Jacob Ogles
A new campaign ad promoting a recreational marijuana amendment fact-checks critics — and does so with a Republican leader’s voice.
Sen. Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican, looks to the camera in “Blowing Smoke,” a 30-second ad from the Smart & Safe Florida Campaign. The former Republican Party of Florida Chair takes on a number of accusations, many of them made by Gov. Ron DeSantis, about what Amendment 3 would mean for Florida if it passes.
“I led the fight to ban smoking on Florida’s public beaches,” Gruters says, “so trust me, these attacks about Amendment 3 are just blowing smoke.”
Gruters spent years on legislation that ultimately authorized local governments to regulate cigarette smoking in public parks. When the Republican endorsed Amendment 3 earlier this year, he said the Legislature in enacting legislation decriminalizing cannabis could restrict where it gets smoked, just like tobacco.
“Florida will do marijuana legalization the right way,” Gruters says in the ad. “Smoking marijuana or anything else in public should be illegal.”
DeSantis has said the amendment if it passes will leave lawmakers hamstrung, unable to stop smoking weed at schools, much less beaches.
“I think it’s basically going to green light marijuana usage in all these different parts of the state where we don’t want that to happen,” DeSantis told reporters in April.
Amendment 3 backers have pushed back on those assertions and others.
“The truth is central to this campaign, and as we approach Election Day, it’s important for us to call out which arguments are simply blowing smoke,” said Morgan Hill, Smart & Safe spokesperson.
“Instead of arguing in good-faith, opponents of Amendment 3 are using scare tactics to keep Floridians from enjoying the same individual freedoms and access to safe, lab-tested marijuana that over half the country, in 24 states and D.C., already enjoys.”
Gruters reiterates that in the ad, saying lawmakers can regulate recreational pot the same as was done with medical marijuana when voters put that in Florida’s constitution in 2016.
“Amendment 3 gives adults the freedom to use safe regulated marijuana all while protecting our public spaces, so don’t buy the lies,” Gruters said.
