Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) laid out the consequences of the amendment proposal to legalize marijuana in Florida, warning it is not what it seems, showcasing that it is actually not about freedom at all.
DeSantis openly opposes Amendment 3, which in part legalizes recreational marijuana for adults but provides no safeguards, effectively authorizing what he described as “a rampant public consumption of marijuana.” During a roundtable discussion on Monday, he pointed out the amendment was “orchestrated by one mega marijuana company.”
“The text of the Amendment was written by the CEO of a mega marijuana company,” he said, explaining that the company spent $141 million “in order to get this passed.”
“Now this is a company that’s publicly traded on the Canadian stock exchange. And that’s an important fact because as a publicly traded corporation. You would not be able to spend $141 million of corporate funds, unless that potentially could yield big profits for your company,” the governor explained.
“So and then if you, if you did it anywhere else, if you just spent $141 million because you really care about Florida, no, that’d be a violation of fiduciary duty. So they’re doing this in order to orchestrate profits on the back end. That’s the only possible justification,” he continued, noting that this essentially creates a monopoly, as it does not give on the ability to grow their own.
“You have to buy it from them, and the weed cartel that’s basically in existence. They do not give you the ability to grow your own,” he continued, adding this startling fact as well: It allows a person to smoke up to three ounces of marijuana “which is about 100 joints — much more than California and Colorado allows.”
Further, DeSantis said the amendment “does not have any limitations on the public smoking of marijuana.”
“Nothing in this amendment prohibits that or provides any authority to regulate it. In fact, to the contrary, when you read how it’s written, it says, there can be no penalties for smoking, civil, criminal or sanctions, and so,” DeSantis said.
“In fact, to the contrary, when you read how it’s written, it says there can be no penalties for smoking, civil, criminal or sanctions. And so how would you sanction somebody for using it in public, that would run afoul of the constitution,” he added.
“So this will in effect, authorize a rampant public consumption of marijuana in ways that I think would make Denver and San Francisco blush,” DeSantis stated bluntly.
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Ultimately, DeSantis said that voters who say they do not care what people do and do not want to be involved will, unfortunately, be involved if they vote yes.
“So if you’re looking at this saying, ‘Well, I don’t, I don’t really care what people do. I just don’t want to be involved in it,'” he said. “Understand you may not want to be in marijuana, involved with marijuana, but if this passes, marijuana is going to be involved with you.”
