Potheads For Trump?
I imagine that on Sunday, November 3, Trump will have reserved nation-wide TV time so he can try to save his dead-in-the-water campaign with a message about what it’s always been all about. “They’re going to put me in prison if I lose. I need you to turn out Tuesday because if they can do this to me, they can do it to you too.” He’ll have 43% of the vote in his pocket before the speech and 43% of the vote after the speech. Maybe 43.1% after. Meanwhile, he’s sticking with the strategy he and Lewandowski decided on: promise every audience exactly what they want to hear, even if it directly contradicts what he just told another audience the day before. The media either lets him get away with everything or is so discredited that however they report on him is ignored anyway. And the latest issue he’s championed is weed— at least in Florida, where voters back constitutional amendment 3, legalizing marijuana.
The ballot initiative, opposed by DeSantis and the GOP establishment is headed towards the required super-majority it needs to pass (60%). In fact, the latest poll, by Emerson, shows that the weed amendment is more likely to pass than the abortion amendment. “Regarding the Florida ballot measure to provide a constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability, 55% would vote ‘yes’ in support, 26% plan to vote ‘no,’ and 20% are unsure. Support for the measure to legalize marijuana surpasses the 60% threshold: 64% plan to vote ‘yes’ while 27% plan to vote ‘no.’”
64%... that’s a bigger margin than Trump’s 50-45% in Florida. So what’s he telling his supporters? Señor T: “As I have previously stated, I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use. We must also implement smart regulations, while providing access for adults, to safe, tested product. As a Floridian, I will be voting YES on Amendment 3 this November. As President, we will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to pass common sense laws, including safe banking for state authorized companies, and supporting states rights to pass marijuana laws, like in Florida, that work so well for their citizens.”
Actually, Trump has been generally opposed to marijuana legalization and warned Republicans to keep initiatives like the one he now backs, off the ballots recognizing that would help Democratic turnout. Apart from calling for the death penalty of marijuana dealers, during the time he occupied the White House, his administration was uniformly unfavorable to legalization. In 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Obama-era Cole Memo, which had shielded state-legal cannabis industries from federal interference, creating concerns that the federal government could crack down on legalized marijuana at any moment. A year later his Surgeon General issued a public warning against marijuana use, specifically cautioning pregnant women and adolescents, implying that marijuana legalization at the state level, was encouraging more young people to consume the drug. His administration also issued directives that could affect immigrants who use or work with marijuana, regardless of state legality, jeopardizing their eligibility for U.S. citizenship.
Trump’s current support for legalization puts him at odds with DeSantis, Rick Scott and even Matt Gaetz. Scott: “I know that marijuana is a gateway drug. My brother just died in the last few months, starting with marijuana and he ended up struggling with alcohol and drugs, so I don’t support it.”
DeSantis has been on the frontlines fighting against legalization calling the amendment “very, very extreme… basically a license to have it anywhere you want. So no time, place and manner restrictions. This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and towns.”
Reporting for Politico yesterday, Arek Sarkissian wrote that DeSantis is angry because Señor T “officially came out in support of the measure last week. That’s even as his vanquished presidential primary foe has invested significant political capital to defeat Amendment 3. DeSantis calls it a ploy by the state’s $2 billion medical marijuana industry to create a monopoly and says that its broad terms would allow people to carry dozens of pre-rolled ‘joints’ and smoke them in public with no consequence. Much like during the presidential primary— where most of the congressional delegation backed Trump, and state legislators went for the governor, save for a few prominent defectors— the state’s two most prominent Republican politicians are again forcing Republicans to pick sides. And although the governor’s concerns largely mirror most state Republicans’ long-established opposition to pot, DeSantis recently began chastising Republican lawmakers for not doing more to fight the measure and a separate initiative seeking to expand abortion rights.
“You say you’re all about these issues, and then when it’s time to do something about it you’re nowhere to be found,” DeSantis said during a recent discussion at a Tallahassee church. “That is what courageous leadership is all about.”
So far, most state Republicans have either stayed quiet on the issue or oppose legalization, and the state Republican Party has officially come out against the measure, vowing to fight it. State Sen. Joe Gruters— an ally of the former president— said he is the only Republican state lawmaker who supports the measure publicly.
But former state Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican who backed legalization in the legislature before he was term-limited out, said he believes that at least half of Republican lawmakers support Amendment 3 privately even though they publicly oppose it. He said bills he authored on legalization that died in committee had many Republicans in the House and Senate privately signaling support, but none of them were willing to break ranks with DeSantis or the Republican legislative leadership at the time— or now.
…History shows that it’s possible for a pot-related initiative to surpass the 60-percent threshold, although the state’s makeup of registered voters has changed. Florida voters legalized medical marijuana with 71 percent of the vote in 2016, but that was also when there were 400,000 more Democratic voters on the rolls than Republicans. This year, the GOP has 1 million more registered voters than Democrats.
Amendment 3 would be a boon for the state’s medical marijuana industry— the largest of its kind in the nation— by allowing Florida’s 25 state-licensed pot companies to expand into the recreational market. The measure is backed by the Smart & Safe Committee, which has collected more than $94 million in cash contributions mostly from Trulieve, which is the state’s largest medical pot company with roughly 150 retail outlets statewide.
When asked about Republican support for Amendment 3, Smart & Safe spokesperson Morgan Hill pointed to a June Fox News poll showing that 57 percent of Republicans support the measure. “Floridians agree that it’s time to stop arresting adults for simple marijuana possession and that Floridians deserve access to safe, lab-tested products,” Hill wrote in an email.
That sure sounds exactly what Señor T said.Meanwhile, DeSantis “has traveled the state railing against the amendment, and his political operation is deeply intertwined with efforts to defeat the amendment… [O]utside of Gruters, who remains close with Trump, few current Republican officeholders appear willing to buck the governor or their chamber leaders. But Gruters appeared in a Smart & Safe campaign ad with a Democratic state senator, where he emphasized both his support for Trump and Amendment 3. “It’s not about politics, it’s about Florida,” he says in the ad. But the split in the party has been more pronounced in the grassroots. Just last week, the Smart & Safe Committee announced an endorsement made by the Florida Young Republicans.”
Rock Aboujaoude, the progressive Democratic professor running for a congressional seat north of Tampa suggested that best way to approach this is to “Always follow the science. Legalizing marijuana is not only about personal freedom or social justice, but it is also an opportunity to align agriculture with climate-conscious goals. Currently, illegal cultivation results in deforestation, water theft, and the use of extremely harmful pesticides that poison local ecosystems. A legal and regulated environment will minimize these harms by promoting sustainable cultivation techniques, such as organic farming, water-efficient irrigation, and carbon sequestration practices. DeSantis, a notorious anti-science governor, not only couldn't care less about water-smart goals, but actively subverts climate narratives like the legalization of marijuana.”
Jackie Kellogg, one of the 2 or 3 most likely Democrats— and the only progressive— to flip a Republican held legislative seat in Florida, told us that “DeSantis clearly has a major donor who doesn't like the smell of Marijuana, whereas Trump's opinion will change day by day depending on the polls, this leaves the Florida GOP in a state of brain freeze. Good for Sen. Brandes who backs the majority of Floridians who support the legalization of marijuana.” Please consider contributing to Jackie’s and Rock’s campaigns and helping the useless Florida Democratic Party shedding their super-minority status.