Florida Supreme Court Approves Language for Medical Marijuana

The Florida Supreme Court approved the language for a constitutional amendment legalizing marijuana. The court’s decision means that campaign supporters have until, December 31, 2015, to gather over 280,000 signatures. The campaign has 100,000 signatures and expects to get the remaining this week.

These signatures must then be verified and compared to the list of registered voters by February 1, 2016.

The Miami Herald reports that all seven justices approved the language for the ballot this time around. The previous attempt, in 2014, did pass with a 4 – 3 majority vote. The state expects that the 57.6-percent approval from public voting previously will exceed the required 60-percent in the next period of voting.

The director of United for Care, Ben Pollara, stated that, “While we still must collect the required number of petitions before officially being placed on the 2016 ballot, we are confident that we will and that Florida voters will approve this amendment in the general election.”

While United for Care is keeping track of their numbers, some could be unaccounted for in their records. This is due to some petitions already waiting for verification in election offices. This entire effort has been funded mainly by one person, John Morgan. Morgan is an Orlando lawyer that supports medical marijuana legalization and has given $2.2 million to United for Care in order to fund the efforts to obtain the required number of signed petitions.