The CEO of a top marijuana company is pushing back against recent surveys showing insufficient support to pass a Florida legalization ballot initiative this November, claiming internal polling shows the measure ahead by a comfortable margin.
After the state Supreme Court cleared the proposal for ballot placement, rejecting a constitutional challenge from Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), two polls came out indicating that the Smart & Safe Florida campaign didn’t have the required 60 percent support for passage.
But in an interview with Cheddar on Thursday, Tulieve CEO Kim Rivers dismissed the surveys, saying “don’t believe everything you’re hearing” when it comes to the two most recent polls “in particular.”
“We would not put our stock in those polls,” she said, adding that there are more “legitimate polls” from the past year that show the legalization measure “well over” the 60 percent threshold for passage.
Tulieve isn’t running the campaign, but it has been the main financial backer of the initiative, contributing nearly $50 million.
“Our internal numbers remain incredibly strong and closer to 70 [percent], actually than 60 [percent],” she said. “So [there’s] strong bipartisan support across the state.”
Rivers also said during Thursday’s interview that one recent poll she was disputing included “over 10 percent” non-registered voters.
It’s unclear what she was specifically referring to, but a USA Today/Ipsos survey that was released last month disaggregated between the general public and registered voters. It found that 56 percent of Florida registered voters and 49 percent of Florida adults overall back the cannabis measure.
A separate Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and Mainstreet Research poll found that only a 47 percent plurality of voters back the cannabis initiative, compared to 35 percent opposed and 18 percent undecided.
Marijuana Moment reached out to Trulieve and the Smart & Safe Florida campaign for clarification. A Trulieve spokesperson said Rivers was referring to a survey that took place “this spring” without further elaborating. A campaign spokesperson declined to comment when reached by phone.
Later in the Cheddar interview, Rivers responded to a question about the market potential for her company if cannabis is legalized in Florida.
“We believe that Florida could be a $6 billion market opportunity,” she said. “We currently have just under 900,000 medical patients—but look, there’s 22 million residents and 138 million unique tourist visits in Florida. So this market could be massive.”
“Truly we are the market leader. We have 135 locations currently in the state of Florida— over three million square feet of cultivation and production capacity—so you know, for us, of course it could be a game changer,” Rivers said.
While the campaign hasn’t shared internal polling, it is the case that prior surveys have shown the initiative in a more comfortable position than the two most recent public polls did. A University of North Florida (UNF) poll released last November found nearly 70 percent of voters are in favor of the reform, for example.
Meanwhile, the Florida Republican Party officially come out against a marijuana legalization initiative over the weekend, clearing the way for Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to raise money to fund an opposition campaign against the measure.
DeSantis also previously predicted voters will reject the marijuana initiative in November and argued that passage would “reduce the quality of life” in the state. (Full Story)