Why DeSantis says legal recreational marijuana will hurt 'quality of life'

Less than a week before the November general election, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visited West Palm Beach on Wednesday, making a final push against the controversial Amendment 3, which, if passed, would legalize recreational marijuana in the state.

"It will impact the quality of life in the state of Florida," DeSantis argued during a roundtable discussion with members of the Florida Department of Children and Families and the Florida Police Benevolent Association.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks out against Amendment 3 in West Palm Beach

If it passes with at least 60% of the vote next Tuesday, Amendment 3 would allow adults over 21 in Florida to buy, possess, and use marijuana without a medical card.

Supporters said it'll make a substance that many people already use safer and more regulated, while also generating revenue for the state.

However, speaking in West Palm Beach on Wednesday, DeSantis, who's been vehemently against the amendment, urged residents to vote against the measure, saying the lack of restrictions on where marijuana could be used in public would impact the quality of life for Floridians.

"You should be able to be on the beaches, you should be able to walk down the street, you should be able to be in public places without having this permeate everywhere," DeSantis said. "There is nothing in this amendment that restricts the use of marijuana in public."

Smart & Safe Florida, the group that sponsored Amendment 3, estimates that Florida would receive hundreds of millions of dollars in estimated tax revenue from the sale of recreational marijuana. That's one of the reasons a bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers has backed the idea.

DeSantis on Wednesday, however, pushed back against that idea, saying the increased use of marijuana in public could potentially turn tourists off from visiting Florida and hurt one of our most critical economic drivers.

"What are you losing on tourism? What are you losing for restaurants? What are you losing for other things because this is now a part of Florida in ways that may be off-putting to a lot of tourists? That may be off-putting to a lot of families. And so I think you would see revenue that we derive from tourism go down. And I think some other business revenue would go down as well. So it would definitely be, in my judgment, a net loss for the state of Florida," DeSantis said.

Kim Rivers, the CEO of Trulieve, Florida's largest medical marijuana operator with more than 150 stores statewide, which has pumped $141 million into the effort to pass Amendment 3, traveled the state earlier this month, showing the rigorous safety measures Florida has for medical cannabis. In Tallahassee, Rivers said she wants the same guardrails for recreational use.

"Those rules would apply to, and we would expect those rules to apply to the adult use marketplace as well," Rivers said. "So we have a framework in place. We're not building from scratch."

Rivers cited data that marijuana use among teens actually declines with legalization, suggesting better regulation means tighter access, with fewer people using illegally.

But DeSantis on Wednesday argued that Trulieve, a publicly traded corporation on the Canadian stock exchange, stands to financially benefit from the legalization of recreational marijuana.
 

"As a publicly traded corporation, you could not spend $141.9 million of corporate funds on an amendment unless you stood to benefit an awful lot from that," DeSantis said. "In other words, they can't write an amendment that's good for Florida, that's good for other people. It's gotta be beneficial to their company."

A new University of North Florida poll shows that approximately 66% of Floridians who participated in the survey plan to vote yes on Amendment 3, clearing the necessary 60% threshold.

However, a new Florida Chamber poll showed the support for Amendment 3 at 57%.