Published on November 5, 2024 at 9:45 pm
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A $150 million-plus effort to allow recreational use of marijuana in Florida fizzled out Tuesday, falling short of the needed 60% voter approval and delivering a major victory for Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Trulieve, the state’s largest medical-marijuana operator, pumped nearly $144.6 million into the proposed constitutional amendment. The Quincy-based company’s contributions made up more than 94% of the overall total of $152.27 million in cash raised by the Smart & Safe Florida political committee that sponsored the measure, which appeared as Amendment 3 on the ballot.
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The drive to authorize recreational weed came eight years after voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment allowing medical marijuana. More than 800,000 Florida patients are enrolled in the medical marijuana program.
But this year’s proposed amendment faced unprecedented opposition from the state’s most powerful elected official — DeSantis — who launched a crusade to defeat Amendment 3 and another ballot measure, Amendment 4, aimed at enshrining abortion rights in the state Constitution. The abortion amendment also appeared to fall short of the required 60% voter support.
DeSantis blitzed the state and the airwaves blasting the pot and abortion amendments. His chief of staff, James Uthmeier, chaired two committees that raised more than $30 million to fight the two proposals.
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“We fought the good fight, we kept the faith, and we finished the race. Thanks to @GovRonDeSantis and our great team for everything they sacrificed over the past months to protect our great state from amendments that sought to attack our families and way of life. To other states facing these challenges — you can win, but you must fight!” Uthmeier posted on the social media platform X around 8:30 p.m.
Amendment 3 would have given Trulieve and the state’s other medical marijuana companies the ability to start selling euphoria-inducing cannabis products to anyone in Florida, including tourists, age 21 or older. With 156 retail locations throughout the state, Trulieve sells more than a third of all medical marijuana products — including smokable marijuana — in the state.
DeSantis targeted contributions by Trulieve, which is publicly traded on the Canadian stock market, as he fought the proposed amendment. The governor argued that the proposal’s passage would cement the company’s “monopoly” on the cannabis market in Florida.
“I don’t think there’s ever been one company that’s put in this much money for one ballot measure in all of American history. And so the only way they can justify that is because this amendment is going to guarantee them a massive profit stream,” DeSantis said at a rally-style event last week.
As of about 9 p.m., the state Division of Elections website showed that nearly 56% of Florida voters supported the proposal — not enough to meet the 60% approval threshold.
