One Sunday earlier this month, Dave Portnoy ordered a pizza, sat down on the couch to watch football, and lit a blunt object. he was angry The founder of Barstool Sports, beloved by many right-wing youth, was at his Massachusetts mansion where he legally smoked marijuana “like a human being,” as he said in a video posted to X. ”I could suck it. But you can't smoke it. Do it at home in Miami. “Freedom. It's about freedom,” Portnoy urged viewers to vote yes on an amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida, before blowing smoke into the camera.
If Florida were to pass this amendment, it would make Florida something of an anomaly. Twenty-four other states already have legal pot registered, but only four voted for Donald Trump in 2020: Alaska, Missouri, Ohio, and Montana. Many Republican leaders remain fiercely opposed to legal marijuana, warning that the drug poses impairment and health risks, especially as marijuana becomes more potent. Earlier this year, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed a bill that would have allowed marijuana sales, arguing that recreational marijuana is linked to “an increase in gang activity and violent crime.” Researchers remain divided about the relevance. Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance has also repeatedly stated that he opposes legalization.
But the Florida bill has support from the state's most prominent Republican. Trump posted on Truth Social earlier this month that he intended to vote for the initiative. “I believe it is time to end the unnecessary arrest and incarceration of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” he wrote. Polls show the referendum hovering just above the 60 percent threshold needed to pass, which enshrines the right to own, purchase and use marijuana in the Florida Constitution. No one knows for sure, but if it does pass, the decision would be a “very important concession to American conservatism,” said Alan Lichtman, a historian at American University. Florida could be a turning point for the rest of the Republican Party.
If Florida takes action, other conservative states will listen. Under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida is positioning itself as an antidote to blue America. A week after New York City announced its 2021 coronavirus “vaccine passport,” DeSantis issued an order banning local businesses from requiring proof of vaccination. Other red states followed suit, including Texas, Georgia, and Alabama. And after Florida enacted its “Don't Say I'm Gay” law in March 2022, more than a dozen states have introduced similar bills governing sexual orientation education in schools. “Florida has been at the epicenter of a very important culture war for the Republican Party in recent years,” Lichtman said.
Florida has not escaped the culture wars due to the presence of legal marijuana. Mr. DeSantis has continued to fiercely oppose the bill even after Mr. Trump's endorsement, and the state's Republican Party has argued that legalization would “immediately make Florida even bluer.” The state approved medical marijuana in 2016, and Florida's largest medical marijuana dispensary spent tens of millions of dollars collecting the roughly 900,000 signatures needed for the November referendum. The DeSantis administration appealed to the state Supreme Court after an unsuccessful attempt to take away the initiative on the ballot.
Mr. DeSantis' position is consistent with the Republican Party's overall message on marijuana, which remains fairly consistent even as the party takes up many other issues. After all, Richard Nixon led the War on Drugs, Ronald Reagan declared marijuana “probably the most dangerous drug in America,” and both Presidents Bush insisted that the federal government remain prohibitionist. A large-scale crackdown was carried out to demonstrate this. In some quarters, President Trump said in 2015 that recreational marijuana is “evil, and I feel very strongly about that.” He also claims that, as president, he donated a portion of his salary to fund public health campaigns against the drug, but says sometimes states should decide. To be legalized.
But Republican voters are gradually moving away from the party's hardline stance. According to Gallup, which has tracked Americans' views on marijuana annually since 1969, a small majority now favors legalization. The new Republican support is as much a question of age as it is politics. Unlike major state parties, the Florida Young Republicans group argued that legalization is the “obvious choice.”
If Florida becomes a trendsetter for Republicans, it won't be the first time. A similar thing happened with medical marijuana. By the time legalization happened in Florida, many blue states had already given the green light to their own medical marijuana programs. But Florida was the first state in the South to distribute medical marijuana. Over the next few years, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana followed. If Florida passes the new bill, it would be a “remarkable indicator of this pattern that we've been seeing,” said Joan Spets, director of the Health Policy Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. Ta.
The spread of medical marijuana is due in part to more conservative states learning from the experience of more liberal states, making programs more palatable to citizens who don't want to see seaside pot clerks selling medical cards to every tourist. It was also influenced by the design of headache. Daniel Mallinson, a public policy professor at Penn State Harrisburg, said medical marijuana programs in red states “tend to be more restrictive” than those in blue states. The same may be true for recreational cannabis. Whether states follow Florida's lead may depend on whether they can implement legalization in a way that simultaneously satisfies the wishes of voters and prevents village retirees from complaining about suddenly being shipped to Denver. do not have. Simply put, the cause may be the smell.
“We don't want every hotel to really stink,” DeSantis warned at a press conference in early March. It's a concern echoed by Trump himself, who said last month that Florida “needs to make sure you don't smell marijuana everywhere you go, like in a lot of Democratic-run cities.” Posted. New York's Republican Party has banned marijuana smoking in public spaces in response to New Yorkers who are “regularly assaulted by the pungent odor of marijuana on public sidewalks, parking lots, and other public spaces.” A bill was proposed to ban it. Democratic Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged the odor is pervasive. And Vance opposed legalization efforts in his state because he wanted to be able to “do normal things without having the smell of marijuana slapped in my face.”
Of course, most states where marijuana is legal also restrict its public consumption, but enforcement is often spotty. Florida is not well known for effectively preventing public disorder. The state is plagued by Disney World patrons trying to steal golf carts, annual spring break riots, and men who take risks with alligators (throwing them out of drive-thru windows, stealing them from miniature cars). This is a state that is being talked about. -golf course).
Even if Florida enters a new era of reefer madness and manages to keep Disney World tourists, spring breakers, and “Floridamen” calm, not all red states will soon follow suit. Voters in Oklahoma and Arkansas voted against legalization in recent years. Still, Florida's action could be a victory, even for anti-weed conservatives. they are right. Marijuana is addictive and cannabis smoke has a foul odor. However, the current state of marijuana prohibition at the federal level places it in a gray area, preventing research on university campuses and regulation by the FDA. Sure, legalization might mean Republicans smelling marijuana on street corners, but it could also allow for more research into marijuana's effects and tighten regulations on when and where it can be used. There is also.
Until a significant number of red states embrace recreational marijuana, it's hard to see anything change. You can't get all the Republicans involved in Florida overnight, but maybe in the near future Dave Portnoy and his “stoolies” in Florida will be able to legally order pizza, watch football, and have a joint on the couch. You'll be able to smoke it.
