“There is an emerging discussion about the effects of microdosing on creativity, well-being and mental health, but until now little was known about how common it is,” Michelle Priest, a RAND researcher who served as lead author of the new report, said in a press release on Wednesday. “Our findings suggest that for those who use psychedelics, taking small doses is a big deal.”

More than two-thirds (69 percent) of adults who used psilocybin in the last year said they microdosed at least once. Among MDMA consumers, 65 percent microdosed in the last year and 59 percent of LSD users did so.

Overall, RAND estimated that approximately 3.7 percent of U.S. adults—or 9.55 million people—microdosed psilocybin, MDMA and/or LSD in 2025.

The RAND paper also looks at psychedelics use more broadly, beyond microdosing—finding that the five most commonly used psychedelics were psilocybin (11 million

The post 10 Million US Adults Microdosed Psychedelics Last Year, New Report Shows appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Major alcohol retailers are coming together to encourage Congress to delay the enactment of a law President Donald Trump recently signed that will federally recriminalize hemp-derived THC beverages and other products.

The newly launched Beverage Alcohol Merchants Coalition’s (BAMCO) founding members include Total Wine & More, BevMo! by Gopuff, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, Spec’s Wine and Spirits & Finer Foods, as well as a group of hemp product wholesalers.

“We know how to sell regulated products,” BAMCO spokesman Jonathan Grella said in a press release. “We do it every day.”

The coalition is calling on lawmakers to pass recently introduced legislation, the Hemp Planting Predictability Act, that would give the hemp industry two more years before a federal ban on THC products would take effect—which stakeholders hope will better position them to negotiate a broader regulatory compromise.

The law is currently set to become effective this November.

“This coalition is here to help policymakers land in the right place—with a pragmatic, responsible approach that voters already understand and support. We’re creating the space for smart regulation by showing broad alignment among consumers, merchants, and experienced operators,” Grella said.

BAMCO launches today: Top alcohol merchants united for responsible

The post Alcohol Retailers Push Congress To Delay Hemp THC Ban While Regulations Are Crafted appeared first on GrowCola.com.

White House says Trump’s marijuana order a “win”; NJ psilocybin bill signed; OH cannabis referendum resubmitted; HI legalization ballot proposal

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The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives is moving to loosen federal rules that bar consumers of marijuana and other illegal drugs from being able to lawfully purchase and possess guns by making it so people would no longer be denied for a single instance of use within the past year.

The White House is touting President Donald Trump’s marijuana rescheduling executive order as

The post ATF revises gun ban for marijuana & other drug consumers (Newsletter: January 22, 2026) appeared first on GrowCola.com.

“It should be unsurprising that national groups with health concerns are interested in helping Massachusetts craft better, safer marijuana laws.”

By Chris Lisinski, CommonWealth Beacon

When it comes to putting a proposed new law before voters, it helps to have lots of money ready to burn.

More than $11 million has already changed hands to advance or oppose a potentially record-breaking field of ballot questions that Massachusetts voters could decide in November, according to newly filed campaign finance reports, including a significant injection by a national dark-money group that opposes legal drug use.

All $1.55 million raised so far in support of a proposal to recriminalize recreational marijuana in Massachusetts came from SAM Action Inc., an organization that is not required to disclose the source of its own funding.

It’s the same organization that bankrolled opposition to a 2024 Massachusetts ballot question that sought to open up access to some psychedelic substances, which voters rejected.

Massachusetts is not alone as a battleground, either. SAM Action is also the only donor behind a ballot question in Maine this cycle that would similarly prohibit recreational pot use there, as the Portland Press Herald reported.

Both campaigns have generated scrutiny over their efforts

The post ‘Dark Money’ Anti-Marijuana Group Is Bankrolling Ballot Measures To Roll Back Legalization In Multiple States, Records Show appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Delaware lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow terminally ill patients to use medical cannabis in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

The Senate Health & Social Services Committee held a hearing on the bill, sponsored by Sen. Marie Pinkney (R), on Wednesday.

Pinkney, who chairs the panel that approved the measure, said it “basically says that terminally ill patients…have the ability to bring in their medical cannabis that they are already using at home, and they are responsible for storing it.”

Under SB 226, patients and their caregivers would be responsible for acquiring and administering medical marijuana, and it would need to be stored securely at all times in a locked container.

Smoking or vaping of medical cannabis would be prohibited, so patients would need to consume it via other methods.

Healthcare facility officials would need to see a copy of patients’ state medical marijuana registry ID cards, and they would be required to note their use of the drug in medical records. They would also need to “develop and disseminate written policies and procedures for the use of medical marijuana within the health care facility.”

Facilities would be able to prohibit medical marijuana use if they determine that such

The post Delaware Lawmakers Consider Bill To Allow Medical Marijuana Use In Hospitals By Terminally Ill Patients appeared first on GrowCola.com.

Key Hawaii lawmakers have filed legislation that would put the issue of marijuana legalization on the ballot for voters to decide.

The move comes after repeated efforts to legalize cannabis legislatively in recent sessions have demonstrated momentum but failed before reaching the finish line to be enacted into law.

If the legislature agrees to the new plan, voters would see this on their November ballots:

“Shall the Constitution of the State of Hawaii be amended to:

(1) Authorize individuals aged twenty-one and older to use and possess personal-use amounts of cannabis; and

(2) Require the legislature to enact laws governing the use, manufacture, distribution, sale, possession, regulation, and taxation of cannabis within the State?”

If a majority of voters approved the ballot measure, cannabis legalization would take effect on July 1, 2027.

House Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee Chairman David Tarnas (D) and Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chair Joy San Buenaventura (D) are the lead sponsors of the new measures. Tarnas’s House proposal has 13 additional cosponsors.

“This is kicking this particular policy decision—very selectively—to the public for a decision,” Tarnas, who has previously sponsored legalization and other marijuana reform bills, said in an interview earlier this month.

The post Hawaii Lawmakers File Bills To Put Marijuana Legalization On The Ballot For Voters To Decide appeared first on GrowCola.com.

A Florida lawmaker has introduced a new bill to legalize recreational marijuana that also aims to break up what he calls “monopolies” in the state's current medical cannabis program by revising the business licensing structure.

The legislation, filed by Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D), comes as the state Supreme Court reviews the constitutionality of proposed adult-use legalization initiative that an industry-funded campaign is seeking to place on the November ballot.

Under the new bill, adults over 21 years of age could legally possess up to four ounces of smokable marijuana or cannabis products containing up to 2,000 milligrams of THC. Medical cannabis patients would be allowed to grow up to six flowering plants at home for personal use.

Medical marijuana businesses that apply for adult-use licenses could begin selling cannabis for recreational purposes beginning next January.

“We can't call ourselves the 'Free State of Florida' while continuing to criminalize cannabis use by grown adults,” Smith told Marijuana Moment on Thursday, adding that a majority of voters approved a legalization initiative at the ballot in 2024 that wasn't enacted after “falling just short of the state's arbitrary 60 percent threshold.”

“The message from voters was unmistakable: they want change,” he said. “Senate Bill 1398 answers that call by legalizing cannabis for adults 21 and over in a safe, responsible, and tightly regulated way.”

“It also ends state-created medical marijuana monopolies by opening the market to small businesses and gives Floridians the freedom to cultivate their own cannabis if they choose,” the senator said. “It's time for the Legislature to stop ignoring the will of the people, end draconian criminalization laws, and finally deliver a fair, legal, and accountable cannabis system for Florida.”

Under the new bill, current medical cannabis dispensaries—known as medical marijuana treatment centers (MMTCs)—could apply for retail licenses to sell recreational marijuana. And only cannabis purchased from licensed businesses would be legal to possess.

People with prior convictions for activity made legal under the bill would also be given an opportunity for resentencing and expungement.

The legislation stipulates marijuana and paraphernalia would be exempt from being taxed—but only for medical cannabis patients and caregivers. Additionally, local governments would be able to levy a business tax on dispensing facilities.

There's been some criticism among advocates about the current medical marijuana system, specifically around the idea that vertical integration and licensing caps have effectively created a marijuana monopoly in the state.

In an attempt to address that issue, the bill would break out licensing categories. In contrast to the current system of seed-to-sale businesses, regulators would offer individual licenses to cultivate, manufacture, transport and sell cannabis products.

There isn't a specific mandate for an increase in the number of licensed marijuana businesses, but the measure would direct the state Department of Health to adopt rules on “procedures and requirements for…the registration and registration renewal of MMTCs.” Depending on the outcome of that rulemaking process, new businesses could enter the market.

Also, registered cultivator and processors would be able to do wholesale transactions with other MMTCs, which is not currently permitted under Florida's medical cannabis program.

The legislation would also task the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to adopt rules adopt “regulating the cultivation of marijuana by members of the public for their private use, including rules regulating the use of a cooperative model for cultivation.”

Here's an overview of additional Florida marijuana developments:

• A state lawmaker recently introduced a bill that would protect the parental rights of medical cannabis patients, preventing them from losing custody of their children for using their medicine in accordance with state law.
• A pro-legalization GOP lawmaker filed legislation to amend state law to codify that the public use of marijuana is prohibited. Rep. Alex Andrade (R), the sponsor, said last year that embracing cannabis reform is a way for the Republican party to secure more votes from young people.
• Last month, a Florida Republican senator filed a bill to expand the state's medical marijuana program, in part by increasing supply limits for patients and waiving registration fees for honorably discharged military veterans. A similar version of legislation was introduced in the House.
• Other recently filed bills in the legislature for 2026 would more incrementally reduce medical cannabis patient registration fees for military veterans and clarify that smoking or vaping marijuana in public places is prohibited.
• A Florida Democratic senator introduced legislation for the 2026 session that would legalize home cultivation of marijuana for registered medical cannabis patients in the state.

In the background, a campaign is working against the clock to collect enough signatures to again put the question of adult-use marijuana legalization to voters at the ballot. But there have been complications.

Most recently, the Republican attorney general of Florida and several business and anti-marijuana groups urged the state Supreme Court to block the legalization initiative, calling it “fatally flawed” and unconstitutional.

The attorney general's office last month asked the state Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of the legalization initiative. The court accepted the request and set a schedule for state officials and the cannabis campaign to file briefs this month. Proponents of the measure have until January 12 to submit response briefs, then the opposition has until January 20 to reply.

The briefs were filed days after Smart and Safe Florida filed a new lawsuit against state officials, alleging that they improperly directed the invalidation of about 71,000 signatures as a turn-in deadline approaches.

In March, meanwhile, two Democratic members of Congress representing Florida asked the federal government to investigate what they described as “potentially unlawful diversion” of millions in state Medicaid funds via a group with ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The money was used to fight against the 2024 citizen ballot initiative, vehemently opposed by the governor, that would have legalized marijuana for adults.

The lawmakers' letter followed allegations that a $10 million donation from a state legal settlement was improperly made to the Hope Florida Foundation, which later sent the money to two political nonprofits, which in turn sent $8.5 million to a campaign opposing Amendment 3.

The governor said last February that the newest marijuana legalization measure is in “big time trouble” with the state Supreme Court, predicting it would be blocked from going before voters this year.

“There's a lot of different perspectives on on marijuana,” DeSantis said. “It should not be in our Constitution. If you feel strongly about it, you have elections for the legislature. Go back candidates that you believe will be able to deliver what your vision is on that.”

“But when you put these things in the Constitution—and I think, I mean, the way they wrote, there's all kinds of things going on in here. I think it's going to have big time trouble getting through the Florida Supreme Court,” he said.

In 2023, the governor accurately predicted that the 2024 cannabis measure from the campaign would survive a legal challenge from the state attorney general. It's not entirely clear why he feels this version would face a different outcome.

While there's uncertainty around how the state's highest court will navigate the measure, a poll released last February showed overwhelming bipartisan voter support for the reform—with 67 percent of Florida voters backing legalization, including 82 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents and 55 percent of Republicans.

Separately, Florida medical marijuana officials are actively revoking the registrations of patients and caregivers with drug-related criminal records. The policy is part of broad budget legislation signed into law last year by DeSantis. The provisions in question direct the state Department of Health (DOH) to cancel registrations of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they're convicted of—or plead guilty or no contest to—criminal drug charges.

---

Written by Kyle Jaeger for Marijuana Moment | Featured image by Gina Coleman/Weedmaps

The post New Florida Bill Would Legalize Recreational Marijuana And End 'Monopolies' In Medical Cannabis With Expanded Business Licensing appeared first on Weedmaps News.