Politics
Democratic Congresswoman Says She’s Undecided On Florida Marijuana Legalization Ballot Measure, Despite Backing Bill To End Federal Prohibition
A Florida Democratic congresswoman says she’s undecided on whether she’ll support a marijuana legalization initiative that’s on her state’s ballot this November, flagging her concerns with impaired driving. Even so, she does think the cannabis campaign has “very good” advertising.
In an interview with Marijuana Moment at the Democratic National Convention this week, Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) was asked about federal and state marijuana issues, including whether she believes the Florida marijuana measure could drive voters to the polls this fall.
She said it’d likely motivate “marijuana users” to participate in the election, but she said a separate constitutional amendment concerning reproductive rights that’s on the ballot will likely prove more effective at increasing Democratic turnout.
“I don’t know. I don’t smoke. I’m not really an expert on that,” Frankel, who twice voted in favor of federal marijuana legalization bills on the House floor in 2020 and 2022, said.
“I don’t know if I’m voting for it,” she added. “I haven’t thought it through. Driving while high: That’s my biggest concern.”
Of course, the Florida legalization initiative would not change laws prohibiting impaired driving. And while that concern has been a consistent talking point for prohibitionists, it’s notable that a Democratic lawmaker says she’s wavering on the issue despite the broad support the measure has enjoyed in recent polls, particularly among voters in Frankel’s party.
Regardless of where the congresswoman ultimately comes down on the proposal, she conceded that the Smart & Safe Florida campaign backing it have released “very good commercials” promoting the reform.
Marijuana Moment reached out to Frankel’s office for comment, but representatives were not immediately able to provide additional context about her position on the issue.
Separately, a number of lawmakers at the Democratic National Convention also spoke to Marijuana Moment this week about their predictions of how federal and state cannabis policy could shift if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidential election this November.
There’s been a mixed bag of feedback on Amendment 3 from members of Florida’s congressional delegation.
One pro-legalization GOP congressman, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), 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.
Meanwhile, a top staffer for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the CEO of a top marijuana company feuded over the state legalization initiative this week, drawing attention to the anti-cannabis governor’s position on allowing home cultivation, which would not be included in the reform measure.
While DeSantis is actively opposing the legalization measure and has not voiced support a home grow option, the staffer said on Tuesday that “Amendment 3 would create a monopoly on recreational” that “doesn’t allow home growing.”
A spokesperson for Smart & Safe Florida told Marijuana Moment that single-subject restrictions for ballot measures under the state Constitution meant advocates would’ve risked disqualification if they included provisions to provide a home cultivation options.
Meanwhile, a pair of polls published last week found majority support for the Florida marijuana legalization initiative—but just one of them found there’s enough support to meet the 60 percent threshold for passage under state law.
Another recent survey also signaled that Amendment 3 does have enough support to pass, with majority support across every demographic surveyed. Overall, 64 percent of voters said they backed the proposal, surpassing the 60 percent threshold required to pass a constitutional amendment.
One opposition campaign, Vote No On 3, also recently commissioned a poll on the measure that similarly found 64 percent of voters in favor of the reform.
These datapoints come in the background of warring campaigns for and against the initiative.
For example, the head of Florida’s correctional department claimed in an op-ed last week that passing the marijuana legalization initiative would actually “increase” the state’s prison population—a paradoxical assertion that’s being promoted by top staff of DeSantis.
Advocates and stakeholders are also awaiting a statement about the legalization measure from former President Donald Trump, a Florida resident who recently indicated he disagrees with criminalizing people over cannabis as more states enact legalization and who said he’d be weighing in on Amendment 3 “fairly soon.”
Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally and GOP political operative, told Marijuana Moment last week that if the Republican nominee does ultimately endorse the initiative, that would “guarantee victory.”
Meanwhile, a hedge fund billionaire announced earlier this month that he’s spending $20 million “in support of candidates and to oppose Amendment 3.” Of that, a $12 million donation will go directly to the Vote No on 3 campaign.
Overall, there’s been a mixed bag of supports and opponents of the legalization measure. For example, a Florida GOP senator recently endorsed the ballot initiative, breaking with the state Republican party that he previously chaired.
The Florida Republican Party officially came out against the marijuana initiative in May, clearing the way for the governor to raise money to fund an opposition campaign against the measure.
Meanwhile, the GOP state senator’s endorsement of the legalization measure came one day after the Florida Police Chiefs Association (FPCA) and the Florida Sheriffs Association (FSA) both came out against Amendment 3. They argued that the reform would cause increases in youth use, impaired driving, illicit operations and tax costs for residents, citing dubious evidence.
Smart & Safer Florida, meanwhile, has earned endorsements from a variety of organizations, officials and lawmakers, including Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan (D), Gadsden Sheriff Morris Young, Service Employees International Union (SEUI) and state Sens. Joe Gruters (R) and Shevrin Jones (D).
Last month, the governor also lashed out against Amendment 3 at the Republican National Convention, making hyperbolic claims about what the reform would allow—claims backers say are “absolutely untrue.”
DeSantis called the proposed constitutional amendment “limitless,” arguing that it would establish a right to marijuana that would be more fundamental than First Amendment or Second Amendment protections for free speech and guns, respectively.
Speaking at a recent police event, DeSantis falsely claimed that most Colorado voters “regret” approving marijuana legalization. In fact, recent polling shows that the reform continues to enjoy strong support there.
Last month, news broke that DeSantis’s so-called “Florida Freedom Fund” received a $100,000 donation from the cannabis company group POB Ventures in order to help defeat the marijuana and abortion proposals. That amount was nearly ten times what the campaign had raised in total at the beginning of July.
In an exclusive interview with Marijuana Moment, the CEO of POB Ventures, Patrick O’Brien, said he’s not against adult-use cannabis legalization in principle—but is instead troubled by the specific language of the ballot initiative because it provides an option, rather than a mandate, for regulators to approve additional licenses.
Suspicions about the motivations behind the contribution to DeSantis’s PAC aren’t likely to dissolve, especially amid reporting from CBS News Miami that unnamed hemp businesses have joined forces to back DeSantis in his fight against the legalization measure, with a pledge to contribute $5 million collectively to the state Republican Party after the governor vetoed the bill that ostensibly would have wiped out the market by banning most consumable cannabinoid products.
It’s been previously reported that the governor is hoping to garner support for his efforts to defeat the marijuana legalization initiative from the state’s hemp industry. DeSantis seemed to concede in June that his veto of a bill to ban most consumable hemp-derived cannabinoids was at least partly because he hoped the market would aid in his anti-legalization campaign.
The DeSantis campaign committee, even with the recent contributions, is still miles behind the legalization campaign, Smart & Safe Florida, in terms of fundraising. The legalization effort has raised over $60 million since launching in late 2022.
DeSantis has been railing against the marijuana measure for months—most recently arguing that it would protect the right to use cannabis more strongly than the First Amendment protects free speech or the Second Amendment protects gun rights—and again claiming that the reform has been a “failed experiment” in states such as Colorado.
The governor said that the proposal would allow people to “do marijuana wherever you want—just smoke it, take it, and it would turn Florida into San Francisco or Chicago or some of these places.”
He also reprised one of his chief complaints about the potential impact of legalization: smelling cannabis.
“We’ve got to keep our streets clean. We cannot have every town smelling like marijuana. We cannot have every hotel smelling—theme parks,” he said, adding that voters don’t really understand the specifics of the legalization proposal and that ballot initiatives are generally “so bogus.”
DeSantis acknowledged that the state Supreme Court has a role in reviewing ballot language for constitutionality, and that a majority of justices determined that the marijuana measure met the legal standard. But while he previously correctly predicted the court would approve the initiative following a challenge from state Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), he now says the two dissenting justices were “correct” in trying to block voters from deciding on the measure.
DeSantis also claimed in June that that if voters approve the marijuana legalization initiative, people “will be able to bring 20 joints to an elementary school”—and he again complained about the prevalent odor of cannabis that he says would result from the reform.
Legalization has “not worked in any single place,” the governor said, and he challenged a recent ad from the campaign that promoted regulating cannabis as an alternative to the status quo of people using untested cannabis from illicit sellers.
Meanwhile, according to a Fox News poll released in June, two in three Florida voters support the cannabis initiative—with the issue proving more popular than the governor himself. The survey showed majority support for legalization across the political spectrum, too.
The governor has consistently argued that the state shouldn’t go beyond the existing medical cannabis program and that broader reform would negatively impact the quality of life for Floridians. The Florida Republican Party also formally came out against Amendment 3 in May.
Smart & Safe Florida separately announced in March that it was working to form a coalition of veterans to build voter support for the reform, and the campaign has since formally launched that initiative.
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Here’s what the Smart & Safe Florida marijuana legalization initiative would accomplish:
- Adults 21 and older could purchase and possess up to three ounces of cannabis for personal use. The cap for marijuana concentrates would be five grams.
- Medical cannabis dispensaries could “acquire, cultivate, process, manufacture, sell, and distribute marijuana products and marijuana accessories to adults for personal use.”
- The legislature would be authorized—but not required—to approve additional entities that are not currently licensed cannabis dispensaries.
- The initiative specifies that nothing in the proposal prevents the legislature from “enacting laws that are consistent with this amendment.”
- The amendment further clarifies that nothing about the proposal “changes federal law,” which seems to be an effort to avoid past legal challenges about misleading ballot language.
- There are no provisions for home cultivation, expungement of prior records or social equity.
- The measure would take effect six months following approval by voters.
Here’s the full text of the ballot title and summary:
“Allows adults 21 years or older to possess, purchase, or use marijuana products and marijuana accessories for non-medical personal consumption by smoking, ingestion, or otherwise; allows Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers, and other state licensed entities, to acquire, cultivate, process, manufacture, sell, and distribute such products and accessories. Applies to Florida law; does not change, or immunize violations of, federal law. Establishes possession limits for personal use. Allows consistent legislation. Defines terms. Provides effective date.”
Economic analysts from the Florida legislature and DeSantis’s office, estimate that the marijuana legalization initiative would generate between $195.6 million and $431.3 million in new sales tax revenue annually if voters enact it. Those figures could increase considerably if lawmakers opted to impose an additional excise tax on cannabis transactions that’s similar to the ones in place in other legalized states.
The LCB contributed reporting from Chicago.
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
