Floridas referendum to legalize recreational marijuana falls short

A push in Florida to legalize recreational marijuana is projected to fall short — in a win for Gov.Ron DeSantis who’s railed against the measure.Amendment 3 needed a 60% supermajority in order to become law.

It only received 42.9% of the vote, according to Decision Desk HQ.The amendment would have made Florida the 25th state in the country to fully legalize marijuana use for all purposes for people 21 years and older.Medicinal marijuana use is already legal in the state.DeSantis campaigned hard against Amendment 3, decrying it as a movement lobbied by the marijuana business to line their own pockets instead of something intended to expand the rights of voters, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.“It wasn’t immaculately conceived.

It was put on the ballot because one big weed company has now spent $100 million trying to pass it,” DeSantis said at an event in late October.“This amendment is written to benefit this one big weed company.

It’s not meant to benefit you.”The company he referenced was Trulieve, a Florida-based marijuana company that supplies products to multiple states and is largely responsible for getting Amendment 3 on the ballot.DeSantis has accused Trulieve of attempting to “corner the market” in Florida, where medicinal products are already one of the nation’s largest weed markets with a value of more than $2 billion annually.Amendment 3 was designed to benefit that company and others like it, DeSantis argued, pointing out that it did not allow for Floridians to grow weed themselves.Trump — who cast his own ballot in Florida Tuesday — characterized Amendment 3 as an inevitability and threw his support behind the measure, while cautioning that legislators should prohibit weed use in public places.“As a Floridian, I will be voting YES on Amendment 3 this November,” he posted on Truth Social in September.“As President, we will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug,...