Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) expressed his disapproval of two proposed amendments to the Florida Constitution that are now on the ballot.
Florida residents will be voting on whether to change the state’s constitution in favor of abortion and marijuana use. At the moment, recreational marijuana use outside of medical reasons is banned, and abortion is banned after six weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, human trafficking, or to save the life of the mother. DeSantis pointed to a single marijuana company that has contributed $100 million to the ballot initiative.
“People say it’s legalization of recreational weed — that’s partially true. They’re saying you have the right to possess it and smoke it, but only if you buy it from them. Because they’re setting up a cartel in Constitution of Florida, so if you want to grow your own marijuana, that is not in the amendment,” DeSantis said on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle Monday. “Even if you like marijuana, this is not the appropriate vehicle for it.”
DeSantis is openly straying from former President Donald Trump’s position on the matter, as he is for the legalization of recreational marijuana.
In addition to voting against Amendment 3, DeSantis recommended Floridians vote against Amendment 4. He suggested as voters learn more about these initiatives, they will be against them.
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“As people find out how this Amendment 4 is written, the support goes down traumatically. You’re seeing that. It is basically a proposal of abortion all the way up until birth for virtually any reason. It eliminates parental consent for minors,” Florida’s governor said. “But then, something that’s probably more radical than even what California has done, they replaced the requirement that a physician be the one performing an abortion with the term ‘healthcare provider.’”
Florida reported 377,035 in-person early voters after its first day, Monday, which set a record after its 2020 election turnout. Republican voters, in particular, set a record for in-person voting with more than 202,000 ballots, almost double that of the Democratic voters, according to the Florida Republican Party.