Recreational pot lawsuit dismissed

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A legal fight over a state petition-gathering law has been dismissed after supporters of allowing recreational marijuana use decided against continuing to try to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot.

The political committee Make It Legal Florida filed the lawsuit Dec. 31 as it scrambled to submit enough petition signatures by a Feb. 1 deadline to put a recreational-pot amendment on the 2020 ballot.

The lawsuit sought more time to submit signatures as it contended that a petition-gathering law passed year by the Legislature is unconstitutional and that problems with a Department of State database hampered petition efforts.

But Make It Legal Florida announced Monday that it had decided to pull back from trying to put the measure on the November ballot and will try to go before voters in 2022. That led to attorneys Wednesday filing a notice that the lawsuit had been dismissed.