Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday questioned the need for legalized recreational marijuana when the state's medical weed program is already allegedly being taken advantage of.
At his newest campaign event against a ballot initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana, called Amendment 3, the Florida Governor pointed out that nearly a million Floridians already have medical marijuana cards—so why should the state widen that avenue?
"We have safe and regulated and legal marijuana under our medical program, and there's almost a million Floridians that have these marijuana cards," DeSantis said Wednesday, speaking at Tampa's Florida College—a liberal arts Christian university—at a roundtable-style event alongside the Department of Children and Families Secretary Shevaun Harris and Sheriff Chris Nocca.
"I can guarantee you all those people do not have debilitating illnesses," he continued, eliciting a smirk from Sheriff Nocca and erupting laughter from the onlooking college students. "I mean, let's just be honest here. Are you kidding? I mean, are you honestly going to try to sit here and say this is hard to get as it is?
"There [are] marijuana stores everywhere—hundreds of these stores—throughout the state of Florida. So the idea that you don't have any legal marijuana in Florida is just not true," DeSantis added.
As of Oct. 25, 882,553 Floridians had an active medical marijuana ID card, which can be obtained through a physician's diagnosis, an application to the Department of Health, and a $75 fee. Trulieve—the largest donor for the Amendment 3 campaign, pumping in over $141 million of their $148 million war chest—accounts for 156 of the 691 marijuana dispensaries set up statewide.
The illnesses or diagnoses needed to qualify for a medical marijuana card are far-ranging, including everything from TMJ syndrome to trauma to anxiety to cancer.
Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2016 under then-Gov. Rick Scott guaranteeing access to medical marijuana for Floridians in need. In 2019, DeSantis signed a law synthesizing the amendment with Florida statute, pointing out that an overwhelming 70% of voters passed the amendment.
On Monday, he noted that he—not Scott—was the one to implement medical marijuana.
"It hadn’t really been implemented effectively or as it was intended by my predecessor, so I did it," DeSantis said, not saying Scott by name, who endorsed Trump over him in the 2024 presidential primary.
Amendment 3, which legalizes up to three ounces of recreational weed for adults 21 and over, has similar phrasing to the medical marijuana amendment and law, allowing the legislature to place various restrictions on its use if passed. Despite this, DeSantis has insisted that the amendment is "deceptive," would allow Trulieve to write themselves into the constitution with no options for liability, and is essentially a dud.
"You should never vote for an amendment if they're telling you, 'Oh yeah, it's flawed, it can be fixed by the legislature.' Why the hell didn't they write a good amendment to begin with then?" DeSantis asked. "Should you vote for something and then pray that the legislature's going to fix it? It's BS!"
This was DeSantis' eighth campaign event against either Amendment 3 or Amendment 4, which expands abortion access. He has another campaign event slotted for 1 p.m. today. His wife, First Lady Casey DeSantis, had her fifth campaign event against Amendment 3 earlier today.
