OG Article: here
View our Fair Use Policy: here
Billionaire investor Ken Griffin has come out against Florida's recreational marijuana ballot measure – and he's donating beaucoup bucks to oppose it.
Griffin, a Miami resident and CEO of the multinational Citadel hedge fund, said he's donating a total of $20 million to oppose Amendment 3 and support various political candidates for the 2024 election.
The pot initiative is "a terrible plan to create the nation’s most expansive and destructive marijuana laws," Griffin wrote in a Friday morning opinion piece published in the Miami Herald.
Vote No on 3, the campaign against the measure, announced later in the day that $12 million of the $20 million would go to its efforts.
"These valuable resources will help us as we continue to ramp up what will be a vigorous and full-throated campaign to warn Floridians about this deceptive amendment that would make Florida the California of the east," campaign spokesperson Sarah Bascom said in a statement.
Amendment 3, if it gets at least 60% of the vote, would allow non-medical marijuana possession of up to 3 ounces, with no more than 5 grams in concentrated form, for those 21 years old and up.
"Passage of Amendment 3 would create a monopoly for large marijuana dispensaries and permit pot use in public and private areas throughout Florida," wrote Griffin, a common conservative donor. "That will help no one other than special interests — and it will hurt us all, especially through more dangerous roads, a higher risk of addiction among our youth, and an increase in crime."
But Smart and Safe Florida, the group heading the pro-amendment campaign, has adamantly refuted those allegations.
"The language of the amendment explicitly states that the Florida Legislature retains the full ability to regulate the public use of marijuana," it writes on the "Myths vs. Facts" page of its website. "The Legislature will have the right to enact regulations that ensure clean, family-friendly public spaces, just as it does now with tobacco and alcohol."
The group has largely been funded by Trulieve, the state's largest medical marijuana operator. Its spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Smart and Safe Florida also argues that the amendment would improve public health, providing "quality control and regulation," while also reducing crime. It writes: "Legalization has led to a decrease in gang violence and has hurt Mexican cartels, which now have a smaller market in the US."
"More than 1 million Floridians signed a petition to put Amendment 3 on the ballot so that no adult will go to jail for possessing small amounts of marijuana, and Floridians will no longer have to turn to street products laced with dangerous substances like fentanyl," said Smart and Safe Florida spokesperson Morgan Hill in a statement.
"We remain focused on communicating the public health benefits and expanded individual freedom of legalizing recreational marijuana for adults and creating a better Florida for all," Hill continued.
Most polls have predicted that the amendment currently has enough to support to pass, despite ardent opposition from Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party of Florida.
But conservative state Sen. Joe Gruters, a former Florida Republican Party chair and a Trump ally, recently endorsed Amendment 3. Gruters said he believes there are other GOP lawmakers who also support it but don't want to oppose the state GOP establishment's position.
Comments