Group backing marijuana legalization takes in $116K in last week of July

Bills to cap pot potency were stamped out. Image via AP.

The group pushing the passage of Amendment 3 took in more than $116,000 in the final week of July, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

Smart & Safe Florida, which has raised nearly $67 million over the past two years to try to legalize recreational marijuana, received $100,000 from Insa, which operates several medical marijuana dispensaries across the state. The campaign report also showed that Verano Holdings donated more than $9,000 worth of T-shirts to the committee.

This may be the last set of reports that shows proponents of Amendment 3 with a large financial advantage over those opposed to the amendment.

Smart & Safe Florida has about $12.5 million in its campaign account as of July 26 after spending millions to gather signatures to get Amendment 3 on the ballot. The committee has also spent several million on television and radio ads.

But a political committee that was formed to oppose the amendment announced last week that billionaire Ken Griffin has given them $12 million. The committee called Keep Florida Clean and led by James Uthmeier, who is also Chief of Staff for Gov. Ron DeSantis, had only raised $200 according to the campaign finance reports filed so far. The donation from Griffin, who leads his own hedge fund company, will likely show up on the group’s next filing.

Griffin’s announcement that he was going to help defeat the amendment comes the same week that two law enforcement groups announced their opposition to Amendment 3.

So far, the biggest donor involved in Amendment 3 has been medical marijuana giant Trulieve. The company has donated around $60 million of the total donated to Smart & Safe Florida. If passed by at least 60% of voters, Amendment 3 would allow adults in Florida to possess and use recreational marijuana. Medical marijuana was approved by voters in 2016.

Amendment 3 is opposed by DeSantis and the Republican Party of Florida. But the measure has lined up support from some Republicans, including Sen. Joe Gruters, the former Chair of the Republican Party of Florida. 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. 

A new poll released last 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 plus/minus margin of error which means it could be teetering on the edge.