Legal pot popular, but still not enough to clear 60% hurdle

The Florida Chamber of Commerce’s latest statewide poll finds broad support for adult-use cannabis, but with the effort still falling short of the 60% threshold needed to pass in a statewide referendum.

Overall, the poll found 53% of Floridians support for legal pot in Florida. While that represents a clear majority, it’s less than the 56% support the issue got at the ballot box in the 2024 General Election last November after a massive opposition campaign led by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

It’s the sixth consecutive poll from the Florida Chamber showing the measure failing to reach the high level of support required for passage.

The Chamber notes that the missed mark comes despite more than $150 million being spent over the course of the 2024 campaign supporting the measure, which was Amendment 3 on the 2024 ballot. Of the total spending in favor, $145 million came from Florida’s largest medical marijuana provider, Trulieve.

The Chamber poll found that the push to legalize cannabis for adult recreational use, without medical need, has actually become less popular the more voters learn about the issue.

The poll comes less than a month after the group behind the Amendment 3 campaign, Smart & Safe Florida, launched a new campaign to put the issue back on the ballot for voters in 2026.

The proposal, entitled “Adult Personal Use of Marijuana,” is the first ballot petition filed in 2025. It includes a ballot summary making clear that it only seeks to legalize adult use.

Last year, the Vote No on 3 campaign made an aggressive push against the measure, casting it as an overly broad measure that would harm children by making cannabis smoking part of the public domain — imagery featuring kids on playgrounds surrounded by clouds of weed smoke.

The push against Amendment 3 was led by Keep Florida Clean Inc., a political committee chaired by James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ Chief of Staff and soon-to-be Attorney General. The committee just through Halloween, just days before the election, had spent nearly $24 million on its own campaigning against Amendment 3. While that’s a lot of cash, it’s a mere fraction of what proponents dumped into supporting the measure.

With the Florida Chamber’s latest polling, it looks in these early days like the measure may again face a tough road.

The poll was taken Feb. 2-8 by Cherry Communications among 600 respondents. It has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

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