'It Makes No Sense That You Would Do That': Ron DeSantis Blasts 'Bogus' Ballot Initiatives

4 months ago

At a press briefing on Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) spoke about ballot initiatives in his state.

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Transcript

00:00You'll know it when we decide to weigh in, you know, we're, we clearly are going to be, you know, with that Freedom Fund,

00:09we are working with a lot of stakeholders who are interested in making sure that we defeat the Amendment 3,

00:16which would basically do marijuana wherever you want.

00:21Just smoke it, take it, and it would turn Florida into San Francisco or Chicago or some of these places.

00:28And it's not, we already have medical marijuana, it's out there, but we've got to keep our streets clean.

00:34We cannot have every town smelling like marijuana.

00:38We cannot have every hotel smelling, theme parks.

00:42And so a lot of folks have used our vehicle that we'll then be able to apply appropriately when it comes time for that to happen.

00:52But if you, this is why these ballot initiatives are so bogus.

00:57What you will see as a voter is not what actually gets put into the Constitution.

01:03Who would vote on something that they don't even get a chance to read?

01:07It makes no sense that you would do that.

01:09So they draft this summary.

01:11Whoever pays to get on the ballot, they draft their own summary.

01:14And they try to make it as pleasant as possible.

01:17They focus group the language.

01:19They poll test it.

01:21They do all this stuff to try to get voters to say, sounds good, whatever, I'll vote yes on it.

01:26If you actually read the language of the amendment, it paints a different picture.

01:32And, you know, the Supreme Court has a role in reviewing this to make sure that summary is an accurate reflection of the text.

01:39And by a five to two vote, they said it was.

01:42The two justices who dissented were correct on this.

01:46And if you read that actual text of the Constitution that will go in, it says there can be no penalty, criminal, civil or otherwise,

01:57for smoking or possessing up to three ounces of pot, which is about 40 to 50 joints.

02:03Some law enforcement say more.

02:05So that means like you have it on in a school.

02:08They can't they can't punish you.

02:10You can I think you mean you bring it into restaurants and use and they're not going to do anything.

02:15Indoor smoking law in Florida does not apply to this.

02:18There's no limitations in the amendment language.

02:21And so I think what will happen is it's more broad, this amendment, for you to be able to possess and smoke pot than the first amendment is,

02:32than the second amendment is, than like core amendments that grew out of the founding of this country.

02:37So I think what will happen is it's going to be everywhere.

02:40And some people say, well, a business could still exclude somebody who's doing marijuana.

02:45Now, the amendment does not say you can do that.

02:48So I think that's an open question.

02:50But even if somehow that were right, once it's a constitutional right, law enforcement is not going to want to get involved.

02:56And so you're going to end up it's going to be like Colorado.

02:59Talk to the people of Colorado about what happened.

03:02Look, if this were just something that was like had never been tried, people can make arguments.

03:08We've seen how it's operated in Colorado, California, New York, these places.

03:13It has not worked in any single place.

03:16I saw some YouTube ad that they're running saying, oh, well, people are using it.

03:21This will make it legal and safe and all that.

03:24Let me tell you this, in Colorado and California, when they did legal recreational marijuana,

03:29which was actually this amendment in Florida is more liberal than Colorado, what they did,

03:34when they did that, it created a bigger black market.

03:39The drug cartels benefited from that.

03:42It was a failed experiment.

03:44And I just got a lot of great things going in this state.

03:47I don't know why we would want to be in a situation where we're fiddling around with our state's constitution.

03:54And, oh, by the way, if you're on the fence about this, if you vote for it, if it somehow passes and you end up being wrong,

04:01we can't just have Senator Baxley and Rep True now go in and fix it in the legislature.

04:07It's got to be part of the constitution.

04:09You're not going to be able to functionally, you're not going to be able to change it.

04:12And I just think that that's something that people should know about.

04:19All right.

04:20It's great to be in Lake County, and it's great to be in Umatilla.

04:24And we will make sure that we make it back soon.

04:26God bless you all.

04:27Thank you.

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'It Makes No Sense That You Would Do That': Ron DeSantis Blasts 'Bogus' Ballot Initiatives

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