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Advocates are pushing back against the head of Florida\u2019s correctional department after he claimed that passing a marijuana legalization initiative at the ballot this November would actually \u201cincrease\u201d the state\u2019s prison population\u2014a paradoxical assertion that\u2019s being promoted by top staff of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).<\/p>\n
In an op-ed published in The Tampa Bay Times on Monday, Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon said the debate over the cannabis measure, Amendment 3, has been \u201cmarked by significant misinformation regarding Florida\u2019s prison system.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cVarious false claims have emerged suggesting that many inmates are serving time solely for low-level marijuana offenses,\u201d he said. \u201cThese assertions are untrue, and in some cases, intentionally disingenuous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dixon said there are currently no people imprisoned over simple possession of under 20 grams alone, and fewer than 40 who are serving time for possessing larger quantities of cannabis, with enhanced penalties connected to other offenses such as battery.<\/p>\n
He also claimed that \u201cFlorida state law does not permit a misdemeanor charge of marijuana possession of 20 grams or less alone to lead to incarceration in a state prison.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear if he\u2019s referring to an administrative policy, as state statute says<\/a> possession up to 20 grams of cannabis is considered a \u201cmisdemeanor of the first degree,\u201d which is punishable by up to one year in prison. Marijuana Moment reached out to the Florida Department of Corrections for clarification, but a representative did not respond by the time of publication.<\/p>\n The legalization initiative that\u2019s going before voters would allow adults to possess up to three ounces of cannabis, or about 85 grams.<\/p>\n Brian Griffin, communications director for DeSantis, was among those to promote the corrections secretary\u2019s op-ed, saying in a social media post that cannabis companies and media \u201ctwist the facts\u201d around the criminal justice implications of the reform.<\/p>\n Big marijuana corporations & their media supporters twist the facts. \u2014 Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) August 13, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Christina Pushaw, who rejoined the DeSantis administration as a senior analyst after serving a stint as a rapid response director during the governor\u2019s failed 2024 presidential campaign, also shared the opinion piece.<\/p>\n \u201cFlorida doesn\u2019t need Amendment 3,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe narrative being promoted by some activists that individuals are imprisoned solely for minor marijuana possession is a lie\u201d @FL_Corrections<\/a> Secretary <\/p>\n \u2014 Christina Pushaw For advocates, one of the main criminal justice reform benefits of passing the measure is that it would become legal to buy and possess that amount of marijuana. While people might not be currently incarcerated over low-level possession, according to the secretary, the fact that it remains a misdemeanor means people continue to face arrests, criminal records and collateral consequences.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the state of Florida, you can be arrested for any amount of marijuana. Felonies begin at 20 grams of flower, but possession of any amount of marijuana oil could lead to a felony charge,\u201d Morgan Hill, spokesperson for the Smart & Safe Florida campaign behind the legalization initiative, told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n \u201cAny marijuana related arrest negatively impacts a person\u2019s life, making it harder to get a job, go to school, and get ahead,\u201d she said. \u201cBy legalizing adult use recreational marijuana, Amendment 3 will put an end to arrests for simple possession of marijuana and end the unnecessary cycle of jail and imprisonment for marijuana possession in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Dixon, for his part, said<\/a> in the op-ed that with almost 30 years in the corrections system, \u201cI have witnessed firsthand the complexities and challenges present in our criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cSubstance abuse, including marijuana, exacerbates criminal behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n If Amendment 3 is approved, he said \u201cit is highly likely that we will see an increase in our state\u2019s prison population thanks to increased crime surrounding the legalization of marijuana,\u201d making the contested argument that the reform leads to increased traffic fatalities and hospitalizations.<\/p>\n \u201cExpanding the prison capacity in our state would necessitate substantial financial investments to manage the increased burden being placed on our institutions,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is crucial for Floridians to fully understand the negative implications of Amendment 3 before they go to the ballot box this November.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, told Marijuana Moment that the secretary\u2019s claims don\u2019t add up.<\/p>\n \u201cFlorida state law is clear. Low-level marijuana possession is defined as a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to one-year incarceration,\u201d he said. \u201cPossessing more than 20 grams of cannabis is a felony offense, punishable by up to five years incarceration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGiven that tens of thousands of Floridians are arrested for marijuana-related charges annually, it stretches the bounds of credibility to believe these claims by the secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections,\u201d he said. \u201cIt becomes even harder to do so when one recognizes that the state has a long history of either not reporting or under-reporting the size and scope of cannabis enforcement in the Sunshine State.\u201d<\/p>\n The op-ed comes as advocates and stakeholders await a statement about the legalization measure from former President Donald Trump, a Florida resident who recently indicated he disagrees with criminalizing people over cannabis<\/a> as more states enact legalization and who said he\u2019d be weighing in on Amendment 3 \u201cfairly soon.\u201d<\/p>\n Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally and GOP political operative, told Marijuana Moment on Monday that if the Republican nominee does ultimately endorse the initiative, that would \u201cguarantee victory.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Notably, pro-legalization U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said this past week that\u00a0he intends to vote against the ballot initiative<\/a>, arguing that the reform should be enacted legislatively via statute and not as a constitutional amendment that would create barriers to adjusting the law down the road.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a hedge fund billionaire announced earlier this month that he\u2019s spending $20 million \u201cin support of candidates and to oppose Amendment 3.\u201d Of that, a $12 million donation will go directly to the Vote No on 3 campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n Overall, there\u2019s been a mixed bag of supports and opponents of the legalization measure. For example, a\u00a0Florida GOP senator recently endorsed the ballot initiative<\/a>, breaking with the state Republican party that he previously chaired.<\/p>\n The Florida Republican Party\u00a0officially came out against the marijuana initiative in May<\/a>, clearing the way for the governor to raise money to fund an opposition campaign against the measure.<\/p>\n According to the latest polling,\u00a0the initiative does have enough support to pass<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n One opposition campaign, Vote No On 3, also recently commissioned a poll on the measure that\u00a0similarly found 64 percent of voters in favor of the reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the GOP state senator\u2019s endorsement of the legalization measure came one day after the\u00a0Florida Police Chiefs Association (FPCA) and the Florida Sheriffs Association (FSA) both came out against Amendment 3<\/a>. They argued that the reform would cause increases in youth use, impaired driving, illicit operations and tax costs for residents, citing dubious evidence.<\/p>\n Last month, the\u00a0governor also lashed out against Amendment 3<\/a>\u00a0at the Republican National Convention, making hyperbolic claims about what the reform would allow\u2014claims backers say are \u201cabsolutely untrue.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis called the proposed constitutional amendment \u201climitless,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Speaking at a recent police event,\u00a0DeSantis falsely claimed that most Colorado voters \u201cregret\u201d approving marijuana legalization<\/a>. In fact, recent polling shows that the reform continues to enjoy strong support there.<\/p>\n Last month, news broke that DeSantis\u2019s so-called \u201cFlorida Freedom Fund\u201d 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\u00a0nearly ten times what the campaign had raised in total at the beginning of July<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an\u00a0exclusive interview with Marijuana Moment<\/a>, the CEO of POB Ventures, Patrick O\u2019Brien, said he\u2019s not against adult-use cannabis legalization in principle\u2014but 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.<\/p>\n Suspicions about the motivations behind the contribution to DeSantis\u2019s PAC aren\u2019t likely to dissolve, especially amid new\u00a0reporting\u00a0from 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\u00a0banning most consumable cannabinoid products<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been previously reported that the governor is hoping to garner\u00a0support for his efforts to defeat the marijuana legalization initiative from the state\u2019s hemp industry<\/a>. DeSantis seemed to concede in June that his veto of a bill to ban most consumable hemp-derived cannabinoids was at least partly because\u00a0he hoped the market would aid in his anti-legalization campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n DeSantis has been\u00a0railing against the marijuana measure for months<\/a>\u2014most 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\u2014and again claiming that the reform has been a \u201cfailed experiment\u201d in states such as Colorado.<\/p>\n The governor said that the proposal would allow people to \u201cdo marijuana wherever you want\u2014just smoke it, take it, and it would turn Florida into San Francisco or Chicago or some of these places.\u201d<\/p>\n He also reprised\u00a0one of his chief complaints about the potential impact of legalization<\/a>: smelling cannabis.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to keep our streets clean. We cannot have every town smelling like marijuana. We cannot have every hotel smelling\u2014theme parks,\u201d he said, adding that voters don\u2019t really understand the specifics of the legalization proposal and that ballot initiatives are generally \u201cso bogus.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u00a0he previously correctly predicted the court would approve the initiative<\/a>\u00a0following a challenge from state Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), he now says the two dissenting justices were \u201ccorrect\u201d in trying to block voters from deciding on the measure.<\/p>\n DeSantis also claimed in June that that if voters approve the marijuana legalization initiative,\u00a0people \u201cwill be able to bring 20 joints to an elementary school\u201d<\/a>\u2014and he again complained about the prevalent odor of cannabis that he says would result from the reform.<\/p>\n Legalization has \u201cnot worked in any single place,\u201d the governor said, and he\u00a0challenged a recent ad from the campaign that promoted<\/a>\u00a0regulating cannabis as an alternative to the status quo of people using untested cannabis from illicit sellers.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, according to a Fox News poll released in June,\u00a0two in three Florida voters support the cannabis initiative<\/a>\u2014with the issue proving more popular than the governor himself. The survey showed majority support for legalization across the political spectrum, too.<\/p>\n The governor has consistently argued that\u00a0the state shouldn\u2019t go beyond the existing medical cannabis program<\/a>\u00a0and that broader reform would negatively impact the quality of life for Floridians. The Florida Republican Party also\u00a0formally came out against Amendment 3 in May<\/a>.<\/p>\n Smart & Safe Florida separately announced in March that it was\u00a0working to form a coalition of veterans<\/a>\u00a0to build voter support for the reform, and the campaign\u00a0has since formally launched that initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014 Here\u2019s what the Smart & Safe Florida marijuana legalization initiative would accomplish:<\/strong><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the full text of the ballot title and summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cAllows 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Economic analysts from the Florida legislature and DeSantis\u2019s office, estimate that the marijuana legalization initiative would\u00a0generate between $195.6 million and $431.3 million<\/a>\u00a0in 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\u2019s similar to the ones in place in other legalized states.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Unlike the governor, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) said in April that\u00a0he does believe Florida voters will approve the legalization initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nebraska Bill To Levy 30% Tax On Consumable Hemp Products Advances Out Of Committee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The post DeSantis-Appointed Official Claims Florida Marijuana Legalization Would Increase Crime And Prison Population<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Advocates are pushing back against the head of Florida\u2019s correctional department after he claimed that passing a marijuana legalization initiative at the ballot this November would actually \u201cincrease\u201d the state\u2019s prison population\u2014a paradoxical assertion that\u2019s being promoted by top staff of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). In an op-ed published inContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":77375,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77376,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77374\/revisions\/77376"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Read below from FL’s Secretary of @FL_Corrections<\/a>:
“As can be easily verified by our database, there are NO inmates serving time exclusively for possessing 20g or less of marijuana.”https:\/\/t.co\/x1ehIG91bz<\/a><\/p>\n\n
![\"👇\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/1f447.png\")
Just the facts. Florida doesn\u2019t need Amendment 3. #DontCaliforniaMyFlorida<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/h3qM3xR2rV<\/a><\/p>\n![\"🐊\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/1f40a.png\")
![\"🇺🇸\"](\"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/1f1fa-1f1f8.png\")
(@ChristinaPushaw) August 12, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n
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\nRead More: DeSantis-Appointed Official Claims Florida Marijuana Legalization Would Increase Crime And Prison Population<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"