ORLANDO, Fla. — A new petition would ask voters to legalize marijuana in Florida and tax it to benefit teacher salaries.
The petition, filed Wednesday by Florida Organization of Reform, is the third petition related to cannabis filed so far this year.
This latest measure would allow for marijuana as a dietary supplement and apply up to a 10 percent sales tax, with revenue going towards teacher salaries.
"If you don't have an organized movement, if you don't have resources, unfortunately, it will not happen," said attorney Matt Morgan, whose father is chairman of United for Care.
United for Care is supporting a completely separate petition that would legalize medicinal marijuana. A similar measure from the group made it on the ballot in 2014 but failed to pass by a few percentage points.
In total, three separate petitions have been filed with the Division of Elections. Two of them would permit marijuana sales for recreational use. But all of the proposals face hurdles in making the ballot.
While United for Care has raised tens of thousands of dollars in hopes of making the 2016 ballot, online records show the other two petitions haven't raised any money so far.
"The money is everything," said Morgan. "Without the money, first all, you can't get the petitions, and if you can't get the petitions, then you have no shot at getting the petition where you need to get it."
The state requires ballot measures to pass a judicial review and collect roughly 683,000 signatures. Officially, none of the petitions have submitted any signatures so far.
"We get a lot of duplicates, because people don't remember that they signed them so you usually have to go way over the number in order to guarantee that you get to it," said Bill Cowles, Orange County Supervisor of Elections.
James Hatcher, of Plant City is with FOR, the group proposing the petition related to teacher salaries. He told Eyewitness News over the phone that he doesn't plan to raise any money and will instead rely on social media and a grassroots campaign.
Channel 9 reached out to the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association to get feedback on FOR's petition. The president said it's time for Florida to take the lead in showing they value teachers, whether through tourist tax dollars or other tax dollars.
Ultimately, Morgan said getting a measure on the ballot and getting it passed is difficult.
"It is incredibly time consuming. It costs a lot of money. It's not something you can do half-hearted," Morgan said.