Former Top Federal Health Official Under Clinton Urges ‘No’ Vote On Florida Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiative

The former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under then-President Bill Clinton is urging Florida voters to reject a marijuana legalization initiative that will appear on the November ballot, arguing that it would create a “new addiction-for-profit industry” in the state.

In an op-ed for The Miami Herald that was published on Thursday, Donna Shalala said that her experience in the Clinton administration, as well as her time in Congress and as a top university administrator, informs her opposition to Amendment 3.

She argued that after combating the tobacco industry for parts of her career, “today, we face a new threat: Big Marijuana.”

“The marijuana industry has taken a page out of Big Tobacco’s playbook by advertising high-potency, kid-friendly products,” she said. “To protect the next generation, I urge my fellow Floridians to reject corporate marijuana commercialization and join me in opposing Amendment 3.”

While Shalala recognized that many Floridians have “concerns” about the harms of criminalization, acknowledging that “drug laws have unfairly targeted Black and brown communities” for decades, she said the solution should be decriminalization, as opposed to adult-use legalization.

Amendment 3 “would enact an entirely different policy by fully legalizing commercial marijuana sales. Our state can enact criminal justice reform without commercializing a new addiction-for-profit industry,” she said.

Shalala then walked through a number of common prohibitionist talking points, claiming that high potency THC products that are available today are associated with “psychosis, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, worsening PTSD symptoms and even suicidality.” And she claimed that legalization “increases the prevalence of marijuana addiction among youth to an even greater degree.”

Multiple studies and surveys have contradicted that point, with researchers consistently finding that rates of youth cannabis use remain stable, or even decline, in states that enact legalization. Advocates have long argued that created a system of regulated sales where there are age restrictions and ID requirements to purchase cannabis would mitigate youth access.

She also argued that “Big Tobacco wants to trick the American public again by pushing for marijuana legalization,” pointing to tobacco industry investments in the Canadian cannabis marketplace.

“Even those who support marijuana should vote no on the poorly written Amendment 3,” the former Clinton administration official said.

Echoing a point that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has frequently made as he campaigns against the measure, Shalala also said Floridians “don’t want to smell marijuana on our beautiful beaches and in our cities and towns,” suggesting that would be the reality if voters approve the reform measure.

Also like the governor, she argued that the initiative would disproportionately benefit major marijuana corporations, including the multi-state operator Trulieve that has provided tens of millions of dollars in funding for the Smart & Safe Florida campaign behind Amendment 3.

“Our country’s fight against Big Tobacco is a point of pride for the public health community and Americans concerned about substance use and addiction,” she said. “Let’s move forward, not backward, and reject legalizing a new Big Tobacco in the great state of Florida. Join me in opposing Amendment 3.”

During her time in Congress, Shalala teamed up with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on a bill to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA)—a reform that the Biden administration has since pursued and that the Justice Department formally recommended in May. It’s not a done deal yet, however, as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has scheduled an administrative hearing to gain additional input before potentially finalizing the rule.

While she sponsored rescheduling legislation in Congress, Shalala as a Clinton cabinet member was a sharp critic of the first medical cannabis laws to pass in California and Arizona in 1996, stating that “any law premised on the notion that marijuana or these other illicit drugs are medically useful is suspect.”

She appeared alongside Clinton’s anti-legalization drug czar, Barry McCaffrey, that year when the administration outlined its response to state-level reform efforts.

At that press conference, Shalala said “all available research has concluded that marijuana is dangerous to our health. Marijuana harms the brain, the heart, the lungs and our immune system.”

“Marijuana limits learning and memory perception and judgement and our ability to drive a car,” she said. “And marijuana smoke typically contains over 400 compounds, some of which are carcinogenic.”

But 20 years later, Shalala included cannabis decriminalization in her congressional campaign—tweeting on the unofficial marijuana holiday 4/20 that doing so is a “moral imperative.”

The Florida legalization initiative, meanwhile, has seen a mixed bag of support and opposition from lawmakers, officials and organizations across the political ideological spectrum.

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DeSantis’s opposition is well-established, for example. And this week the governor is being accused of weaponizing a taxpayer-funded ad from a state agency as part of his campaign to defeat the marijuana measure.

Advocates have sent multiple cease and desist letters to TV stations airing the Florida Department of Transportation ad, which warns against driving while under the influence of cannabis and claims “DUI crashes increase in states with legalized marijuana, putting everyone at risk.”

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.

Gaetz, for his part, 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.

A pair of Republican and Democratic Florida senators recently teamed up to promote the state marijuana legalization initiative, making a joint appearance in a new ad for the campaign as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) continues to rally against the measure, claiming it would benefit a corporate “weed cartel.”

Sen. Joe Gruters (R), the former chair of the Florida Republican Party, and Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) stood side-by-side in the ad for Smart & Safe Florida, acknowledging that while they “don’t agree on much—hardly anything” and would be each voting for their respective party’s presidential nominee, they “do agree on this: Amendment 3 is good for Florida.”

While polling has also consistently demonstrated that the ballot measure enjoys majority support from Democrats and Republicans alike—and despite the fact that the 2024 GOP nominee, former President Donald 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 a series of new ads this past week—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.

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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.