Donald Trump came out of nowhere with his endorsement for the Florida ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana in the state, and as you’d expect, lots of his fellow Republicans aren’t too pleased.
One very prominent voice, Kevin Sabet, the president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, was quoted saying this is “election-year politics at its worst.” He also claimed he knows many Republican leaders who are extremely disappointed behind closed doors.
But one of the bigger non-responses came from William Barr, Trump’s former Attorney General. In an Op-Ed at Fox News, Barr slammed the Biden administration for toying with rescheduling the plant from Schedule I to Schedule III. “Politics, not science, is driving the Biden-Harris administration’s push to reschedule marijuana. Had it not jettisoned established standards and lessened the rigor of the scientific process, the administration could not validate rescheduling.”
However, there is no mention of Trump’s support in the entire article. It could have been a matter of timing, but still an embarrassing omission. Barr has not been shy when it came to criticizing the former President, although now that he is backing the Republican ticket, it seems a begrudging support is back in effect.
On a more local level, the responses weren’t great. “Don’t listen to Trump,” said David Biddle, chair of the Gilchrist GOP. “Vote NO on Amendment 3. We don’t need recreational marijuana in Florida. It’s been a disaster everywhere they have it, it brings zero benefit to society, it increases crime, increases homelessness, and increases further drug use. It’s bad for Florida.”
Then Jenna Ellis, former Trump attorney, finally called a spade a spade and called the whole thing a PR play. “Trump is talking about Amendment 3 to make conservatives start talking about why we obviously oppose this stupidity and he hopes we just forget about the Amendment 4 problem.”
It may be an effective PR play, considering a majority of voters in swing states support legal marijuana. According to a Poll by Ragnar Research, 65% of Florida voters support the ballot. It’s 62% in other swing states Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, but that’s still a clear majority.
We’ll see if the pivot pays off for Trump in the long run, but some good news we know for sure is that Florida will almost certainly be getting legal marijuana in the near future.
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