Will a recreational pot measure give one company an economic high?
A new advertisement from the Vote No on 3 campaign asserts that the ballot measure was written to give the state's largest medical marijuana company a monopoly on the Florida market.
"They wrote it, they rigged it, and they're hoping you fall for it," a narrator says in the 30-second spot. "Amendment 3 isn't the 'marijuana' amendment. It's the 'monopoly' amendment."
While the ad itself never mentions a business by name, a press release makes clear the target: Trulieve. That company through mid-August provided $65 million of the nearly $72 million raised to date for the Smart & Safe Florida campaign supporting Amendment 3. That followed the company completely financing the effort to get the measure on the ballot.
Vote No on 3 campaign officials predicted the measure will fail if voters see it as an effort by a single company to back its own private interests.
"Floridians know a bad deal when they see one," said Vote No on 3 spokeswoman Sarah Bascom. "This amendment does nothing for them and was written solely to pad the profits of the mega marijuana corporations by granting them a monopoly. It's not about access to weed, it's about corporate greed."
The ad focuses, as a result, less on what the amendment will allow if passed and more on what will remain against the law.
"Marijuana mega corporations spent 60 million bucks putting Amendment 3 on your ballot," the narrator states. "Why? It entrenches their monopoly, bans homegrown pot, and gives special licenses to corporations."
The ad suggests that no businesses act philanthropically.
"Giant corporations don't do things out of the goodness of their heart. They do things to make money. And that's exactly why they wrote Amendment 3," the ad states.
The ad continues by saying the campaign for the amendment has tried to prevent the measure as reasonable policy, when really it would benefit the business most heavily invested in it.
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