Amendment 3: Florida’s recreational marijuana ballot measure, explained

Florida voters will decide this November whether recreational marijuana should be legalized for adult use. But if the measure passes, what happens next?

The state Supreme Court signed off Monday on ballot language for the proposed constitutional amendment. If at least 60% of voters approve the measure, it will usher in an expected multibillion-dollar industry and open the marijuana market to consumers beyond those who have gotten a referral from a doctor — as the law currently requires.

If passed, Florida will join 24 states that have legalized recreational pot.

Here are seven key questions about Amendment 3, answered.

Will it smell like weed everywhere if the amendment passes?

Top Florida officials say one of the major concerns with the ballot initiative now before voters is marijuana’s pervasive stench.

“This is going to be part of your community,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said recently. “I’ve gone to some of these cities that have this everywhere. It smells.”

The extent of marijuana’s odor is really a question of where Floridians will be allowed to smoke.

Will recreational marijuana actually be “everywhere” should it become legalized in November?

Supporters of the amendment say the Florida Legislature can create smoke-free zones, as they have with tobacco. In 2022, for example, lawmakers passed a bill allowing local communities to ban smoking and vaping at the state’s beaches. Measures like these followed a 2002 state constitutional amendment approved by voters banning smoking in most enclosed indoor workspaces.

“The Florida Constitution and the proposed amendment expressly empower the Florida Legislature to enact time, place, and manner regulations of marijuana usage in public places,” a spokesperson for Smart & Safe Florida, the group sponsoring the ballot initiative, said in a statement.

A portion of the amendment says that nothing in its language prohibits the Legislature from passing laws consistent with the amendment.

Marijuana will also remain illegal at the national level, meaning smoking will still be forbidden on federal lands and college campuses that get federal funding.

But DeSantis said he interprets the amendment to mean the Legislature can’t regulate the personal recreational use of marijuana at all.

Marijuana use, which under the proposal would be allowed for those 21 and older, would not be “subject to any criminal or civil liability or sanctions under Florida law,” the amendment says. Possession of up to 3 ounces for personal use would be permitted.

Will the number of marijuana users rise?

Yes, it’s likely. A 2021 study examined marijuana consumption patterns in states that had legal medical marijuana, then added recreational pot. Researchers found that the odds of cannabis use in the past month rose among white and Hispanic people ages 21 and older in states that legalized recreational use.

However, Black residents did not see their odds of use increase, according to the researchers, who analyzed national survey data on more than 838,000 people. Nor did it rise among those ages 12 to 20, who were still barred from recreational use.

In a 2022 study of identical twins, researchers found that people living in states that legalized recreational marijuana used cannabis 20% more frequently than those living in states where it remained illegal.

Could car crashes increase?

Possibly. Researchers have yet to come up with a definitive answer on whether legalizing recreational marijuana causes an increase in traffic injuries.

A 2017 study found that three years after Washington and Colorado legalized weed in 2012, their fatal crash rates were not statistically different from those in similar states with no recreational marijuana. But the same researchers in a larger 2019 study found that Washington and Colorado did see significant increases in fatal crash rates after commercial dispensaries opened in 2014.

Experts at the Virginia-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in a 2022 study found that Colorado, Washington, Oregon and California saw increases in injury crash rates after legalization and the start of marijuana sales, while Nevada experienced a decrease. Yet only Colorado and Oregon recorded a bump in their fatal crash rates: a 1.4% increase and 3.8% increase, respectively. The other three states saw small declines.

Scientists know that marijuana can cause drivers to have difficulty judging the distance between vehicles, which leads them to slow down, said Charles Farmer, one of the study’s authors and vice president of research at the institute. But they have yet to determine the blood level of THC, marijuana’s main psychoactive ingredient, that results in impairment, he said.

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says driving while impaired by drugs is illegal, but, unlike with alcohol, “there is no specific impairment limit with marijuana.”

Some states, including Colorado, have launched public campaigns to warn drivers not to get behind the wheel while high, Farmer said.

“Whether it’s worked or not, I don’t know,” he said.

Why has marijuana policy been left up to voters?

The Legislature has historically been hostile to legal marijuana. Even after voters approved an expansion of medical cannabis via a 2016 constitutional ballot initiative, it took lawmakers more than two years to pass legislation allowing for smokable medical pot. Since then, lawmakers have looked to restrict the potency of marijuana in numerous bills, and the Legislature has never seriously considered passing a law legalizing cannabis for recreational use.

The DeSantis administration has also been slow to award companies the medical marijuana licenses required by statute.

To date, there are nearly 878,000 patients and 25 licensed treatment centers with more than 600 dispensaries. Twenty-two additional licenses are reportedly expected to be awarded this year.

Where can you buy recreational weed if voters approve the amendment?

State medical marijuana licenses are awarded to companies that are required to handle every part of the marijuana supply chain from seed to sale. It’s an expensive — but highly lucrative — proposition for the companies lucky enough to get a piece of the action. Some Florida licenses have been sold to other firms for tens of millions of dollars.

The initiative before voters — which has been funded almost entirely by the largest Florida medical marijuana company, Trulieve — would, at least initially, give licensed medical marijuana companies the exclusive rights to sell recreational pot. They’d likely start selling out of existing medical marijuana dispensaries.

Florida’s combined medical and recreational marijuana industry will make an estimated $8 billion to $10 billion in annual revenue, said Nic Easley, chief executive officer and founder of 3C, a national and international cannabis consulting company in Denver.

“This really is a way to let a small number of people make a lot of money,” said state Rep. Randy Fine, a Brevard County Republican who opposes the ballot initiative.

Could the Legislature change the way the market works?

Other states like Colorado don’t force marijuana companies to grow, process, manufacture and sell pot the way Florida currently does. Were voters to approve the recreational marijuana measure, the Legislature could always tweak the law, opening the market to smaller companies.

But Fine, who’s running for state Senate this November, said he doesn’t expect the Legislature to take up any sweeping regulatory changes that would affect the structure of the marijuana market. Instead, he expects his colleagues to focus on any safety concerns associated with legalized recreational pot.

In the world of recreational cannabis, big medical marijuana companies will likely continue to dominate the market, said Easley, the cannabis industry consultant.