Florida recreational marijuana ballot measure gets industry pushback

A proposed ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida in 2024 has triggered harsh criticism from within the industry, signaling ongoing divides over how adult-use markets should be structured.

The initiative, filed recently with the Florida Division of Elections, has secured financial backing from Trulieve Cannabis, the largest medical marijuana company in the state and one of the nation’s biggest multistate operators.

According to Miami New Times, critics contend the Florida-based company stands to reap much of the benefits of legalization under the proposed initiative, which is being pushed by the Smart & Safe Florida campaign.

“No home grow, the entire Florida recreational market handed to the existing medical market, and the legislature doesn’t have to license anyone else,” former Massachusetts cannabis regulator Shaleen Title wrote on Twitter, adding that the measure is “one of the most revolting, monopolistic (legalization) measures yet.”

Title currently is the cannabis policy practitioner in residence at the Ohio State University College of Law’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center.

The Florida medical marijuana market – one of the nation’s largest – is made up of 22 licensed companies that run a combined 460 dispensaries, Miami New Times reported.

If passed, the Trulieve-backed initiative would ban home cultivation and bar new companies from entering the adult-use market – two provisions that would benefit the state’s existing medical marijuana operators.

Under the proposed amendment to the state’s constitution, existing medical marijuana companies would be allowed to sell recreational marijuana.

Trulieve representatives did not immediately respond to an MJBizDaily request for comment.

But CEO Kim Rivers told Miami New Times that her company would support any and all measures to fully legalize marijuana.

The company donated a quarter of a million dollars last year to a separate adult-use legalization campaign, Sensible Florida, that failed to make the 2022 ballot.

By contrast, Trulieve has already donated $5 million to the proposed 2024 initiative campaign, according to Miami New Times.

While Sensible Florida is attempting to make the 2024 ballot, that campaign has so far gathered fewer than the 900,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, the News Service of Florida reported this month.

Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/florida-recreational-marijuana-ballot-measure-gets-industry-pushback/