Last Call for 7.25.23 — A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics

Last Call — A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.

First Shot

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services completed its largest-ever inspection sweep of hemp extract vendors, nabbing nearly thousands of illegal products targeting children.

The weeklong statewide inspection sweep, “Operation Kandy Krush,” targeted hemp extract products deemed attractive to and/or marketed toward children, which is prohibited by Florida law. FDACS inspected more than 475 food establishments across 37 counties and uncovered 68,689 packages of hemp extract products, including high-potency THC products.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to safeguarding Florida’s children and consumers, we launched ‘Operation Kandy Krush,’ Florida’s most extensive hemp inspection sweep ever. Today, we’re proud to announce the results, as we’ve uncovered nearly 70,000 hemp products — including euphoric, high-potency THC products — specifically designed to appeal to children, a blatant violation of Florida Law,” Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson said.

“After the Florida Legislature worked this year to reform Florida’s hemp laws, this operation now sends a clear message that illegal and unsafe hemp products have no place in our state, and we will continue diligently enforcing the law to keep our communities safe.”

The new law (SB 1676) maintained age limits for the purchase and usage of hemp products and a ban on packaging that’s “attractive to children.” Products running afoul of the statute include those manufactured in the shape of humans, cartoons, or animals; manufactured in a form that bears any reasonable resemblance to an existing candy product that is familiar to the public that could be mistaken for the branded product, especially by children; or containing any color additives.

The legislation primarily focused on food and food safety, and does not affect creams, lotions, shampoos and other “non-ingestible hemp products.”

FDACS said the law closed a loophole that allowed the manufacture and sale of euphoric, high-potency hemp products — such as delta-8 — for consumption without restrictions, including to minors. 

Evening Reads

—“Ron DeSantis’ latest staff shake-up is part of a pattern” via Eric Cortellessa of TIME 

—“Shock: DeSantis’ ‘Never Back Down’ PAC may pivot to Tim Scott, Glenn Youngkin.” via Jack Montgomery of The National Pulse

—“DeSantis’ silver bullet is now a dud” via Aaron Blake of The Washington Post

—“Pollster claims DeSantis’ ‘message falls flat’” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics

—”DeSantis promoted the Bud Light boycott. Now he’s mad it worked.” via Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post

—“A minor reboot won’t save DeSantis’ toxic campaign” via John Cassidy of The New Yorker

—“DeSantis staff keep boosting Twitter account that makes Nazi memes” via Kelly Weill of The Daily Beast

—”A growing share of Americans think states shouldn’t be able to put any limits on abortion” via Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux of FiveThirtyEight

—”The weird sorrow of losing Twitter” via Aja Romano of Vox

—”What is Elon Musk thinking?” via Charlie Warzel of The Atlantic

Quote of the Day

“He will have nothing to do with the general consultant, the campaign manager, the financial consultant, neither one of the media firms, or the polling firm. Most of the time when politicians win races, especially when they’re close, hard-fought races, they keep at least some members of the team that helped them win. But he basically will have nothing to do with any of them.”

— GOP consultant Whit Ayres, on Ron DeSantis’ relationship with his 2018 campaign staff.

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Breakthrough Insights

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Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.