Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was correct in January, when he predicted that an amendment to legalize adult-use marijuana in the state would appear on the 2024 ballot — and now he has a new prediction — it will fail.
On April 4, three days after the Florida Supreme Court signed off on both Amendment 4, the Right to Abortion Initiative and Amendment 3 — also known as the Florida Marijuana Legalization Initiative, — DeSantis called both “radical” and “very extreme.”
“Once voters figure out how radical both of those are, they’re going to fail,” DeSantis said. “They are very, very extreme.”
In a highly anticipated opinion, on April 1, the state Supreme Court gave its nod of approval to the Florida Marijuana Legalization Initiative — confirming it will appear on the November 2024 ballot and giving voters the power to decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida.
- More: It’s official: Recreational marijuana will be on Florida’s 2024 ballot
A survey by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab found that nearly 70% of Florida’s registered voters are in favor of the amendment, which was spearheaded by the Smart & Safe Florida campaign.
Following the close of Florida’s 2024 legislative session, DeSantis told reporters he thought the language of the marijuana initiative was some of “the broadest language” he’s ever seen — and claimed it seemed to “supersede” any other regulatory regime they have.
Further, he thinks it smells bad.
“I’ve gone to some of the cities that have had this and everywhere it smells,” DeSantis said. “I don’t want to walk in front of shops and have this; I don’t want every hotel to really smell.”
The governor previously stating that recreational marijuana is “a real, real problem” and said, “Yeah, I would not legalize.”
With his most recent comments, DeSantis revealed his belief that, over the years, Florida voters have developed “skepticism on these amendments” because they are “always written in ways that are confusing.”
“So,” he said. “I think that there’s a certain segment of voters that default to just vote no on these things.”
That “confusion” is exactly what Smart & Safe Florida hopes to eliminate for Florida voters.
Smart & Safe Florida’s successful drive to bring recreational marijuana to Florida’s 2024 ballot is one of the most expensive marijuana legalization campaigns in U.S. history — with a $40 million price tag.
Steven Vancore, a spokesperson for the Smart & Safe Florida, said the mission now is to stop the spread of what he calls, “bad messaging,”
According to Vancore, DeSantis is incorrect, because time, place and manner restrictions are something the government has the authority to enforce. And in an analysis written for The Capitolist, attorney John Bash, part of the legal team that represented the Smart & Safe campaign before the Florida Supreme Court, said the governor’s comments are “just wrong” over concerns that the amendment would lead to rampant marijuana smoking in public spaces, like city sidewalks, hotels and near schools,
.Florida voters will have the opportunity to voice their own opinion on the issue with a vote at the ballot box on Nov. 5.
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