Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) predicts that voters will reject a marijuana legalization initiative on the ballot in November, calling the proposal “radical” and arguing that it will “reduce the quality of life” in the state.
Just days after the Florida Supreme Court cleared the cannabis measure for the ballot, rejecting the state attorney general’s constitutional challenge, the governor addressed the issue at a press conference on Thursday.
DeSantis said the marijuana legalization proposal goes beyond simple decriminalization and is “basically a license to have it anywhere you want.” He said enactment would mean “this state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and towns,” which seems to be a particular concern for the governor, who has previously complained about the smell of cannabis in other jurisdictions.
“It will reduce the quality of life,” he said, adding that Florida already has a medical cannabis program that his administration implemented following voter approval of the reform in 2016.
“Do we really need to do more with that?” he asked. “Do we want to have more marijuana in our communities? I don’t think it’ll work out well, but it is a very, very broad amendment.”
DeSantis said that voters will recognize that the marijuana measure and a separate constitutional ballot initiative on abortion rights are “very, very extreme in a number of different ways.”
“I think Florida voters over the past, you know, four or five cycles have developed a skepticism on these amendments generally, because they’re always written in ways that are confusing,” he said, as fist reported by Florida Politics. “You don’t necessarily know what the intent is going to be. So I think that there’s a certain segment of voters, they default just vote no on these things because they know that these things cost tens of millions of dollars to get on, so somebody’s paying for that and somebody is going to benefit from that.”
Despite his opposition to the initiative, DeSantis, the former GOP presidential candidate who dropped out of the race in January, previously accurately predicted that the state’s highest court would ultimately allow the measure on November’s ballot.
Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) successfully petitioned justices to prevent an earlier 2022 legalization initiative from receiving voter consideration.
DeSantis also weighed in on another relevant cannabis policy issue earlier this year when, while still a presidential candidate, he said that he doesn’t believe the federal gun ban for state-legal marijuana consumers is constitutional. Florida’s former agriculture commission, Nikki Fried, brought a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the rule, though the governor did not get involved.
Prior to dropping out, DeSantis also said that if elected president, he would “respect the decisions that states make” on marijuana legalization despite his personal view that the reform has a “negative impact.”
While DeSantis doubts the cannabis initiative will receive the requisite 60 percent of the vote at the upcoming election, the Smart & Safe Florida campaign behind the measure is optimistic. And they announced on Wednesday that it’s raised an additional $15 million from a variety of major cannabis companies as it gears up for an effort to raise awareness about the measure among voters.
The multi-state operator Trulieve has been the primary financial supporter of the campaign so far, donating about $40 million as advocates worked to collect more than one million signatures to qualify for ballot placement. Now it’s being joined by at least six additional marijuana businesses for the last phase of the campaign.
Those companies are: Verano Holdings, Curaleaf Holdings, AYR Wellness, Cresco Labs, Green Thumb Industries and INSA.
If approved, the measure would change the state Constitution to allow existing medical cannabis companies in the state like Trulieve to begin selling marijuana to all adults over 21. It contains a provision that would allow—but not require—lawmakers to take steps toward the approval of additional businesses. Home cultivation by consumers would not be allowed under the proposal as drafted.
Adults 21 and older would be able to purchase and possess up to three ounces of cannabis, only five grams of which could be marijuana concentrate products. The three-page measure also omits equity provisions favored by advocates such as expungements or other relief for people with prior cannabis convictions.
Separately, economic analysts from the Florida legislature and the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) estimate that the marijuana legalization initiative would generate between $195.6 million and $431.3 million in new sales tax revenue annually if voters enact it. And those figures could increase considerably if lawmakers opted to impose an additional excise tax on cannabis transactions that’s similar to the ones in place in other legalized states.
Here’s what the Smart & Safe Florida marijuana legalization initiative would accomplish:
- Adults 21 and older could purchase and possess up to three ounces of cannabis for personal use. The cap for marijuana concentrates would be five grams.
- Medical cannabis dispensaries could “acquire, cultivate, process, manufacture, sell, and distribute marijuana products and marijuana accessories to adults for personal use.”
- The legislature would be authorized—but not required—to approve additional entities that are not currently licensed cannabis dispensaries.
- The initiative specifies that nothing in the proposal prevents the legislature from “enacting laws that are consistent with this amendment.”
- The amendment further clarifies that nothing about the proposal “changes federal law,” which seems to be an effort to avoid past legal challenges about misleading ballot language.
- There are no provisions for home cultivation, expungement of prior records or social equity.
- The measure would take effect six months following approval by voters. (Full Story)