With weeks left before Election Day, the Florida campaign behind a marijuana legalization ballot initiative has released a pair of new ads, including one that features clips of former President Donald Trump endorsing the cannabis reform proposal\u2014with a call for voters to \u201cjoin\u201d him in supporting the measure.<\/p>\n
Smart & Safe Florida has been ramping up its advertising over the past few months, and it\u2019s increasingly leaned into messaging about the bipartisan appeal of the legalization measure. To that end, the campaign has been eager to leverage the endorsement from Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee and a Florida resident.<\/p>\n
The latest ad\u2014titled \u201cGood\u201d\u2014shows Trump discussing his support for Amendment 3<\/a> during a podcast interview last month, where he said the reform is \u201cgoing to be very good\u201d for the state after it passes, as he expects will happen.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s got to be a certain age [to purchase],\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s got to be done in a very concerted, lawful way. And the way they\u2019re doing it in Florida, I think is going to be actually good. It\u2019s going to be very good, but it\u2019s got to be done in a good way. It\u2019s got to be done in a clean way.\u201d<\/p>\n The campaign\u2019s ad concludes: \u201cAmendment 3 legalizes marijuana for adults. Safe, lab-tested and regulated\u2014 generating billions for schools and law enforcement. Join President Donald Trump. Vote \u2018yes\u2019 on Amendment 3.\u201d<\/p>\n The promotion comes just weeks after Smart & Safe Florida released another ad highlighting the fact that both major party presidential nominees\u2014Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris\u2014as well as their running mates share at least one thing in common: They don\u2019t believe in criminalizing people over cannabis<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the focus of the latest ad is on Trump\u2019s endorsement of the Florida legalization proposal, it\u2019s also airing as Harris amplifies her support for federal legalization, with a campaign pledge to end prohibition if she\u2019s elected<\/a>. She\u2019s framed the reform as a means of helping to address racial disparities in the enforcement of cannabis criminalization.<\/p>\n The vice president also discussed cannabis policy during an interview on Tuesday, where she partly blamed bureaucratic hurdles at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for the delay in the administration\u2019s plan to federally reschedule cannabis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Florida campaign released<\/a> another ad on Wednesday featuring state Sen. Joe Gruters (R), who\u2019s endorsed the initiative. In that ad, the GOP senator and former chair of the Florida Republican Party said he\u2019s \u201cas MAGA as they come,\u201d referencing his support for Trump.<\/p>\n\n \u201cFlorida is the freest state in America, but we still have outdated marijuana laws obstructing that freedom,\u201d he said. \u201cAmendment 3 would give adults back that freedom and give Florida a chance to legalize marijuana responsibly. Florida is the only state that can do this right from the right. Vote \u2018yes\u2019 on Amendment 3.\u201d<\/p>\n Grunters and Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) also recently teamed up to promote the state marijuana legalization initiative<\/a> in another campaign ad. The bipartisan senators stood side-by-side, acknowledging that while they \u201cdon\u2019t agree on much\u2014hardly anything\u201d and would be each voting for their respective party\u2019s presidential nominee, they \u201cdo agree on this: Amendment 3 is good for Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a political committee opposing the legalization measure has received a half-million-dollar contribution from an organization that Elon Musk<\/a> reportedly used to quietly support Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) 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.<\/p>\n DeSantis has been working to rally opposition to the initiative for months. And he\u2019s\u00a0more recently faced criticism\u2014and a lawsuit against the state<\/a>\u2014over a taxpayer-funded public service announcement distributed by the Florida Department of Transportation that, at one point, claims states that enact legalization see higher rates of impaired driving.<\/p>\n The main corporate backer of the legalization initiative, the multi-state cannabis operator Trulieve, has filed a defamation suit against the state\u2019s Republican Party, alleging it\u2019s knowingly deceived voters about the proposed constitutional change<\/a>\u00a0known as Amendment 3.<\/p>\n Outside the presidential race, there\u2019s been a mix of support and opposition for the Florida legalization amendment on both sides of the partisan spectrum.<\/p>\n For example, the former head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under then-President Bill Clinton\u00a0recently urged Florida voters to reject the marijuana legalization initiative<\/a>, arguing that it would create a \u201cnew addiction-for-profit industry\u201d in the state.<\/p>\n Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party and a former state agriculture commissioner, recently endorsed Amendment 3. And the chair also\u00a0laid out a framework for regulating cannabis<\/a>\u00a0that 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.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, two congressional Republicans representing Florida also\u00a0recently weighed in on the state\u2019s marijuana legalization initiative<\/a>\u2014with 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.<\/p>\n Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), for his part, has said he intends to vote against it,\u00a0strictly because he feels the reform should be enacted statutorily<\/a>, rather than as a constitutional amendment that would prove more challenging to amend.<\/p>\n On the other hand, Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus,\u00a0predicted earlier this year that the measure will pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n While polling has also\u00a0consistently demonstrated that the ballot measure enjoys majority support<\/a> from Democrats and Republicans alike\u2014and despite the fact that Trump has endorsed it as well\u2014Florida\u2019s governor has not relented in his crusade to defeat it<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers and Gruters, the GOP state senator,\u00a0also met with Trump ahead of his endorsement of Amendment 3<\/a>, as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, another recent survey from the Florida Chamber of Commerce, which is against the cannabis initiative, found that\u00a059 percent of likely voters in the state back Amendment 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n A separate poll from the James Madison Institute (JMI) showed\u00a064 percent of likely voters in Florida are in favor of the legalization proposal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Smart & Safe Florida also\u00a0rolled out another series of new ads last month<\/a>\u2014including 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.<\/p>\n Kamala Harris Blames Marijuana Rescheduling Delay On DEA \u2018Bureaucracy,\u2019 While Defending Her Own Prosecutorial Record<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post New Florida Marijuana Campaign Ad Shows Trump Endorsing Legalization Ballot Initiative<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
With weeks left before Election Day, the Florida campaign behind a marijuana legalization ballot initiative has released a pair of new ads, including one that features clips of former President Donald Trump endorsing the cannabis reform proposal\u2014with a call for voters to \u201cjoin\u201d him in supporting the measure. Smart &Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78384"}],"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=78384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78385,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78384\/revisions\/78385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: New Florida Marijuana Campaign Ad Shows Trump Endorsing Legalization Ballot Initiative<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"