Billionaire Ken Griffin commits $12M to defeat recreational pot campaign

Billionaire Ken Griffin is giving a staggering $12 million to the campaign to defeat Amendment 3, a move that will jolt the effort to block the recreational marijuana initiative.

Griffin, the CEO of hedge fund firm Citadel who relocated his business from Chicago two years ago, announced his support in a Miami Herald op-ed.

“Passage of Amendment 3 would create a monopoly for large marijuana dispensaries and permit pot use in public and private areas throughout Florida,” Griffin wrote. “That will help no one other than special interests — and it will hurt us all, especially through more dangerous roads, a higher risk of addiction among our youth, and an increase in crime.”

Griffin said in the op-ed that he was pledging a total of $20 million to both candidates and to the political committee, Keep Florida Clean, that was recently set up to oppose the amendment. Keep Florida Clean is led by James Uthmeier, the Chief of Staff for Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Griffin is known for being among one of the most prominent political donors in the nation. He recently gave $500,000 to a political committee supporting the re-election of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. Griffin in 2021 gave $5 million to a political committee supporting DeSantis.

If approved by at least 60% of voters, Amendment 3 would allow adults in Florida to possess and use recreational marijuana. Voters approved the use of medical marijuana in 2016.

Medical marijuana giant Trulieve has bankrolled most of the effort to get the new amendment on the ballot and passed, and has spent nearly $60 million so far.

Griffin’s announcement that he was going to help defeat the amendment comes the same week that two law enforcement groups announced their opposition Amendment 3. DeSantis and the Republican Party of Florida are also against the amendment, with DeSantis forcefully denouncing the measure that he says will diminish the quality of life in Florida.

“These valuable resources will help us as we continue to ramp up what will be a vigorous and full-throated campaign to warn Floridians about this deceptive amendment that would make Florida the California of the east,” said Sarah Bascom, a spokesperson for the effort to defeat Amendment 3. 

Smart & Safe Florida —the official committee backing the amendment — has already started airing television and radio ads touting passage.

And earlier this week Sen. Joe Gruters, the former Chair of the Republican Party of Florida, said he was endorsing Amendment 3. Gruters’ backing of the initiative is notable because he is a longtime ally of President Donald Trump who has clashed with DeSantis in the past.

Gruters called backing the amendment a “common-sense decision” and that “by legalizing recreational marijuana for adults, we can give Floridians access to safe products, generate significant revenue for critical public services and create new job opportunities for Floridians.”

A new poll released this week by the University of North Florida had the amendment getting 64% approval — which is above the 60% threshold needed to pass. The poll, however, did have a 4.6-percentage-point margin of error, which means it could be teetering on the edge.