By Dara Kam ©2024 The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — A $150 million-plus effort to allow recreational use of marijuana in Florida fizzled out Tuesday, falling short of the needed 60 percent voter approval and delivering a major victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Trulieve, the state’s largest medical marijuana operator, pumped nearly $144.6 million into the proposed constitutional amendment. The Quincy-based company’s contributions made up more than 94 percent of the overall total of $152.27 million in cash raised by the Smart & Safe Florida political committee that sponsored the measure, which appeared as Amendment 3 on the ballot.
The drive to authorize recreational weed came eight years after voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment allowing medical marijuana. More than 800,000 Florida patients are enrolled in the medical marijuana program.
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But this year’s proposed amendment faced unprecedented opposition from the state’s most powerful elected official — DeSantis — who launched a crusade to defeat Amendment 3 and another ballot measure, Amendment 4, aimed at enshrining abortion rights in the state Constitution. The abortion amendment also appeared to fall short of the required 60 percent voter support.
DeSantis blitzed the state and the airwaves blasting the pot and abortion amendments. His chief of staff, James Uthmeier, chaired two committees that raised more than $30 million to fight the two proposals.
“We fought the good fight, we kept the faith, and we finished the race. Thanks to @GovRonDeSantis and our great team for everything they sacrificed over the past months to protect our great state from amendments that sought to attack our families and way of life. To other states facing these challenges — you can win, but you must fight!” Uthmeier posted on the social media platform X around 8:30 p.m.
Amendment 3 would have given Trulieve and the state’s other medical marijuana companies the ability to start selling euphoria-inducing cannabis products to anyone in Florida, including tourists, age 21 or older. With 156 retail locations throughout the state, Trulieve sells more than a third of all medical marijuana products — including smokable marijuana — in the state.
DeSantis targeted contributions by Trulieve, which is publicly traded on the Canadian stock market, as he fought the proposed amendment. The governor argued that the proposal’s passage would cement the company’s “monopoly” on the cannabis market in Florida.
“I don’t think there’s ever been one company that’s put in this much money for one ballot measure in all of American history. And so the only way they can justify that is because this amendment is going to guarantee them a massive profit stream,” DeSantis said at a rally-style event last week.
As of about 9 p.m., the state Division of Elections website showed that nearly 56 percent of Florida voters supported the proposal — not enough to meet the 60 percent approval threshold.
“Tonight, a strong majority of Floridians voted in support of legalizing recreational marijuana for adults. While the results of Amendment 3 did not clear the 60 percent threshold, we are eager to work with the governor and legislative leaders who agree with us on decriminalizing recreational marijuana for adults, addressing public consumption, continuing our focus on child safety, and expanding access to safe marijuana through home grow,” the Smart & Safe Florida committee said in a statement.
Opponents of the proposal, however, cheered its demise.
“Even after spending over $150 million – the most in any drug legalization effort in American history – the people of Florida saw through Amendment 3’s web of deception and defeated this corporate power grab,” Jessica Spencer, director of advocacy for the Vote No on 3 Campaign, said in a statement.
Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, called the proposal “bad for Florida and even worse for Floridians.”
“This pro-drug amendment was bad for our kids, bad for our communities, bad for our local business, and ultimately bad for Florida. The Florida Chamber was proud to stand with Governor DeSantis to unite community and business leaders across Florida to help ensure this amendment’s defeat,” Wilson said in a statement.
As he traveled throughout the state campaigning against the proposal, DeSantis repeatedly called out Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers, who shepherded the company into one of the nation’s largest cannabis sellers in less than a decade. Trulieve was one of Florida’s first licensed operators, after voters approved the 2016 constitutional amendment allowing medical marijuana. The company also operates in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
The governor flexed the full strength of his executive office to oppose the measure, tapping numerous state agency heads — including leaders of the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Children and Families, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Department of Health — to join his effort to defeat the pot proposal.
State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, as an example, recently released guidance warning about the dangers of marijuana and advising health-care providers to regularly drug-screen patients ages 12 and older. The Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, meanwhile, released public service announcements warning against driving while under the influence of marijuana.
DeSantis also focused on what could have been a weakness in the proposal for people who might otherwise support decriminalizing marijuana: The measure did not include allowing people to grow their own marijuana.
“They do provide that you have basically an unfettered right to possess and smoke marijuana, but only if you buy it from them. They do not provide you with the right to grow your own product in your backyard,” DeSantis said at an event last week. “So they’re forcing business into this big weed cartel.”
