Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has expressed support for a proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana in Florida, his home state. He said a person should not be a criminal in Florida, when it is legal in many other states.
“Personal marijuana will be legal for adults with Florida’s Amendment 3, whether we like it or not. We don’t need to destroy lives and waste Taxpayer Dollars by arresting adults with personal amounts of money on them,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday (8/31), as reported by the Guardian, Sunday (9/1).
The former US president and Florida resident said he would be able to vote on the state’s Amendment 3 in November, which would allow adults over the age of 21 to legally purchase and use marijuana without a medical card.
Under the proposed amendments, growing marijuana on your own would remain illegal and no person would be allowed to possess more than three ounces of marijuana for personal use.
Trump’s support stands in contrast to Florida Governor and fellow Republican Ron DeSantis, who has been a vocal opponent of the vote. “This is bad policy and even worse constitutional law,” DeSantis wrote in an X post this week.
DeSantis said he opposed Amendment 3 because of the smell, and claimed, without evidence, that people could bring 20 joints into an elementary school.
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In his social media post, Trump called on state lawmakers to enact laws banning marijuana use in public spaces. “So that we don’t smell marijuana everywhere we go,” he said.
But supporters of marijuana legalization argue that Republican lawmakers are exaggerating the scale of the marijuana odor problem to support policies that ban public marijuana use, which have become increasingly accepted by Americans over the years.
Most U.S. states now allow marijuana use for medical or recreational purposes. In recent years, 24 states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational marijuana use and another 14 have approved it for medical use, according to the Pew Research Center.
The Florida amendment requires 60% voter support to pass, while public opinion polls show that a majority of Florida voters support the measure.
Voters in South Dakota and North Dakota will also decide on ballot initiatives proposing to legalize recreational marijuana in November’s election. Trump’s marijuana-related posts on Truth Social on Saturday came amid polls that generally show him trailing vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in key battleground states that could shape the White House race between the two countries. (I-2)
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