New Florida Law Used to Keep You from Voting on Adult Use

18 Apr New Florida Law Used to Keep You from Voting on Adult Use

Posted at 14:54h in HEMP NEWS by Carlos Hermida 0 Comments

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A new Florida law is being invoked to attempt to block out a vote on legalizing Adult Use cannabis on the 2020 ballot.

It is really the Florida Supreme court’s decision if the mentioned law will keep Florida from ever becoming an adult use state. This law was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis about a week ago, and this isn’t the first time that Florida’s Senate Republicans have tried to block cannabis legalization.

In recent months their argument was that the Florida Senate should attempt to block any such amendment because it goes against federal law. But now they are arguing that legal cannabis violates a new state law that makes it harder to pass ballot initiatives. This new law calls on the Supreme Court to consider whether proposed amendments are “facially invalid under the United States Constitution”. The claim is that this law is relevant to the broader argument of adult use cannabis conflicting with federal law. Basically, they are trying to say that State law, which conflicts with federal law, is unconstitutional.

“You can make that argument, but again if you look back at 2016, the medical marijuana ballot initiative, this issue was never brought up and multiple states, more than 40 states across the United States have either a medical or an adult use recreational initiative. So I think that argument is a little weak,” said Jeff Sharkey with the Medical Marijuana Business Association of Florida.

Truth is, even if the Florida Supreme Court decides voting on cannabis legalization is unconstitutional, it is still going to be next to impossible to legalize it in Florida! And it is because of the very law in question. This law put forth new signature expiration dates and increased costs to court petitions, all of which make it damn near impossible to get anything passed.

The Supreme Court is set to hear the case on May 6, in its first ever video conference due to the coronavirus.