Trump’s support of Amendment 3 is a game-changer for Amendment 3 — and perhaps Trump

For the pro-legalization crowd tuning in from out of state, a Trump endorsement still carries water Florida. A lot of it.

From 2018 on, “Thus spake Trump” has been the TL;DR version of the typical contested Republican Primary. That’s certainly how it worked out for Ron DeSantis six years ago, and for countless Representatives and Senators in the cycles since.

Trump’s endorsement carries so much weight, in fact, that “pre-endorsements” are now in vogue. Yes, they’re exactly what they sound like; yes, they work.

Trump didn’t offer his usual “Complete And Total Endorsement” to the measure, which will appear on the November ballot as Amendment 3. Instead, the Republican Presidential nominee showed a flash of pragmatism on Truth Social, arguing that recreational pot is an inevitability, and the true policy dilemmas are related to its implementation, such as with “time, place and manner” restrictions.

“We need the State Legislature to responsibly create laws that prohibit the use of it in public spaces, so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat run Cities. At the same time, someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other States. We do not need to ruin lives & waste Taxpayer Dollars arresting adults with personal amounts of it on them, and no one should grieve a loved one because they died from fentanyl laced marijuana. We will make America SAFE again!”

The former President is walking a narrow tightrope here: He wants to be the “law and order” candidate in this race, and thus far the organized opposition to Amendment 3 have said legal pot would make Florida less safe.

The Florida Sheriff’s Association said it was against Amendment 3 because it would infringe upon “the rights of citizens to live and work in a community where drug use is not normalized and citizens are not affected by the adverse effects of drug misuse.”

They, the Republican Party of Florida and the DeSantis-backed committee Vote No on 3 are — or at least were, before Trump’s bombshell — working in concert to defeat the proposed constitutional amendment.

You could argue Trump’s statement throws a wrench in the gears, but really it just makes things easier on everybody.

He knows this amendment is likely to pass. He knows the writing is on the wall elsewhere. He knows a contingent of his political allies are finding it increasingly difficult to make a cogent argument for preserving the status quo.

To Amendment 3’s opponents, this is a ripcord that allows them to stop fighting a losing battle and focus on implementation policy. It likewise saves pro-pot conservatives from doing mental gymnastics at their polling place in nine weeks. And, for the pro-Trump anti-pot crowd, it can be a wakeup call.