(From left to right) Democratic state Sen. Darryl Rouson, Jessica Spencer, director of advocacy for Vote NO on 3, Ellen Snelling from the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance, and Sarasota Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters at the Cuban Club in Ybor City in Tampa on Oct. 18, 2024. Credit: Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix

Will Florida become the 25th state in the country to legalize the recreational use of cannabis to adults 21 and over?

The proposal — listed as Amendment 3 on this year’s statewide ballot — needs 60% of support on Nov. 5 to become law, a formidable hurdle that supporters say has been exacerbated by the unprecedented use of state agencies to advocate against the proposal. (The DeSantis administration is doing the same thing to Amendment 4, the proposed abortion-rights amendment.)

In the latest state-funded PSA released via the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), three sheriffs make claims about the alleged harms of cannabis — included that using it leads to a greater risk of domestic violence.

“When we make home visits for domestic violence calls, they’re often associated with marijuana use,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd says in the ad, which never references that the issue of legalizing cannabis is on the ballot next month.

“Listen, we live in a democracy. We shouldn’t be spending tax dollars on propaganda,” said Sarasota Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters in criticizing use of state funds to advocate for Amendment 3’s defeat.

Gruters, the only Republican in the Legislature who supports the measure, spoke during a Tampa Tiger Bay debate, where he was the lone advocate for the measure against three opponents.

A previous FDOT PSA, which stated, “DUI crashes increase in states with legalized marijuana,” became the subject of a lawsuit filed by South Florida Democratic state Sen. Jason Pizzo, who said it was an illegal effort aimed at defeating the measure. A state judge ruled against the suit on Thursday, the Florida Politico Playbook reported Friday.

Shortly after the Florida Supreme Court approved the ballot language and authorized its placement on the November ballot, the measure was attacked by DeSantis, who said that the “state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and counties. It will reduce the quality of life.”

Public smoking ban

In response, Gruters filed legislation that would ban smoking in all public places in Florida. “Once that passes, the Legislature will then go in and regulate it. We will pass an implementing bill and, in that bill, we will have the ability to go regulate it, and we’ll do it the Florida way,” Gruters said Friday.

But opponents of the measure maintain that’s not the way that constitutional amendments work in Florida.

“What you need to understand about constitutional amendments is that when you put in an implementing bill or you put in subsequent bills, you can only put bills that match the language of the amendment. It has to be consistent,” said Jessica Spencer, director of advocacy for the Vote NO on 3 campaign.

“As Sen. Gruters likes to say, ‘Oh, the governor will do that.’ Or, ‘We’ve heard that the governor wants this to happen.’ Well, we know that it can’t, because it wouldn’t be consistent with the language of the amendment, and that’s the misinformation. We’ve got to understand how constitutional amendments actually work.”

Spencer criticized section 5 of the full text of Amendment 3, which says that “acquiring, cultivating, processing, manufacturing, selling and distributing marijuana products and marijuana accessories to adults for personal use shall not be subject to criminal or civil liability or sanctions under Florida law.”

“It allows them unprecedented broad sweeping immunity for anything that industry does,” said Spencer. “Every part of the industry has civil and criminal immunity for anything they do.”

Gruters did not disagree, saying that those companies need liability protection. “No companies could operate as a result [without a liability shield]. You have to have that liability [protection]. … That’s the bottom line.”

“This is unprecedented, sweeping civil and criminal—” Spencer said, before Gruters interjected.

“You are wrong on that,” he said.

“I’m absolutely not wrong,” Spencer retorted.

Homegrown

Ellen Snelling with the Hillsborough County Anti-Drug Alliance offered criticism echoing DeSantis and his staff that the measure wouldn’t allow personal cultivation of “homegrown” cannabis.

“I think it was written very specific for these medical marijuana companies to cultivate, grow, and sell, and actually make a lot of money, whereas people cannot grow their own at home, and when they talk about freedoms, you see some of the ads that say, oh, ‘Freedom in Florida’ if we have legalized marijuana, but you can’t even grow it at home.”

Advocates for the measure have countered that the Florida Constitution’s single-subject rule for amendments (in Article XI, Section 3 of the Florida Constitution) precluded them from including homegrown cannabis.

The debate grew contentious for a few moments when Tampa hemp entrepreneur Shai Ortiz claimed DeSantis had been paid $200,000 by Smart & Safe Florida, the advocacy group behind Amendment 3. Gruters strongly denied the allegation, saying, “Where do you see that? Every contribution is posted on their website. You’re completely wrong on that.”

St. Petersburg Democratic state Sen. Darryl Rouson, who acknowledged during the debate that he has been sober from drugs and alcohol for more than 26 years, said that while he could support the legalization of medical marijuana in Florida eight years ago, he can’t do the same for recreational cannabis in 2024.

“I voted for [medical marijuana] because I’m not God,” he said. “And the science of medicine says that a subset of people gain relief from the medicinal properties that came with medical marijuana; then who am I to say no to someone’s medicine? But legalization of recreational marijuana is completely different. And I’m against the amendment, but I’m telling my voters in my district to do your research and vote your conscience.”

‘Monopoly’

Another talking point by critics of the proposal is that it favors “a monopoly” in the form of the state’s biggest marijuana company, Trulieve, which has contributed more than $92 million to Smart & Safe political committee.

Gruters retorted that 25 cannabis companies are authorized to do business in Florida, with another 22 companies waiting to be approved by DeSantis. “There are 47 different companies that can operate in this market. That is not a monopoly,” he said. “Not even close.”

Despite the financial largesse of their campaign, the odds of the measure winning a 60% majority in the final vote are dodgy. As the Phoenix has previously reported, of the 24 states that have legalized recreational cannabis, 15 did so at the ballot box. Only three states — the very blue New Jersey and Maryland and purple Arizona in 2020 — have surpassed the 60% approval margin.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and X.

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