Florida legislators to debate legal pot, home growing, medical marijuana

C. A. Bridges
Daytona Beach News-Journal
Jan. 13, 2026, 6:03 a.m. ET
A Florida state senator has filed a bill to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older.
This legislative effort runs parallel to a proposed constitutional amendment facing legal challenges.
Nearly 30 marijuana-related bills have been introduced in the current legislative session, addressing issues from patient rights to public consumption.
Legal battles continue for a proposed recreational marijuana constitutional amendment as the sponsor, Smart & Safe Florida, works to get Florida Supreme Court approval despite state pushback and enough valid signatures before the deadlines.
In the meantime, a state senator just filed a bill to go ahead and make it legal anyway.
Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, on Thursday, Jan. 8, filed SB 1398, which would allow adults 21 years of age and older to legally possess up to four ounces of smokable marijuana, or cannabis products containing up to 2,000 milligrams of THC.
Floridians would be restricted from buying more than 2½ ounces of smokable marijuana at a time and could only buy it from a licensed and registered medical marijuana treatment center, although the bill also would break Florida’s silo-format licensing and allow small businesses to apply for licenses to cultivate, manufacture, transport and sell cannabis products.
Under the bill, consumers (but not medical marijuana patients or caregivers) would be taxed, and medical marijuana patients would be permitted to grow up to six flowering plants at home for personal consumption.
“We can’t call ourselves the ‘Free State of Florida’ while continuing to criminalize cannabis use by grown adults,” Smith told the Marijuana Moment website Thursday.