Ron DeSantis held a rally in Naples on Tuesday, October 29, campaigning against amendments 3 and 4. His comments on Amendment 3, the legalization of recreational marijuana, call into question the honesty with which he is representing the amendment to his supporters.
“This doesn’t just grow on a tree somewhere and end up on your ballot,” DeSantis said. “This was written by the CEO of a mega-marijuana company. This company, traded on the Canadian stock exchange, has poured $140 million to try to get the amendment they wrote in the state of Florida’s constitution.”
Later, during the rally, he addresses the company by name, Trulieve, one of the largest distributors of medical marijuana in the state of Florida.
CEO of Trulieve Kim Rivers said the notion Amendment 3 is all her doing is “Untrue and, candidly, quite offensive.”
She also said that the $140 million figure is taken from the entire coalition of Smart and Safe Florida, which has been rallying in support of Amendment 3 for the past two years, not Trulieve’s sole contribution.
As DeSantis continued, he claimed that Trulieve brought in foreign money as a company traded on the Canadian Stock Exchange; however, Trulieve was a company that started in Florida 10 years ago with just 10 employees. Trulieve is traded on the Canadian Stock Exchange because of the remaining federal restrictions on marijuana preventing it from going public in the United States.
DeSantis also appeared to be misrepresenting the language in the amendment to his supporters. For example, when talking about the liability standards of marijuana companies as a result of Amendment 3, “If a truck driver runs over your kid while making a delivery, they will be held accountable, that's how it’s always worked. With this amendment, this would absolve them (marijuana companies) of any of that.”
However, on the third page of the amendment, it says, “Nothing in this section changes federal law, requires the violation of federal law, or purports to give immunity under federal law.”
DeSantis also stated the exclusion of home grow in the amendment is evidence of a monopoly being built over the marijuana industry.
However, Rivers said that couldn’t be further from the truth: “The last time legalization was in front of the Supreme Court, they struck it down because it included home grow, which violates Florida’s single subject rule. Legalization is the first step, and Trulieve, the campaign, as well as Senator [Joe] Gruters and Senator [Shevrin] Jones, are all in favor of home grow. In fact, the senators have agreed to pass home grow in the spring session.”
Whether DeSantis purposely left out this information or simply didn’t have it isn’t clear, but it calls into question whether his misrepresentation of the amendment and its coalition was intentional.
DeSantis said passing Amendment 3 would make Trulieve, “Essentially a marijuana cartel that forces other companies into their group, because you can only buy the product from them” when in reality, it is the executive branch’s authority that permits companies to sell marijuana in Florida, putting them up for renewal every two years.
“The governor, sitting on his desk right now, has 22 more companies that could be issued licences today to sell medical marijuana,” Rivers said, “That would make the total up to 47 companies able to sell marijuana.”
For more information on Amendment 3 and the group behind writing the amendment obtaining the over 2 million signatures to get it on the ballot, visit https://smartandsafeflorida.com/.
https://fb.watch/vznd4MffOD/ (Link to full press conference)
https://fb.watch/vzni33NrvZ/ (Post about Amendment 3 on Desantis' Facebook page)