Fla. week in review: Abortion politics, Epcot’s birthday
DeSantis’ biggest donor speaks out about governor; Biden plans rally in Orlando
It was another busy week of news in Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ biggest donor revealed a secret. Democrats are planning what could be a messy rally in Orlando. And Epcot is planning a birthday party. Here’s a quiz to see what you know.
Ken Griffin, a hedge fund tycoon from Chicago who has given Ron DeSantis more than $10 million in campaign cash, recently told Bloomberg News something big. What was it?
A. He no longer supports DeSantis.
B. He supports DeSantis so much, he wants to give him another $10 million.
C. He believes DeSantis wants to be Florida’s governor for the long haul.
D. He’s going to be involved in DeSantis’ presidential campaign and would consider being U.S. Treasury Secretary.
Answer: D. While DeSantis is still playing coy about his political ambitions, his No. 1 sugar daddy was more candid — about both DeSantis’ true desires and about the kind of position a megadonor like him expects for his money.
A recent study ranked Florida as the 47th best state to visit in fall. Why?
A.
We don’t have many leaves that change colors.
B. We aren’t flush with wineries and orchards.
C. We have only an average number of corn mazes.
D. Nobody wants to sip pumpkin spice latte when it’s still 96 degrees outside, your thighs are sticking to the car seats and we’re still tracking hurricanes.
Answer: All of the above. It’s true. Let’s be honest: Fall in Florida is really just like second-summer. But when winter comes around, all those hoity-toity, foliage-filled states can take their apple orchards and stuff it. Because this place is paradise.
We actually have some cool corn mazes in these parts. Mount Dora’s Long and Scott Farms has one of the longer-running ones. What is the theme for their maze this year?
A. Pirates
B. Pumpkins
C. Turkeys
D. Controversial Supreme Court decisions
Answer: First of all, anyone who guessed D needs professional help. The correct answer is A, pirates. And while a skull and crossbones may not be the most autumnal theme ever, the maze
Speaking of court decisions, the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court raised brows last week when it was revealed that he’d hosted a private court tour for whom?
A. A group that wants oil drill
spokesman Steve Vancore said. “Our goal has been, since day one, to provide high-quality safe cannabis products, and this fits in squarely with that goal.”
Trulieve was the first homegrown medical marijuana company to open a dispensary in Florida and now holds the lion’s share of the state market, at an estimated 50%. It stepped up with the seed money, expecting other medical marijuana licensees to contribute to the campaign, Vancore said.
“If it sees its way to the ballot, I think it passes overwhelmingly,” said Ben Pollara, a political consultant and medical marijuana activist who helped get a constitutional amendment on the 2016 ballot that successfully legalized full-potency marijuana for patients who met certain qualifications.
Yet, it’s unclear whether the conservative Florida Supreme Court will green light it as state law requires, Pollara said.
Two most recent efforts to get recreational marijuana use on the ballot failed their Supreme Court reviews in 2021. In one case, the court determined the ballot summary misled voters into believing that it would limit the use of marijuana, while the language of the other amendment would make them think there would be no criminal repercussions for using or possessing pot.
The Safe & Smart amendment’s ballot summary clearly states that it applies only to Florida law and “does not change, or immunize violations of, federal law.”
Rivers said the language of the Safe & Smart referendum has been thoroughly vetted and that she believes it will pass judicial review.
“We are certainly excited and optimistic and believe 2024 is the right time,” Rivers said.
State law requires 222,898 signatures to trigger a judicial review, and 891,589 to get on the ballot.
The campaign was officially launched in August, with the Bellamy Brothers country music act lending its support. David Bellamy of the Bellamy Brothers is the campaign’s chairman.
The amendment, if approved, would allow people 21 and older to “possess, purchase, or use marijuana products and marijuana accessories for non-medical personal consumption by smoking, ingestion, or otherwise.”
But it would not legalize homegrown pot for recreational use.
More significantly, the ballot amendment would amend the current law for the 22 licensed Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers in Florida and other state-licensed entities to grow, manufacture and sell recreational marijuana products and let the state set possession limits for personal use.
That would greatly expand the industry, Pollara said.
Florida’s $1.3 billion medical marijuana industry already is expected to grow to $2.5 billion by 2025, industry analysts said. Adding recreational marijuana would grow the industry by an extra $3.8 billion a year, Florida economists predicted in a 2019 study, raising $190 million a year in tax revenue.
Nationally, recreational marijuana is a $32 billion industry that has brought in close to $4 billion in tax revenue for the 19 states that have legalized it. Four state legislatures passed adult use laws in 2021, and Rhode Island joined the club this year. At least two states have recreational marijuana on their ballots this year.
Florida first legalized the use of medical marijuana in 2014 with passage of the
Compassionate Use Act, but it only permitted the low-dose strain known as “Charlotte’s Web.”
Two years later, voters overwhelmingly passed the constitutional amendment backed mostly by Orlando attorney John Morgan that allowed people to buy medical marijuana with THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in pot.
All along, opponents warned that medical marijuana was just the first step in outright legalization.
And while medical marijuana is popular with Floridians, state lawmakers have tried to limit the potency of THC in medical marijuana and restrict the amount that can be sold to patients.
Even though he quashed a potential ban on smokable medical marijuana in 2019, Gov. Ron DeSantis has also said he would not allow the legalization of cannabis while he is governor.
“What I don’t like about it is if you go to some of these places that have done it, the stench when you’re out there, I mean, it smells so putrid,” he recently told reporters. “I want people to be able to breathe freely.”
The reluctance of lawmakers and the governor, if he wins reelection, could mean trouble for the amendment, Pollara said.
“No question the public opinion on marijuana is strong,” Pollara said, “but the political headwinds in Florida are not great.”
A recent Department of Health rule recently came out placing such a limit on how much medical marijuana users can buy, and it has delayed granting the additional 22 additional licenses they are required to grant under state law based on the number of users in the patient registry. As of this week, that number reached over 751,000.
“A lot has changed since the medical initiative was first proposed nearly a decade ago,” Vancore said. “Today nearly 150 million Americans enjoy the freedom and access to safe legal cannabis products.
A University of North Florida poll in February showed 76 % of Florida voters either strongly or somewhat favor legalization.
Recent legislation restricting the ability to raise money and pay petition gatherers will have an impact, Vancore said. One law prohibits petition gatherers from being paid by the signature, and the other puts a $3,000 cap on individual contributions to citizen initiative campaigns.
“The array of laws impacting signature gathering has had two effects. The first is to raise the cost, and the second is to slow down the process,” Vancore said. “We know that the Safe and Smart campaign is well equipped to meet these requirements and reach the goals of securing almost 900,000 signatures.”