Bipartisan Florida Senators Blast DeSantis Over Use Of Taxpayer And Opioid Settlement Dollars To Fund Anti-Marijuana Ads Ahead Of Legalization Vote

Bipartisan Florida senators are hitting back at Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over the use of taxpayer dollars to fund anti-marijuana ads ahead of a vote on a legalization ballot initiative—with one Republican member saying state agencies “owe an explanation” if reports are true that millions were diverted from an opioid-related settlement account to promote the cannabis “propaganda.”

As DeSantis continues his crusade against the legalization measure—with multiple press conferences featuring law enforcement and state health officials railing against the reform—Sens. Jason Pizzo (D) and Joe Gruters (R) joined Florida attorney and marijuana reform advocate John Morgan on Friday to discuss the controversy over state-sanctioned ads that they say are designed to implicitly influence voters against supporting Amendment 3.

This comes days after State Circuit Court Judge Angela Dempsey dismissed a lawsuit from Pizzo challenging the constitutionality of the agencies’ cannabis ads. The senator argued on Friday that the “timing and content” of the PSAs strongly suggest they were politically motivated, violating statute.

While law enforcement officials have run ads in the past cautioning against cannabis use, the fact that several state agencies are running multiple anti-cannabis ads—including those explicitly making questionable assertions that legalization in other states has contributed to issues such as impaired driving and youth use—makes it “as subtle as a train wreck” that there’s an agenda behind them, he said.

“I generally think, as I would presume, that when myself or my kids are reading something from an official state agency website that it’s dispassionate of any political position, and that it’s just giving statistics and giving numbers—and not really a secondary ad campaign for one person’s whims or wishes,” Pizzo said.

“We’re now seeing upwards of $50 million that we have data to support—$50 million being spent on this ad campaign,” he said. “I mean, that’s more than half of what we spent…to drive tourism as our largest economic driver for the state. And this is all for the ideology and position of just a few people.”

[embedded content]

He also said that a “plain reading” of state statute around the use of appropriated funds as a means to political ends makes the alleged activity by the DeSantis administration “a misdemeanor.”

Gruters, for his part, stressed that while he and Pizzo might be on “different political sides,” their agreement on the need for cannabis reform “shows you that this issue shows no real political boundaries.”

“This is a bipartisan issue, and I think at the end of the day, we’ll be able to regulate this in a way where we can make do this the Florida way. We do this the right way, and we’re going to make this a big win for Florida,” the senator said. “But no matter where you stand on an issue, this is still a democracy. And in a democracy, we do not spend taxpayer dollars in advance of a political issue.”

“Tax dollars are meant to be spent on our police, schools, roads and other public programs that make our state great. Not political agendas,” Gruters said. “I fully believe that this is undemocratic in violation of Florida law to spend taxpayer funds on political ads. Period.”

“Under no circumstance should the state government be able to decide, without input from the legislature, that $50 million owed to the taxpayers will be spent on a political agenda,” he said, adding that he’s also seen recent reporting that “$4 million that was allocated for opioid use reduction programs may have been used and spent on political ads.”

Jason Garcia, an independent journalist with Seeking Rents, first shed light on the possible use of the opioid funds for the marijuana-related PSAs on Thursday.

Ron DeSantis appears to have taken nearly $4 million that was supposed to be spent combating the opioid crisis – and burned the money instead on advertising against ballot measures that would legalize marijuana and overturn a statewide abortion ban.

🧵…

— Jason Garcia (@Jason_Garcia) October 24, 2024

“If this is true, these agencies owe an explanation to the people of the state—and especially those who may be struggling and need help,” Gruters said.

“They should show us their records of what they’re spending right now. And certainly, if they don’t agree with that, I think the legislature can come back in session and demand a full accountability report, either through some type of audit or some other way,” he said. “I think spending any taxpayer dollars on any type of propaganda is wrong.”

The Tampa Bay Times reported on Friday that state records confirm the use of state funds from an opioid settlement that are meant to mitigate the overdose crisis were provided to a third-party marketing company for an “advertising campaign aimed at educating Floridian families and youth about the dangers of marijuana, opioid, and drug use.”

The terms of the settlement specifically says that those dollars are meant to “abate the opioid epidemic.” It does contain at least one broader reference to “substance use disorders,” but the intent behind the funding is clearly opioid-centered.

Seminole County Commissioner Lee Constantine, one of the 11 members of a statewide council responsible for reviewing allocations of the opioid settlement money, told the Times that marijuana is “clearly a different issue” than the opioid crisis. He said it’s a “travesty” that those opioid funds would go toward cannabis-related advertising.

“I am not a fan of recreational marijuana use,” he said. “Saying that, these dollars were intended to be used for the abatement of substance abuse in relation to opioids.”

Ads from multiple state agencies—including the Departments of Transportation, Education, Health and Children & Families—have aired in recent weeks. The one Pizzo sued over came from the transportation department, which asserted that “DUI crashes increase in states with legalized marijuana, putting everyone at risk.”

Most recently, the health department and surgeon general have been promoting new warnings about the potential impact of cannabis on youth.

Updated guidance from the health department that was published on Tuesday claims that underage marijuana use has driven spikes in poison control calls and emergency room visits. And it said marijuana consumption “can have significant adverse effects on cognitive and mental health.”

Like the ads promoted by various state agencies in recent weeks, the notice about the updated guidance doesn’t specifically mention Amendment 3. But advocates feel the timing and content of the warnings aren’t coincidental and are engineered to affect the vote next month.

DeSantis, meanwhile, has held a series of recent press conferences imploring voters to reject Amendment 3, which he says is a corporate giveaway, inappropriate to be enacted as a constitutional amendment, that even cannabis enthusiasts should oppose.

On Friday, the governor was joined by law enforcement and business representatives to try and again deliver that message to voters.

He pointed out the ballot initiative would not allow adults to grow their own cannabis and argued that, if enacted, the proposed law would make increase prices for marijuana and cause “a dramatic expansion” of the illicit market. (The Smart & Safe Florida campaign behind the measure has noted that including home cultivation in the initiative would have meant risking running afoul of state election laws for ballot measures.)

DeSantis also said that he inquired with the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC) about whether people were being incarcerated over low-level marijuana offenses, saying he’d be willing in pardoning those individuals if that were the case.

Meanwhile, in a separate interview with Florida Voice, DOC Secretary Ricky Dixon peddled the gateway drug theory as he advocated against the reform measure, claiming that “nearly all” inmates say that drugs led to their incarceration, and “most often it starts with marijuana and leads to other drugs. It’s a theme I hear over and over.”

WATCH: FL DOC Secretary reveals shocking connection between marijuana use and incarceration pic.twitter.com/uwrBap6rZ9

— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) October 24, 2024

A political committee opposing the legalization measure has received a half-million-dollar contribution from an organization that Elon Musk reportedly used to quietly support DeSantis’s 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.

The main corporate backer of the legalization initiative, the multi-state cannabis operator Trulieve, has separately filed a defamation suit against the state’s Republican Party, alleging it’s knowingly deceived voters about the proposed constitutional change known as Amendment 3.

Outside the presidential race, there’s been a mix of support and opposition for the Florida legalization amendment on both sides of the partisan spectrum.

For example, the former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under then-President Bill Clinton recently urged Florida voters to reject the marijuana legalization initiative, arguing that it would create a “new addiction-for-profit industry” in the state.

Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party and a former state agriculture commissioner, recently endorsed Amendment 3. And the chair also laid out a framework for regulating cannabis that she thinks the legislature should enact if voters do approve the reform. That involves automatic expungements for prior marijuana convictions, taking steps to mitigate the risk of monopolization in the industry and directing tax revenue to Black communities and education.

Meanwhile, two congressional Republicans representing Florida also recently weighed in on the state’s marijuana legalization initiative—with Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) predicting it will fail and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) saying he remains undecided on the measure even after former President Donald Trump came out in support of it.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), for his part, has said he intends 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 will pass.

While polling has also consistently demonstrated that the ballot measure enjoys majority support from Democrats and Republicans alike—and despite the fact that Trump has endorsed it as well—Florida’s governor has not relented in his crusade to defeat it.

Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers and Gruters, the GOP state senator, also met with Trump ahead of his endorsement of Amendment 3, as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access.

Meanwhile, another recent survey from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which is against the cannabis initiative, found that 59 percent of likely voters in the state back Amendment 3.

A separate poll from the James Madison Institute (JMI) showed 64 percent of likely voters in Florida are in favor of the legalization proposal.

Smart & Safe Florida also rolled out another series of new ads last month—including one calling out the hypocrisy of criminalizing cannabis while alcohol is legally available and another featuring a county sheriff making the case for ending marijuana prohibition.

Kamala Harris Puts Marijuana Legalization On Presidential ‘To-Do List’ Alongside Border Security, Reproductive Rights And More

Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis/Side Pocket Images.