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Florida Officials Step Up Anti-Marijuana Messaging Ahead Of Election As DeSantis Continues To Campaign Against Legalization Ballot Initiative

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As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) marches forward in his campaign to oppose a marijuana legalization ballot initiative ahead of Election Day, the state Department of Health and surgeon general are promoting new warnings about the potential impact of cannabis on youth.

DeSantis has faced criticism in recent weeks over the use of taxpayer dollars in state agency anti-cannabis ads that advocates say are implicitly designed to influence voters as they prepare to decide on the legalization measure, Amendment 3. Now the Department of Health and Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo are putting new weight behind that messaging.

Updated guidance from the health department that was published on Tuesday claims that underage marijuana use has driven spikes in poison control calls and emergency room visits. And it said marijuana consumption “can have significant adverse effects on cognitive and mental health.”

Specifically, the department said that cannabis is associated with lower IQs and greater risks of addiction, schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders.

Like the ads promoted by various state agencies in recent weeks, the notice about the updated guidance doesn’t specifically mention Amendment 3. But advocates feel the timing and content of the warnings aren’t coincidental and are engineered to affect the vote next month.

For example, the latest health department statement says at one point that “as new products, formulations, and delivery devices (e.g., vaping) enter the market, there is an even greater risk for accidental exposure among children and adolescents, resulting in potential increased negative clinical impacts on adolescent health.”

Ladapo, the state surgeon general, also shared the agency’s notice on X, writing that the “problem with marijuana or other drugs that people use is that they always come with a price.”

“For adolescents, they pay with addiction, increased schizophrenia risk, & more,” he said. “Let’s take care of each other, Florida.”

On Tuesday, Ladapo also joined First Lady Casey DeSantis, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, state Sen. Jonathan Martin (R) and other officials for a press conference where they urged voters to reject Amendment 3.

The surgeon general claimed there’s “fairly good evidence” that certain young people “are developing schizophrenia directly as a result of using marijuana.”

“The evidence of this goes back many years, and the studies have been consistent,” he said. “I mean, it’s like this secret that, unfortunately, folks who want people using marijuana just prefer folks don’t know about—and so you don’t see many stories about it.”

While reform advocates share concerns about potential underage exposure to cannabis, they’ve long argued that establishing a regulated adult-use market—where ID checks and other rules are in place to prevent youth access—is a more effective public health policy compared to criminalization.

Numerous studies have borne out that theory.

For example, a federal report published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in August found that past-year marijuana use held roughly steady nationally between 2022 and 2023. Cannabis consumption among minors, meanwhile—defined as people 12 to 20 years of age—has fallen slightly

A research letter published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in April said there’s no evidence that states’ adoption of laws to legalize and regulate marijuana for adults have led to an increase in youth use of cannabis.

Another JAMA-published study from August that similarly found that neither legalization nor the opening of retail stores led to increases in youth cannabis use.

Regardless of the research, DeSantis has been adamant that passing Amendment 3 would increase the risk of youth exposure to cannabis, telling Fox News’s Laura Ingraham this week that the state-level legalization experiment has “failed” and that children are accessing cannabis and ending up in emergency rooms because companies are “packaging it like candy.”

“So you think it’s Sour Patch Kids, but it’s really marijuana. So the experiment has failed,” he said. “This is not something that’s appropriate to put into a constitution.”

He also reiterated his concern that the Florida cannabis measure is being “bankrolled by one big weed company that’s traded on the Canadian stock exchange,” referencing the multi-state operator Trulieve that has contributed tens of millions of dollars in support of the initiative.

“They’re not doing that because they care about the best interests of Florida. They’re doing it because they want to make profits,” the governor said. He added that while people say the proposal would legalize adult-use cannabis, that’s only “partially true” because “they’re actually setting up a cartel in the constitution of Florida.”

“If you want to grow your own marijuana, that is not in the amendment,” he claimed. “They also have nothing in here that would allow any type of limitation on public use.”

“Voters don’t get the full picture. And then [cannabis companies] sink $100 million in and, la-la, you get to ensconce yourself in the constitution of a state as this big weed cartel. That is bad government, even if you like marijuana. This is not the appropriate vehicle for it,” DeSantis said.

The governor also urged voters to defeat Amendment 3, as well as a separate ballot initiative on abortion rights, during a telephone town hall on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, DeSantis has also faced allegations of weaponizing state departments to push anti-legalization narratives through various PSAs in recent weeks—prompting one Democratic state senator to sue over what he claimed was an unconstitutional appropriation of tax dollars. A Florida judge has since dismissed that lawsuit due to what he claimed to be a lack of standing and claim of injury.

But in any case, advocates still got some welcome news from a recent survey showing two in three voters plan to support the measure, which the pollster said signals that it’s “on track” to pass.

Advocates are hoping to sustain that momentum, and part of the strategy is to promote the bipartisan support behind legalization.

For example, the campaign behind Amendment 3, Smart & Safe Florida, recently released an ad featuring clips of former President Donald Trump endorsing the cannabis reform proposal—with a call for voters to “join” him in supporting the measure.

The promotion came just weeks after the campaign released another ad highlighting the fact that both major party presidential nominees—Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris—as well as their running mates share at least one thing in common: They don’t believe in criminalizing people over cannabis.

While the focus of the latest ad is on Trump’s endorsement of the Florida legalization proposal, it’s also airing as Harris amplifies her support for federal legalization, with a campaign pledge to end prohibition if she’s elected. She’s framed the reform as a means of helping to address racial disparities in the enforcement of cannabis criminalization.

Meanwhile, the Florida campaign released another ad recently featuring state Sen. Joe Gruters (R), who’s endorsed the initiative. In that ad, the GOP senator and former chair of the Florida Republican Party said he’s “as MAGA as they come,” referencing his support for Trump.

Grunters and Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) also recently teamed up to promote the state marijuana legalization initiative in another campaign ad. The bipartisan senators stood side-by-side, acknowledging that while they “don’t agree on much—hardly anything” and would be each voting for their respective party’s presidential nominee, they “do agree on this: Amendment 3 is good for Florida.”

Meanwhile, a political committee opposing the legalization measure has received a half-million-dollar contribution from an organization that Elon Musk reportedly used to quietly support DeSantis’s before he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. At the same time, the pro-legalization campaign has officially exceeded $100 million in total contributions.

The main corporate backer of the legalization initiative, Trulieve, has separately filed a defamation suit against the state’s Republican Party, alleging it’s knowingly deceived voters about the proposed constitutional change known as Amendment 3.


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Outside the presidential race, there’s been a mix of support and opposition for the Florida legalization amendment on both sides of the partisan spectrum.

For example, the former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under then-President Bill Clinton recently urged Florida voters to reject the marijuana legalization initiative, arguing that it would create a “new addiction-for-profit industry” in the state.

Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party and a former state agriculture commissioner, recently endorsed Amendment 3. And the chair also laid out a framework for regulating cannabis that she thinks the legislature should enact if voters do approve the reform. That involves automatic expungements for prior marijuana convictions, taking steps to mitigate the risk of monopolization in the industry and directing tax revenue to Black communities and education.

Meanwhile, two congressional Republicans representing Florida also recently weighed in on the state’s marijuana legalization initiative—with Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) predicting it will fail and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) saying he remains undecided on the measure even after former President Donald Trump came out in support of it.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), for his part, has 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.

While polling has also consistently demonstrated that the ballot measure enjoys majority support from Democrats and Republicans alike—and despite the fact that Trump has endorsed it as well—Florida’s governor has not relented in his crusade to defeat it.

Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers and Gruters, the GOP state senator, also met with Trump ahead of his endorsement of Amendment 3, as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access.

Meanwhile, another recent survey from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which is against the cannabis initiative, found that 59 percent of likely voters in the state back Amendment 3.

A separate poll from the James Madison Institute (JMI) showed 64 percent of likely voters in Florida are in favor of the legalization proposal.

Smart & Safe Florida also rolled out another series of new ads last month—including one calling out the hypocrisy of criminalizing cannabis while alcohol is legally available and another featuring a county sheriff making the case for ending marijuana prohibition.

Voters In Kansas And Utah Back Marijuana Legalization, New Polls Show, Demonstrating Issue’s Popularity In Red States

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.

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Kyle Jaeger is Marijuana Moment's Sacramento-based managing editor. His work has also appeared in High Times, VICE and attn.

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