From how the ballot initiative is polling to the epic fight for and against cannabis legalization in the Sunshine State
Latest FAU poll shows Amendment 3 at 60%; Amendment 4 at 58%
A new public opinion survey of more than 900 registered voters in Florida shows the proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational adult use of cannabis drawing the 60% required for passage but the abortion-rights initiative coming up short at 58%.
The survey of 913 registered voters comes from the Florida Atlantic University Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab and Mainstreet Research USA and was conducted between Oct. 19 and Oct 27. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.2%.
Amendment 3 is the measure that would legalize recreational marijuana in the state. The poll finds 60% approving the measure, 34% opposed, and 6% undecided.
Amendment 4 would repeal Florida’s six-week ban on abortions and restore unrestricted access through the point of viability, considered to be around 24 weeks. The poll finds the measure just coming up short of the 60% required, with 58% support, 32% opposed, and 10% undecided.
In the presidential race, Donald Trump continues to maintain a comfortable lead over Vice-President Kamala Harris in Florida, 53% to 44% among likely voters.
And in the race for U.S. Senate, Rick Scott continues to maintain a lead over Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, 50%-46%, with 3% undecided.
Separately, FAU & Mainstreet Research USA conducted a national survey of 937 voters for the presidential race. That result has Harris leading Trump, 49%-47%.
The survey found that regarding the method of voting in Florida, a plurality of Democrats (40%) prefer voting by mail, while a plurality of Republicans (39%) prefer voting on Election Day.
Donald Trump & Kamala Harris featured in new ad touting Amendment 3 in Florida
Smart & Safe Florida, the group behind the effort to pass the adult use of marijuana initiative next week, is counterprogramming Gov. Ron DeSantis’s anti-amendment blitz by touting the active support of fellow Republican Donald Trump in a new ad.
The spot, which begins airing statewide on Wednesday, features both Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ endorsements of decriminalizing cannabis. It shows a clip of Harris saying, “We need to legalize it,” followed by Trump telling a podcaster, “It’s gotta be done in a very concerted, lawful way. The way they’re doing it in Florida, it’s going to be very good.”
Trump announced on his Truth Social page last month that “[a]s 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,” Trump added in that post.
Trump hasn’t announced support for federal cannabis legalization — something Harris has come out for.
“I just think we have come to the point where we have to understand that we need to legalize it and stop criminalizing this behavior,” Harris said on the All the Smoke podcast last month. She added, “I have felt for a long time that we need to legalize it.”
“Amendment 3 isn’t about political parties or red v. blue identities. Supporting the legalization of recreational adult use marijuana is about upholding the principles of individual freedom and liberty that our country was founded upon,” said Morgan Hill, spokesperson for Smart & Safe Florida in a written statement.
Commissioner questions DeSantis’ use of opioid settlement $ to fight Amendment 3
At a meeting of the statewide council overseeing opioid settlement trust funds, a board member referenced published accounts that the DeSantis administration is using settlement money to fund ads urging voters to reject a proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older.
Several news agencies reported last week that the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) allocated nearly $4 million from the Florida opioid settlement trust fund to Strategic Digital Services, a Tallahassee marketing agency, for an educational campaign on the “dangers of marijuana, opioid, and drug use,” specifically directed at Floridian families and youth.
During a virtual meeting of the Statewide Council on Opioid Abatement on Wednesday, Seminole Republican County Commissioner Lee Constantine, a member of the council, referred to what he said was “the elephant in the room” — those news reports that Gov. Ron DeSantis has raided the fund to help pay for television commercials to combat Amendment 3, the proposed constitutional amendment that the governor has gone on a crusade over the past week to try to keep support for the proposal under 60%, the threshold required for it to become Florida law.
“I’m concerned about some of the reports that have been made recently and accusations in some of the newspapers and press concerning the unintended use of these dollars … to educate people on Amendment 3 and being against Amendment 3 in this current election,” Constantine said. “I don’t believe that that was the intended use, nor do I believe it is directly helping abatement on our opioid crisis. I’m not suggesting that it is happening, I don’t know. “
Calling the issue “the elephant in the room,” Constantine added, “To me that is not one of expenditures that should be or one of the uses of the funds that we have from the opioid from the Pharma settlement.”
Seminole County Sheriff Dennis Lemma, chairman of the council, replied that he had seen some of those media reports. However, “I had not seen any of those conversations, suggestions, recommendations come to our council here. I had not been consulted in any of those things.”
He then defended DeSantis and other state leaders as dedicated to alleviating the opioid crisis in Florida.
“I think that all of us as board members know that we work with a group of people who are incredibly passionate about saving lives,” he said. “The governor, the first lady, Senate president, speaker of the House, the attorney general, definitely, are wanting to move in a direction to make sure that we’re providing resources that are intended to combat the overprescribing of those people who are responsible for the settlement suits in the first place.”
Lemma went on to say that the opioid council needs to continue to “keep moving forward” regardless whether Amendment 3 passes next week, adding, “There is no effort and action that this board should be politically motivated in any shape or form.”
These articles were republished from the Florida Phoenix under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. You can read the original versions here.
