Former President Donald Trump is backing a ballot measure to legalize recreational cannabis in Florida, saying in a social media post on Saturday that “someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other States.” Trump reiterated his support for legal cannabis in a podcast released on Tuesday, arguing that “medical marijuana has been amazing” and that legalizing recreational weed is “going to be very good” for the state.
Florida voters will decide on Amendment 3, an initiated constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana for adults, when they go to the polls for the November general election. Trump is eligible to vote in Florida’s elections as a resident of Palm Beach, where he has claimed legal residency since 2020.
On Saturday, Republican presidential nominee Trump wrote in a post to the social media platform Truth Social that he expects Amendment 3 to pass. He also called on state legislators to pass laws regulating cannabis use in public.
“In Florida, like so many other States that have already given their approval, personal amounts of marijuana will be legalized for adults with Amendment 3,” Trump said in the post that has since been taken down. “Whether people like it or not, this will happen through the approval of the Voters, so it should be done correctly.”
“We need the State Legislature to responsibly create laws that prohibit the use of it in public spaces, so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat run Cities,” he added, according to a report from Marijuana Moment. “At the same time, someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other States. We do not need to ruin lives & waste Taxpayer Dollars arresting adults with personal amounts of it on them, and no one should grieve a loved one because they died from fentanyl laced marijuana,” repeating a common myth that was also recently shared by Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s vice presidential running mate.
Following Trump’s post, state Sen. Joe Gruters, a supporter of the Amendment 3 campaign Smart & Safe Florida, thanked the former president for backing the recreational cannabis legalization measure.
“I am incredibly proud to have President Trump stand alongside us in our effort to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for simple possession of marijuana and to give Floridians the same individual freedom to choose safe, tested products that more than half the country already enjoys,” Gruters wrote on the social media platform X. “Our shared goals to expand our freedoms and keep Floridians safe from fentanyl-laced marijuana from the illicit market is why Amendment 3 has broad support and will pass in November. President Trump’s call for smart implementation is exactly why I filed a bill to prevent smoking in public. Marijuana should be consumed at home, and I will work alongside my colleagues in the legislature to ensure Florida does this right.”
Trump Doubles Down on Support for Reform
Trump expanded on his support for cannabis policy reform in an interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast released on Tuesday, saying that “medical marijuana has been amazing.” He added that he has “had friends and I’ve had others and doctors telling me that it’s been absolutely amazing, the medical marijuana.”
Trump also mentioned the social media post about Amendment 3 he made over the weekend, Marijuana Moment reported, saying, “We can live with the marijuana.” He also repeated his call for legislation to govern the use and sale of cannabis.
“It’s got to be a certain age [to purchase],” Trump said. “It’s got to be done in a very concerted, lawful way. And the way they’re doing it in Florida, I think is going to be actually good. It’s going to be very good, but it’s got to be done in a good way. It’s got to be done in a clean way.”
With Trump’s backing of Amendment 3, both major-party candidates for president in this year’s general election have expressed support for cannabis policy reform. As a U.S. senator, Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris co-sponsored the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, a bill that would remove cannabis from the nation’s list of banned substances. As vice president, she championed the Biden administration’s review of cannabis policy that led to a pending proposal to reclassify cannabis under federal drug laws.
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