After multiple arrests, Florida officials are ramping up a criminal investigation of a marijuana multistate operator-funded adult-use cannabis legalization campaign even further – just days ahead of a key deadline to qualify the measure for the November ballot.
The criminal probe into the Smart & Safe Florida campaign, funded by Tallahassee-based Trulieve Cannabis Corp., shows the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a sworn enemy of cannabis reform, is “using every means necessary to stifle the voices of over a million Florida voters,” a campaign spokesperson told MJBizDaily.
Florida is the largest medical-only cannabis market in the U.S. and represents a massive opportunity for the legal industry.
But DeSantis’ administration has opposed adult-use marijuana legalization every step of the way.
Marijuana MSO Trulieve’s $200 million spending on marijuana legalization
Trulieve spent more than $150 million on a 2024 legalization effort that came up short despite an endorsement from Donald Trump, then the Republican nominee for president.
In this cycle, DeSantis’ administration has deployed both lawsuits as well as what Politico called an “elections police,” created under a law passed last year, to thwart a second effort.
Campaign finance records show Trulieve has contributed $52.5 million to an effort to gather at least 880,000 signatures from registered voters by a Feb. 1 deadline.
Florida deploys ‘elections police’ to halt marijuana legalization
On Jan. 20, state Attorney General James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ former chief of staff, said that almost a dozen canvassers had been arrested on suspicion of fraud, with more to follow.
On Thursday, days before the Feb. 1 deadline, Uthmeier expanded the fraud probe to every Florida county, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
In a social media post, Uthmeier claimed that “Smart & Safe Florida’s petition fraud touches nearly all of Florida’s 67 counties, and we’ve expanded our investigation statewide.”
As of Friday, Smart & Safe had collected 760,000 signatures, 120,000 short of the required number, according to the state elections website.
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Florida officials ‘will stop at nothing’ to thwart cannabis reform
In a statement to MJBizDaily, a Smart & Safe spokesperson said that the campaign followed the law.
“Consistent with Florida law, each and every time we found any sort of discrepancy from state-certified petition gatherers, we reported our suspicions to the Secretary of State,” the statement read.
“In short, it appears the Attorney General is taking issue with the fact that we explicitly follow the law.
“From the months-long delay in sending the ballot language to the court to the after-the-fact nullifying of valid petitions, it seems there is nothing that will stop the administration from preventing these voters from having their say.”