Politics
It’s Hypocritical To Ban Marijuana While Allowing Alcohol, Florida Legalization Campaign Says In New Ad
The campaign behind a Florida marijuana legalization ballot initiative has rolled out a pair of new ads as the election approaches—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.
Smart & Safe Florida has been churning out numerous ads in recent weeks, while promoting endorsements from officials and organizations meant to underscore the marijuana measure’s bipartisan appeal. For its latest, it focused on one of the most common pro-reform arguments; that is, it doesn’t make sense to ban adult-use cannabis when alcohol is legal, especially considering the relative harms of each substance.
“You can walk into any store in Florida and buy beer, but you’d be locked up for buying marijuana,” a supporter says in the ad titled “Different” that was released on Tuesday. “It’s actually safer than alcohol, but the government treats it totally different. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Amendment 3 will legalize marijuana for adults—safe, lab-tested and from a store, not the street,” he says. “It’s time to give responsible adults the freedom to make their own choices. Vote yes on Amendment 3.”
For what it’s worth, most Americans agree that cannabis is safer than alcohol, according to recent polls. Smart & Safe Florida also pointed to federal data indicating that alcohol is associated with higher rates of use disorder, with more adverse effects, compared to marijuana.
On Monday, the campaign put out a separate ad titled “Firsthand,” with Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young voicing support for the cannabis initiative, in part because he argues that providing adults with regulated access to marijuana could mitigate the risk of adults consuming contaminated products from the illicit market.
“Illicit marijuana laced with illegal drugs like fentanyl have destroyed lives. I know because I’ve seen it firsthand,” he says. “Amendment 3 will save lives by making marijuana safe, regulated and lab-tested.”
“Amendment 3 will protect our community from dangerous illegal drugs, while allowing law enforcement to focus on serious crimes,” he adds. “Vote yes on Amendment 3—the smarter and safer choice for Florida.”
Advocates have strongly leaned into the law enforcement side of the reform debate, airing a separate ad earlier this month featuring a retired police officer who similarly argued that regulated access better serves public health and safety while helping officers prioritize more serious crimes.
Meanwhile, Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith also came out in favor of Amendment 3, making him the first conservative sheriff in the state to endorse the reform measure.
Smith told Action News Jax that while he’s “probably incarcerated more people for misdemeanor amounts of marijuana than anybody else” during his tenure, he feels it’s time for a policy change—a view partly informed by his brother’s experience benefitting from medical cannabis.
At the same time, two more congressional Republicans representing Florida 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.
Separately, the chair of Florida’s Democratic Party, Nikki Fried, is laying 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.
A pair of Republican and Democratic Florida senators recently teamed up to promote the state marijuana legalization initiative, making a joint appearance in a new ad for the campaign as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) continues to rally against the measure, claiming it would benefit a corporate “weed cartel.”
Sen. Joe Gruters (R), the former chair of the Florida Republican Party, and Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) stood side-by-side in the ad for Smart & Safe Florida, 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.”
The ad also comes amid another series of endorsements, including from the Young Republicans of Florida and the Florida Senate Democratic Caucus—another show of bipartisan unity around the reform.
While polling has also consistently demonstrated that the ballot measure enjoys majority support from Democrats and Republicans alike—and despite the fact that the 2024 GOP nominee 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.
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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.
Separately, 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.
