DeSantis, hemp and the GOP form an alliance to kill effort to legalize weed in Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state Republican Party and the burgeoning Florida hemp industry are joining forces to defeat a proposal on this November’s ballot to legalize recreational marijuana.
In early June, DeSantis vetoed a bill that could have put large swaths of the hemp industry out of business, in part, by making key cannabinoids illegal. And now, the industry is contributing both to DeSantis’ political committee and to the Republican Party of Florida to work against the recreational marijuana proposal that is largely backed by the state and nation’s largest marijuana company, Trulieve.
But the alliance is less of a coordinated effort and more of a natural occurrence, said J.D. McCormick, president of one of the state’s largest hemp groups, Florida Healthy Alternatives Association.
“Without Governor DeSantis, the hemp industry right now would be illegal in Florida. And then Trulieve would go on to develop a monopoly” should the marijuana amendment pass, McCormick said. “It’s just the natural course of events. Now that we’re alive and still here, we’re going to try to fight them” on the amendment.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article289979694.html
I didn't get why the hemp industry would be so adamantly opposed to legalizing marijuana, but the story is clarified further in the article. The hemp industry provides "marijuana-adjacent" products like CBD gummies and the like, and so feels their products would be threatened by legal marijuana -- and both the Florida state Republican chairman and its executive director are lobbyists for the hemp industry. Now I understand.