A push in Florida to legalize leisure marijuana is projected to fall brief — in a win for Gov. Ron DeSantis who’s railed towards the measure.
Modification 3 wanted a 60% supermajority with a purpose to develop into legislation. It solely acquired 42.9% of the vote, in line with Resolution Desk HQ.
The modification would have made Florida the twenty fifth state within the nation to totally legalize marijuana use for all functions for folks 21 years and older. Medicinal marijuana use is already authorized within the state.
DeSantis campaigned onerous towards Modification 3, decrying it as a motion lobbied by the marijuana enterprise to line their very own pockets as an alternative of one thing meant to increase the rights of voters, in line with the Tallahassee Democrat.
“It wasn’t immaculately conceived. It was placed on the poll as a result of one large weed firm has now spent $100 million making an attempt to go it,” DeSantis stated at an occasion in late October. “This modification is written to learn this one large weed firm. It’s not meant to learn you.”
The corporate he referenced was Trulieve, a Florida-based marijuana firm that provides merchandise to a number of states and is essentially liable for getting Modification 3 on the poll.
DeSantis has accused Trulieve of trying to “nook the market” in Florida, the place medicinal merchandise are already one of many nation’s largest weed markets with a worth of greater than $2 billion yearly.
Modification 3 was designed to learn that firm and others prefer it, DeSantis argued, declaring that it didn’t enable for Floridians to develop weed themselves.
Trump — who solid his personal poll in Florida Tuesday — characterised Modification 3 as an inevitability and threw his help behind the measure, whereas cautioning that legislators ought to prohibit weed use in public locations.
“As a Floridian, I can be voting YES on Modification 3 this November,” he posted on Reality Social in September. “As President, we’ll proceed to deal with analysis to unlock the medical makes use of of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to go frequent sense legal guidelines, together with secure banking for state licensed firms, and supporting states rights to go marijuana legal guidelines, like in Florida, that work so nicely for his or her residents.”
Marijuana legalization was on the poll Tuesday in different states like Nebraska and North and South Dakota — which have held out on absolutely legalizing marijuana at the same time as practically half the nation has embraced the once-banned drug.
Whereas 24 states have absolutely legalized marijuana for all makes use of, 20 — like Florida and the Dakotas — have nonetheless solely partially legalized it with exceptions for medical functions.
And 6 states — Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, Kansas, and the Carolinas — nonetheless have blanket bans on any use.
Nebraska and North Carolina have, nonetheless, decriminalized the drug.
Massachusetts, which absolutely legalized marijuana in 2016, is taking the vote a step additional — asking taxpayers whether or not they need to legalize the leisure use of naturally derived psychedelics.
With Submit wires
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