A majority of Florida voters—about 57 percent—cast ballots in the recent election in favor of legalizing adult-use marijuana, but that still wasn’t enough to meet the 60 percent threshold required to pass a constitutional amendment under state law. Now at least some lawmakers are floating the idea of enacting a more limited reform through the legislature.
“Personally, as one of the 85 elected Republicans in the Florida House, I’d be very open to the idea of doing something like homegrown [marijuana] or personal consumption at home,” Rep. Alex Andrade (R) told the Miami Herald last week.
“I’d love to test the waters and see the reception for a solely homegrown marijuana bill,” Andrade said, though he added he has “no idea” whether the proposal would get traction with other lawmakers.
Top Republicans, however, signaled they’re not interested in allowing adult to use marijuana legally.
Incoming Senate President Ben Albritton (R) told the publication he didn’t support expansion of legalization beyond Florida’s existing medical marijuana program. And incoming House Speaker Daniel Perez (R), who opposed the recent ballot measure, said his views on legalization haven’t changed.
But at least some other GOP lawmakers are more open to the idea. Sen. Joe Gruters (R), who supported Amendment 3, said he’d like to see recreational legalization but with more “guardrails” that opponents said the ballot measure was missing.
“Let’s do this the right way,” he told the Herald.
The defeat of Amendment 3—despite historic levels of funding, a rigorous advertising campaign and an endorsement from former President Donald Trump—has left industry stakeholders scratching their heads as they’ve tried to assess what exactly went wrong.
Trump, who is now the president-elect after defeating Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, amped up hopes that the initiative would pass after he gave his own endorsement and predicted voters would follow his lead. In making the endorsement, he made this the first U.S. presidential election where both major party candidates voiced support for ending prohibition at some level, though Trump focused on state-level reform while Harris backed federal legalization.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), meanwhile, was sharply against Amendment 3. He faced allegations of weaponizing state departments to push anti-legalization narratives through various PSAs in recent weeks—prompting one Democratic state senator to sue over what he claimed was an unconstitutional appropriation of tax dollars. A Florida judge later dismissed that lawsuit due to what he claimed to be a lack of standing and claim of injury.
Bipartisan Florida senators hit back at DeSantis over the use of those taxpayer dollars ahead of the vote. And one Republican member argued that state agencies “owe an explanation” if reports are true that millions were diverted from an opioid-related settlement account to promote the cannabis “propaganda.”
DeSantis’s campaign to defeat the marijuana initiative also reportedly benefitted from a pledge from hemp executives to donate $5 million to the state Republican Party as it worked to oppose the effort following the governor’s veto of legislation that would have banned many hemp products. And one particular cannabis-affiliated company came under the spotlight after contributing a $100,000 boost to the governor’s so-called “Florida Freedom Fund” after its initially tepid fundraising start.
Opponents of Amendment 3 also hired a number of right-wing influencers—including former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis, actor Kevin Sorbo and affiliates of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA—to post critically on social media about the policy proposal, claiming, for example, that it would hand control of the cannabis market to “greedy” corporate actors and that the smell of marijuana would be “EVERYWHERE.”
Former U.S. Rep. Donnna Shalala (D-FL), who also served as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under then-President Bill Clinton had also urged Florida voters to reject the marijuana legalization initiative, arguing that it would create a “new addiction-for-profit industry” in the state.
A political committee opposing the legalization measure received a half-million-dollar contribution from an organization that Elon Musk reportedly used to quietly support DeSantis before he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. At the same time, the pro-legalization campaign has officially exceeded $100 million in total contributions.
A GOP congressman who was previously arrested over marijuana said last month that he would be voting against the measure. While Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) said in September that he was undecided on marijuana legalization, the congressman later affirmed he will be a “no” vote on the initiative.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), for his part, has said he intended to vote against it, strictly because he feels the reform should be enacted statutorily, rather than as a constitutional amendment that would prove more challenging to amend.
On the other hand, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, predicted earlier this year that the measure would pass.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
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