Meet the ‘conservative Pot smokers’ voting to legalize Marijuana in Florida
Sam, 43, of Orlando, has voted Republican in every election since 2000 and describes herself as an evangelical Christian, she also smokes pot.
The first time Mike Pappas, 37, could legally vote after a marijuana conviction, he voted for Donald Trump.
Spencer, 32, of Jacksonville, considers himself “right of center.” He’s smoked weed since he was 17. Now, the drug helps him get up in the morning despite his debilitating back pain.
Harold Winthrop, 22, an avid smoker based in the Panhandle, plans to vote for Trump but not for marijuana legalization because he thinks the amendment’s language would allow big corporations to have a stranglehold on the industry, a criticism that has been raised by other opponents of legalization.
For a long time, marijuana legalization was seen as a Democratic issue, but that narrative that has begun to change. Young right-wing Florida politicians like Matt Gaetz have promoted marijuana reform; recent polling shows that about half of white men without college degrees, the demographic that typically supports Trump, also support Amendment 3, the ballot initiative seeking to legalize weed in November.
The concept of a conservative cannabis consumer is no longer so hard to grasp. Yet the establishment position remains steadfast: both the Republican Party of Florida and Gov. Ron DeSantis have come out staunchly opposed to legalization.
“You’ve got the MAGA republicans who are ‘let’s live and let live, let’s get on the boat and smoke a joint and turn on the music,'” said John Morgan, an attorney and donor known as “Pot Daddy” who became the face of the movement to bring medical marijuana to Florida. “And then you’ve got the RHINOs, the country club Republicans who are kind of against it.”
Nearly all of the supporters who spoke to the South Florida Sun Sentinel for this story are past or current Trump supporters. Most have medical cards yet still prefer to keep their combination of politics and drug use hidden. Several asked that their full names not be included out of the concern that their marijuana use would be discovered by employers or conservative family members. Some expressed fear that their progressive peers would ostracize them for their political views.
Who are they?
Right-leaning marijuana users tend to be younger and more skeptical of the political establishment than their anti-legalization counterparts. Most of those who spoke to the South Florida Sun Sentinel do not align with everything the Republican Party stands for. Some voted for Trump in 2020 but are now undecided or leaning towards Robert Kennedy in the upcoming election.
Collectively, they feel that marijuana is safer than opioids and alcohol, and that legalizing the drug is in line with their ideals of personal freedom rather than government oversight, a traditionally Republican position.
“The Republican Party of Florida was really vocal about not wanting voters to support legal marijuana in the state in the November ballot,” said Dr. Luzmarina Garcia, an assistant professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University and a researcher in the Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab. “… But it also is a little paradoxical because this is a prime example of state’s rights. So getting this issue that could potentially be in the arena of the federal bringing to the state level an amendment is very much in line with conservative values.”
Recent polling conducted by the FAU lab shows that Democrats are still the most in favor of legalization, with about 58% of Democrats in support compared to 39% of Republicans. Still, the numbers also suggest more substantial support among the demographics that typically vote Republican than the mainstream narrative used to suggest.
Just over 50% of white, non-college educated voters, the demographic that tends to make up much of Trump’s base, support legalization. In the FAU poll, they ranked second only to Black voters, indicating a greater level of support among traditionally right-wing voters than the popular narrative suggests.
“That’s a big segment of the population,” Garcia said. “Particularly one that tends to align with Republican values. I thought that was very interesting.”
‘The devil’s lettuce’
The marijuana issue is perhaps more stratified by age than party affiliation. In the FAU poll, all age groups had majority support for legalization except for those older than 65.
“The older you are, the more you’re going to be against,” Morgan said. “You get to an older establishment person, they think it’s heroin, LSD and marijuana. They think it’s a bowl of M&Ms and the red ones are the same as the green ones.”
Nearly everyone interviewed by the Sun Sentinel said their peers support legalization but had family members who do not.
Margaret, a right-leaning marijuana user from Stuart, says all of her friends, who are in their 30s and 40s, share similar political beliefs to hers and support legalization. Yet she has argued with her parents about the same issue, all while hiding her own use; she asked that her last name not be included because she doesn’t want them to know.
“Even though I’m conservative, we are on very different ends of the conservative spectrum,” Margaret explained. “They still think marijuana is the devil’s lettuce, it’s a gateway drug and will lead you down a terrible path.”
The still-present stigma can make marijuana an awkward topic to navigate in conversation. Margaret recalled a recent exchange she had with an older couple across the street, big “gun people” who lean more to the right than she does.
“One day I was standing over by the garage talking to his wife,” she recalled. “I could kind of sense she was dancing around telling me they use weed. I kind of just came out with it, said ‘if you’re trying to tell me you guys use weed, it’s fine, we do too.'”
They now share edibles.
Not all right-leaning marijuana users feel the same about Amendment 3. Some worry that the fine print only benefits big corporations while making it difficult for new growers. The biggest supporters of legalization are between the ages of 30 and 40, while many of those who responded “undecided” on the FAU poll are between 18 and 34, perhaps indicative of greater skepticism among young voters.
Winthrop got his medical card as soon as he turned 18. Though he’s an avid smoker, he plans to vote no on Amendment 3 because he doesn’t think it will roll out equitably and could hurt existing medical users.
“You’re basically handing us a present that says one thing on it but inside the box is a bunch of other stuff,” he said. “That present is Amendment 3.”
An alternative to opioids
Many pot users say the drug prevented them from falling into opioid addiction or helped them escape it.
Pappas was arrested at age 14 for marijuana possession, the first in a series of criminal charges over drugs. In college, he began struggling with opioid addiction after he was prescribed Percocet for a football injury.
Now clean and a father with a business of his own, Pappas sees legal marijuana as a safer option: no more threat of arrests, or going to the home of a shady dealer who offers you other drugs.
A year ago, Spencer suddenly began to experience debilitating back pain. Doctors told him there was no complete cure for his suffering; even surgery would reduce the pain only by 60%.
“They were happy to give me however many opioids I want,” he said. “I’m just like, I’m not interested in accepting that.”
Marijuana became the only viable option.
Sam, of Orlando, experimented with drugs when she was young, but had long given them up. Then, three years ago, her husband died suddenly in front of her family. For several weeks she was in a fog. When she emerged from it, she suffered from anxiety and panic attacks.
She told doctors not to prescribe her Xanax; she knew she’d abuse a more physically addictive drug. But marijuana slowed her racing thoughts, allowing her to process his death while helping her three children cope with their own trauma.
She recalled sitting on her porch getting stoned one evening, realizing a passage from the Bible connected to her own outlook on her husband’s death: to slow down and process it, not avoid it.
“God says walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” she explained. “Why not walk through the valley the first time? And then you don’t have to go back and do it again.”
A rift between politicos and pot users
In April, DeSantis announced his opposition to legalizing marijuana, citing the smell as one of his main reasons.
“The weed (amendment) doesn’t just decriminalize marijuana, it’s a license to have it anywhere you want,” he said during a news conference. “This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and towns. It will reduce our quality of life.”
His comments and staunch opposition from the Republican Party have rubbed some right-leaning marijuana users the wrong way, exposing a discrepancy between elected officials and the public.
“It’s something that is endlessly infuriating to me,” Spencer said. “Seeing people on the right talk about that and just be anti-weed and anti-legalization on all levels. It’s just frustrating because I feel like the average person right of center, certainly from my own experience, is generally fairly pro-legalization as long as they’re under about 50.”
Democrats have largely co-opted the legalization fight, leaving some right-leaning users feeling isolated within the movement and weed culture in general.
“I do feel a lot of (right-wing marijuana users) are a bit ashamed of being conservative as far as weed politics goes,” Winthrop said. “Quite a number of conservative pot smokers are sitting here thinking, ‘what the hell.'”
Political polarization within the movement has stretched into online communities: a subreddit for medical marijuana users with over 70,000 members called r/FLMedicalTrees has a rule stating that conservatives “are not welcome.” Moderators banned users who wrote that they were conservative in response to a post from the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Could Republicans end up losing supporters as a result of their stance on weed? Most who spoke to the Sun Sentinel said their votes would not hinge on the issue.
“I do wish there were more people that felt the same way that I do,” Sam said. “But I also understand there has to be compromise on things for us to get anywhere. If I’m over here stomping my feet and refusing to participate in the system because of this one thing, it’s not doing me any good.”
Winthrop still plans to vote for Trump in the coming election, though he wouldn’t consider himself a big fan. He largely prefers the former president because of his stance on foreign policy; marijuana is more of an afterthought.
“I’m not going to vote for a Democrat just because of weed,” Winthrop explained. “I feel like America’s issues extend far more than just that.”
