The group pushing the recreational marijuana ballot initiative has ramped up ad spending over the past few months. The multi-million dollar fight for and against the proposal features some of the state’s biggest political players.
Smart & Safe Florida is the PAC behind a proposed constitutional amendment to allow people 21 and over to use recreational marijuana. The group reported $4.9 million in advertising spend on May 9, $1.1 million spend on July 1, and $5 million spend on July 13th. That money has gone to a series of ads running statewide since June.
Some of those radio ads featured well-known attorney and pro-pot advocate John Morgan. He believes the ballot initiative will increase liberty and stop people from going to jail for what he views as, quote, “fake crime”.
“If I was your governor, I would free or parole every person in jail for possession and then expunge everyone's record. Amendment 3 will put a stop to this and let the cops fight real crime, not fake crime. I'm tired of people being thrown in jail for something that is less harmful than alcohol or opioids,” he said in one of the ads
Smart & Safe Florida has raised $66 million so far. More than $56 million of that has come from Clearwater-based medical marijuana giant Trulieve, with the rest of the money predominantly coming from other cannabis companies.
Morgan Hill, Smart & Safe Florida’s spokesperson, said many Floridians already consume illicit cannabis recreationally, but that consumption can be dangerous because it is not regulated.
“If we are able to legalize recreational marijuana, that would mean that Floridians have access to marijuana that has been tested, it has been regulated, and they know that what they are consuming doesn't have dangerous substances laced in it, like fentanyl, like meth, like pesticides. We can really make sure that the product is clean and safe for the consumer,” she said.
As cannabis companies have launched their campaigns for legalization, some prominent Republican politicians, including Governor Ron DeSantis, have come out against it. There has been some Republicans that supported it, like Republican State Senator and former Republican Party of Florida Chair Joe Gruters.
DeSantis said at a recent press conference he doesn’t like what he sees in other states that have legalized recreational marijuana.
“It has been tried. This happened in Colorado. Most people there regret that it happened. It happens. Happen in California. You smell it everywhere. New York, all these places,” he said.
The governor has used his bully pulpit to express concerns that legalizing cannabis will increase other drug use and lead to rampant smoking in public.
“There's some people, like business owners, some have said, ‘well, you know, I don't really like it, but I'll just tell people you can't do it in my in my restaurant or in my hotel.’ I don't think it's going to be that simple. I think this is written so broadly with no limitations that people are going to assert the right to be able to do this regardless of what a private property owner said,” he said.
Morgan disagrees with the Governor’s stance.
“Our governor says it's gonna cause a stink. Come on, dog,” he said in one of the ads
Morgan said the proposal’s opponents are fearmongering about recreational cannabis the same way some fear-mongered about medical cannabis before it passed.
“The only smell I smell is the stench out of Tallahassee’s politicians,” he said.
And Hill doesn’t agree that passing the amendment will lead to widespread smoking without regulation. She said the ballot initiative gives the Florida Legislature power to make rules about marijuana, just it does for other substances in the state.
“Right now in the state of Florida, you cannot drink alcohol in certain public places, and we fully expect that the legislature would implement those same regulations on where people can and cannot consume cannabis,” she said.
DeSantis isn’t just using his words to push against the ballot initiative. Members of his staff have launched a Political Action Committee called the Florida Freedom Fund, to combat both the cannabis ballot initiative and the abortion rights ballot initiative. So far, the fund has raised $700,000 , significantly less than the PACs advocating for the proposals.
If Floridians were to vote on the ballot initiative today, polling suggests it would pass. A Fox News poll in June found 66% of Floridians support recreational pot, more than the 60% needed for the proposal to pass.