• last month
Voters rejected legalizing recreational marijuana in the bellwether state. Here’s what it means for federal legalization and pot’s green wave.

Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/willyakowicz/2024/11/05/what-the-failure-of-floridas-amendment-3--means-for-cannabis-legalization/

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Transcript
00:00Today on Forbes, what the failure of Florida's Amendment 3 means for cannabis legalization.
00:08In a major defeat for cannabis legalization, Florida voters have rejected Amendment 3,
00:14which would have legalized recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older.
00:18The amendment, which failed to get the 60% voter support it needed to pass, could have
00:23been the start of a new green wave across the country.
00:27The Sunshine State is already home to the country's largest medical marijuana market,
00:31$2 billion in annual sales, but it missed the opportunity to become the first red state
00:36in the South to launch an adult-use market.
00:39Florida, which has a population of 20 million people and attracts more than 140 million
00:44tourists every year, was expected to swell to a $6 billion cannabis market by 2026 if
00:51Amendment 3 passed, according to marijuana sales data firm Headset.
00:56Voters will have to wait another two years before cannabis can get back on the ballot.
01:02The amendment received more than 57% of the vote, a strong majority, but not enough to
01:07surpass the 60% threshold required in the state of Florida.
01:11The measure even had the backing of former president and now president-elect Donald Trump.
01:17The night's biggest loser is Tallahassee-based True Leave, which spent $145 million backing
01:23Smart and Safe Florida, the organization running the Yes on 3 campaign.
01:28The campaign raised a total of $153 million, according to campaign contribution data from
01:34the Florida Department of State Division of Elections.
01:37The night's biggest winner is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who had declared war on the
01:42cannabis ballot measure and spent an estimated $50 million of taxpayer money on radio and
01:47television ads to successfully convince enough voters to vote no.
01:52Ken Griffin, the hedge fund billionaire who moved his firm Citadel to Miami from Chicago
01:56in 2022, had also come out against legalization.
02:00Griffin, a Florida resident, donated $12 million to the Vote No on 3 campaign.
02:07And in an op-ed published in the Miami Herald earlier this year, Griffin cautioned voters
02:11not to repeat the mistakes of states like California, Colorado, and New York, all of
02:15which have legalized recreational cannabis.
02:19Griffin wrote, quote,
02:34Brady Cobb, the son of one of Florida's most prolific pot smugglers of the 1980s, who started
02:39his own legal marijuana company called Sunburn Cannabis in 2021, calls the failure of Amendment
02:453 a big blow to the state's marijuana economy and the national momentum of legalization.
02:51Cobb, whose company generated $30 million in revenue this year from its 13 medical marijuana
02:57dispensaries, says, quote,
03:08Shanita Penny, the co-executive director of the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education,
03:12and Regulation, says the failure of Amendment 3 will, quote,
03:20She says, quote,
03:26Emily Paxia, the co-founder of San Francisco-based cannabis hedge fund Poseidon, which has invested
03:32in many companies with a large presence in the state, says she is not downtrodden.
03:37The companies operating in the nation's $30 billion economy spread across 38 states have
03:42grown accustomed to roadblocks while operating in an industry that is still federally illegal.
03:47She says, quote,
03:54Despite the defeat of Amendment 3, Paxia believes there is hope on the horizon.
03:59A lawsuit filed by legendary litigator David Boies and other attorneys at Boies, Schiller,
04:04Flexner is still in play.
04:06The lawsuit, against Attorney General Merrick Garland on behalf of several cannabis companies
04:10in Massachusetts, is seeking to challenge the federal prohibition of marijuana and the
04:15government's ability to interfere with state-regulated cannabis programs.
04:21For full coverage, check out Will Yakowitz's piece on Forbes.com.
04:26This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
04:28Thanks for tuning in.

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