After a number of arrests, Florida officers are ramping up a prison investigation of a marijuana multistate operator-funded adult-use hashish legalization marketing campaign even additional – simply days forward of a key deadline to qualify the measure for the November poll.
The prison probe into the Sensible & Protected Florida marketing campaign, funded by Tallahassee-based Trulieve Hashish Corp., exhibits the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, a sworn enemy of hashish reform, is “utilizing each means essential to stifle the voices of over one million Florida voters,” a marketing campaign spokesperson informed MJBizDaily.
Florida is the biggest medical-only hashish market within the U.S. and represents a large alternative for the authorized trade.
However DeSantis’ administration has opposed adult-use marijuana legalization each step of the best way.
Marijuana MSO Trulieve’s $200 million spending on marijuana legalization
Trulieve spent greater than $150 million on a 2024 legalization effort that got here up brief regardless of an endorsement from Donald Trump, then the Republican nominee for president.
On this cycle, DeSantis’ administration has deployed each lawsuits in addition to what Politico known as an “elections police,” created underneath a regulation handed final 12 months, to thwart a second effort.
Marketing campaign finance data present Trulieve has contributed $52.5 million to an effort to collect at the very least 880,000 signatures from registered voters by a Feb. 1 deadline.
Florida deploys ‘elections police’ to halt marijuana legalization
On Jan. 20, state Lawyer Basic James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ former chief of workers, mentioned that just about a dozen canvassers had been arrested on suspicion of fraud, with extra to comply with.
On Thursday, days earlier than the Feb. 1 deadline, Uthmeier expanded the fraud probe to each Florida county, the Tampa Bay Instances reported.
In a social media submit, Uthmeier claimed that “Sensible & Protected Florida’s petition fraud touches almost all of Florida’s 67 counties, and we’ve expanded our investigation statewide.”
As of Friday, Sensible & Protected had collected 760,000 signatures, 120,000 in need of the required quantity, based on the state elections web site.
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Florida officers ‘will cease at nothing’ to thwart hashish reform
In a press release to MJBizDaily, a Sensible & Protected spokesperson mentioned that the marketing campaign adopted the regulation.
“In step with Florida regulation, each time we discovered any form of discrepancy from state-certified petition gatherers, we reported our suspicions to the Secretary of State,” the assertion learn.
“In brief, it seems the Lawyer Basic is taking situation with the truth that we explicitly comply with the regulation.
“From the months-long delay in sending the poll language to the court docket to the after-the-fact nullifying of legitimate petitions, it appears there’s nothing that may cease the administration from stopping these voters from having their say.”