Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is Donald Trump’s top challenger for the GOP 2024 presidential ticket, associated cannabis legalization with people “defecating on the sidewalk in broad daylight,” during a campaign stop Aug. 26 in Iowa.
The White House hopeful was responding to a question from an attendee during a meet-and-greet event sponsored by Never Back Down, according to Florida Politics. As a super PAC, Never Back Down is able to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to campaign independently for DeSantis’ run for federal office.
The attendee said she has two friends who lost their young adult children to cannabis induced psychosis and then asked DeSantis, if elected president, “would you go along with the cannabis industry and legalize marijuana on the federal level?”
The Republican governor said he would not legalize adult-use cannabis federally, a stance he also took at the state level in June 2019, shortly after getting elected in Florida, when he said, “Not while I’m governor.”
DeSantis warned the Iowa crowd about the potency of cannabis compared to 30, 40 years ago and how it becomes a “real, real problem” when young people have increased access to the psychoactive dried flower that he said can be laced with fentanyl.
“The drugs are killing this country,” DeSantis said. “If you look in these places, like, I go to San Francisco, I don't know, a month or two ago, and I've been railing against San Francisco, because I read what's going on. I hear people that come to Florida tell me why they moved from San Francisco to Florida. But then when you actually see it, you drive in, within five minutes I see somebody defecating on the sidewalk in broad daylight.”
He added, “So much of [societal decay] is the policy is to really help these folks use drugs.”
In addition to California, DeSantis also pointed to legalization pioneer Colorado, the first state to launch adult-use cannabis sales in January 2014. He said the argument for reform was to tax and regulate cannabis to make it safer for people. “The legalization I don’t think has worked,” he said.
Today, at the state level, licensed cannabis production is among the most regulated industries in the U.S. with testing standards for heavy metals, pesticides, mycotoxins, microbials and other harmful contaminants.
“But what’s happened in Colorado, the black market for marijuana is bigger and more lucrative than it was before they did the legalization,” DeSantis said. “So, the legalization, I don’t think has worked.”
The governor did not back his claims with references to specific reports or studies.
Specifically in California, where adult-use cannabis sales have provided nearly $4.9 billion in total tax revenue since commercial retail operations commenced in January 2018, the argument among reform advocates is that the illicit market continues to thrive in the 56% of cities and counties that do not allow any type of cannabis business to operate, making licensed and tested products less accessible.
And, in Colorado, youth use of cannabis “within the past month” among high school students declined from 19.7% in 2013 (before adult-use sales) to 13.3% in 2021, according to a Healthy Kids Colorado survey, which the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment began administering to high school students in 2005 and to middle school student since 2013. This declining trend contradicts a key argument by prohibitionists.
RELATED: Impacts of Cannabis Legalization in Colorado Highlighted in State’s Biennial Report
Although DeSantis’ cannabis stance may not have a make-or-break impact on the 2024 Republican presidential primaries—with Trump leading in the latest Emerson College Polling survey with 50% of likely voters planning to support him, compared to 12% for DeSantis and 9% for emerging candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy—the Florida governor’s remarks hold clout in the Sunshine State.
Florida advocates’ push for a 2024 adult-use cannabis ballot measure, sponsored by the Smart & Safe Florida political action committee and financially backed with more than $39 million in contributions from Trulieve, is under judicial review in the state’s Supreme Court, where justices killed two previous attempts to land an adult-use initiative on the 2022 ballot via 5-2 votes.
While four justices from those 5-2 majorities are still on the bench, and while they are duty-bound to rule on the merits of each individual initiative, the fact that DeSantis appointed five of the seven justices currently serving cannot be overlooked.
Should the Supreme Court justices approve Smart & Safe Florida’s initiative for the 2024 ballot, DeSantis’ political influence still holds greater power than many of his gubernatorial peers when it comes to constitutional amendments: A 60% supermajority is required for voters to amend Florida’s constitution. Among the 14 states to legalize adult-use cannabis by ballot measures, only three carried 60-plus-percent votes: Arizona, Maryland and New Jersey.
In addition to making his stance clear on adult-use cannabis legalization, DeSantis recognized Florida’s medical cannabis program during his campaign stop Saturday in Iowa.
“Different states have handled cannabis differently,” he said, “Florida, we have medical in our constitution—we have medical marijuana. We enforce that. We abide by it. But to take action now to make it more available, I would not do that.”
