DeSantis Continues To Push Against Florida Marijuana Legalization Initiative Despite Trump’s Support And New Polling

As a new poll again shows majority support for a Florida marijuana legalization ballot initiative—and the campaign behind the measure rolls out a new ad featuring a law enforcement official endorsing the proposal—Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is continuing to beat the drum in opposition to the reform.

The latest 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. That’d put it just short of the required 60 percent threshold to pass a constitutional amendment at the ballot under state law, however.

“The lack of movement in support from Floridians over the past year comes despite more than $75 million being raised to promote this amendment, over $70 million of which has come from Florida’s largest medicinal marijuana provider [Trulieve],” the chamber said. “This failure to build momentum for the amendment displays that the concerns about Amendment 3 raised by Governor DeSantis and others are resonating with many Floridians.”

The organization didn’t release the specific questions voters were asked in the survey, which involved interviews with 600 likely voters from August 15-26 and has a +/-4 percentage point margin of error. But other recent polling signals that the measure does have enough support to reach the 60 percent threshold, including one from the James Madison Institute (JMI) that was released late last month showing 64 percent of likely voters in Florida are in favor of the legalization proposal.

Despite spending $9M on TV ads, support for Amendment 3 is dropping. The corporate weed giant Trulieve has poured $70M into pushing this corporate greed scheme, but Floridians aren’t buying it. No matter how much they spin it, Amendment 3 is all about profits, not people.… pic.twitter.com/Kgxuc1r1RI

— Vote No on 3 (@VoteNo_On3) August 30, 2024

Despite those numbers—as well as former President Donald Trump’s newly announced tacit support for Amendment 3—Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has not relented in his efforts to convince voters to vote against the measure.

On Monday, the governor responded to a tweet from Florida Sen. Jonathan Martin (R), who voiced concerns about the initiative language, arguing that it would only allow for restrictions on public smoking of medical, versus recreational, marijuana.

“Sen. Martin is correct. His observation is clear in the text of the actual amendment (which is not included on the ballot and which 99% of voters will never read),” DeSantis said. “Florida’s constitution, if amendment 3 passes, will provide for regulating the use of *medical* marijuana in public, but not *recreational* marijuana.”

Sen. Martin is correct.

His observation is clear in the text of the actual amendment (which is not included on the ballot and which 99% of voters will never read).

Florida’s constitution, if amendment 3 passes, will provide for regulating the use of *medical* marijuana in… https://t.co/bnp5W2iamo

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) September 2, 2024

Trump similarly talked about his own concerns with public cannabis consumption, though he predicted the measure would pass, saying, “Whether people like it or not, this will happen through the approval of the Voters, so it should be done correctly.”

“We need the State Legislature to responsibly create laws that prohibit the use of it in public spaces, so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat run Cities,” he added. “At the same time, someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other States. We do not need to ruin lives & waste Taxpayer Dollars arresting adults with personal amounts of it on them, and no one should grieve a loved one because they died from fentanyl laced marijuana.”

The campaign Smart & Safe Florida has strongly contested claims that the proposed policy change would tie the hands of lawmakers to set regulations for adult-use cannabis, including public consumption restrictions.

“Don’t let the prohibitionists scare you. With #YesOn3, the Legislature has EVERY right to enact public consumption laws. Just like they already do with alcohol and tobacco,” they said.

Don’t let the prohibitionists scare you. With #YesOn3, the Legislature has EVERY right to enact public consumption laws. Just like they already do with alcohol and tobacco. pic.twitter.com/L4FacFUHU5

— Smart & Safe Florida (@SmartandSafeFl) September 3, 2024

The campaign also launched a site in an effort to clear up misconceptions about the reform measure.

ICYMI – We’ve launched a new website to clear the air on Amendment 3 and give you the FACTS! Click here to learn more: https://t.co/IABykCHad6 pic.twitter.com/hej9ZFUWCf

— Smart & Safe Florida (@SmartandSafeFl) September 2, 2024

Trump’s recent comments followed meetings with a GOP Florida senator and the CEO of the primary financial backer of the initiative, Trulieve’s Kim Rivers, Marijuana Moment learned.

In more recent comments published on Tuesday, Trump said medical marijuana has been “absolutely amazing” for patients, and that the Florida legalization initiative is “going to be very good” for the state after it passes, which he expects to happen.

Amid these developments, the campaign Smart & Safe Florida released an ad this past week featuring a 30-year law enforcement veteran Tim Hightower.

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“I’ve spent my life keeping Florida safe for generations we fought a war on drugs and lost,” he said. “On marijuana, it’s time for a new approach.”

“Amendment 3 allows responsible adults to buy safe, regulated, lab-tested marijuana from a store instead of the streets, allowing law enforcement to focus on serious crimes while providing the funding they need,” he said. “It’s time for a change.”

Separately, longtime ally and GOP political operative Roger Stone, who is also a Florida resident and supports the legalization proposal, separately told Marijuana Moment that if Trump did ultimately endorse the measure it would “guarantee victory.”

Meanwhile, following Trump’s recent announcement of support for the cannabis legalization ballot measure in Florida, the campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris started working to remind voters that while in office, Trump “took marijuana reform backwards.”

In an memo from a senior campaign spokesperson, the Harris campaign accused Trump of “brazen flip flops” on cannabis. The Democratic campaign says it’s one of the Republican former president’s “several bewildering ‘policy proposals’ that deserve real scrutiny.”

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who is sponsoring a bill to federally legalize marijuana called the States Reform Act, separately said that while she hopes Trump will back the Biden administration’s rescheduling move, she also said part of the reason Republicans in Congress have declined to embrace marijuana policy change is because they’re “afraid of it.”

Trump also recently went after Harris over her prosecutorial record on marijuana, claiming that she put “thousands and thousands of Black people in jail” for cannabis offenses—but the full record of her time in office is more nuanced.

Trump’s line of attack, while misleading, was nonetheless notable in the sense that the GOP presidential nominee implied that he disagrees with criminalizing people over marijuana and is moving to leverage the idea that Harris played a role in racially disproportionate mass incarceration.

Meanwhile, Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate, choosing a candidate who backed numerous cannabis reform measures in Congress, called for an end to prohibition when he was running for governor and then signed a comprehensive legalization bill into law in 2023.

As president, Trump largely stayed true to his position that marijuana laws should be handled at the state-level, with no major crackdown on cannabis programs as some feared after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Obama era federal enforcement guidance. In fact, Trump criticized the top DOJ official and suggested the move should be reversed.

While he was largely silent on the issue of legalization, he did tentatively endorse a bipartisan bill to codify federal policy respecting states’ rights to legalize.

That said, on several occasions he released signing statements on spending legislation stipulating that he reserved the right to ignore a long-standing rider that prohibits the Justice Department from using its funds to interfere with state-legal medical marijuana programs.

Before President Joe Biden bowed out of the race, his campaign made much of the president’s mass cannabis pardons and rescheduling push, drawing a contrast with the Trump administration’s record. The Harris campaign so far has not spoken to that particular issue, and the nominee has yet to publicly discuss marijuana policy issues since her own campaign launched.

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Meanwhile, a Democratic congresswoman who recently said she was on the fence about whether she’d vote for the legalization ballot initiative this November has officially given the measure her endorsement.

There’s been a mixed bag of feedback on Amendment 3 from members of Florida’s congressional delegation.

One pro-legalization GOP congressman, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), recently 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.

Idaho Activists Prepare Marijuana Legalization Initiative For 2026 After Falling Short With Recent Medical Cannabis Attempts

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.