Floridians on Tuesday rejected Amendment 3, which would have given the green light to recreational marijuana, according to both Decision Desk HQ as well as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
Decision Desk HQ projected the amendment will not hit the needed 60 percent threshold to pass.
DeSantis added, “With polls now closed in Florida — Amendment 3 has failed. Amendment 4 has failed,” he said, referring to both the abortion amendment as well as the weed amendment. This comes after he warned voters on Monday that “if this passes, marijuana is going to be involved with you” whether you like it or not.
Speaking on Monday, DeSantis said those proposing amendments have a “very high burden to prove to you, beyond any shadow of a doubt that this would be good to put into Florida constitution.”
DeSantis, who has been openly against Amendment 3, noted the founders would have viewed this as a “policy issue” rather than a constitutional issue. Therefore, it removes the ability of future generations, he said, to make these policy changes.
He pointed out that the amendment was “orchestrated by one mega marijuana company.” In other words, he continued, it is not about freedom.
“The text of the Amendment was written by the CEO of a mega marijuana company. That company has 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,” he said.
“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, explaining that the ballot not only legalizes marijuana, but it also monopolizes it.
It allows a person to smoke up to three ounces of marijuana “which is about 100 joints — much more than California and Colorado allows.”
“But 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 that 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,” he 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 stressed, walking through the ramifications of this decision.
“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. Understand you may not want to be involved with marijuana but if this passes, marijuana is going to be involved with you,” he added.
