Florida’s state economists project legal recreational marijuana sales could generate up to $430 million a year in local and state tax revenues, if voters approve Amendment 3 on November’s ballot.
That's enough money to "right past wrongs," according to some supporters of the measure, who want to see social equity programs implemented alongside the legalization of recreational cannabis for adults 21 years or older.
Racial justice advocates are pushing for Florida to implement policies like those adopted in other states. The advocates say such changes would remedy harm suffered by people of color under decades of discriminatory enforcement of drug laws.
A majority of the 24 states that have legalized recreational marijuana have implemented social equity policies, such as expunging marijuana-related convictions from criminal records, reinvesting marijuana tax dollars in impacted communities, and supporting Black participation in the cannabis industry through grants and incentives.
But similar proposals in Florida would face an uphill battle under Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration and the Republican-led Legislature, which in recent years have assailed diversity, equity and inclusion policies as "woke" and "indoctrination," critics say.
“Allocating dollars towards communities that have been harmed by the drug war should be a priority,” state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando, told WLRN. “And that can include housing assistance, small business loans, job training, violence prevention programs.”
Eskamani said she plans to work across the aisle “to make sure that we are carrying out the implementation with the intent of righting wrongs.”
From the War on Drugs to marijuana legalization
Massachusetts was the first state to enact statewide social equity provisions tied to its cannabis law. Officials there recently expunged tens of thousands of low-level marijuana records and launched a $25 million trust fund to help minority-owned cannabis businesses start and scale.
Shaleen Title, a cannabis scholar at Ohio State University and Massachusetts' former top marijuana regulator, said tax dollars from marijuana sales could pay for "mental health assistance, jobs training and early education" in communities hit hardest by racist drug policies.
Similar social equity programs nationally have seen a return on investment of $4.56 for every dollar spent, according to a 2022 study from Supernova Women, a nonprofit based in California.
This approach could serve as a blueprint for Florida if Amendment 3 is approved, said Dwight Bullard, a former Democratic state senator and current senior political advisor with the economic and racial justice advocacy organization Florida Rising.
“The hope for organizations like ours is that once Amendment 3 is passed, that you now have the conversation like we've seen in other states around social equity, around access to capital for communities impacted by the War on Drugs,” he said.
The term War on Drugs refers to President Richard Nixon's agenda in the 1970s to crack down on drug-related offenses, which critics later widely condemned as deliberately targeted at Black people. The agenda expanded under former presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, and led to decades of mass incarcerations of people of color for mostly nonviolent drug offenses.
"At every stage of the criminal justice process — from the geographical distribution of police, to stops and searches, to arrest, to pretrial detention, to sentencing, to post-conviction, to collateral consequences — communities of color, especially Black communities, disproportionately bear the brunt of the War on Drugs," according to the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
The disproportionate enforcement continues today. Black Americans are arrested for marijuana possession nearly four times more often than white Americans, despite both groups using marijuana at similar rates, according to a study from the American Civil Liberties Union.
The result is generational barriers to employment, voting rights, business loans and housing.
“We see the ripple effect of the drug war in our communities — in our predominantly Black and brown and working-class communities,” said Eskamani.
Eskamani said she will be among the legislators who advocate for social equity programs to address these disparities during the implementation of Amendment 3, if it passes.
When asked whether they would support such programs, Republican leaders of the state House and Senate declined to comment or did not respond.
A spokes person for DeSantis would not respond directly to questions about social equity programs related to cannabis but reiterated that the governor generally opposes DEI efforts and refers to them as "discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination."
An effort to boost Black business owners in the cannabis industry
Some states that have legalized cannabis have also taken steps to level the playing field for Black business owners in the $9 billion industry. Less than 2% of legal cannabis businesses in the U.S. are owned by Black individuals.
Florida voters approved medical marijuana in 2016, and now the state has a $2 billion cannabis industry, the largest medical-only market in the country.
There are more than 1,200 cannabis dispensaries across Florida, according to Pew Research. California leads the nation with more than 3,600.
But since 2016, Florida has issued just 22 licenses to cultivate, process and dispense medical marijuana, according to the state's Office of Medical Marijuana Use. Until recently, no state license had been issued to a Black-owned business.
The 2016 constitutional amendment designated just one license — the Pigford Black Farmer License (BFL) — for claimants of the 1997 class-action lawsuit, Pigford v. Glickman. In the fall of 2022, Terry Donnell Gwinn became the first Black farmer to receive a license under the state's medical marijuana program connected to the Pigford lawsuit.
A new Florida health law is helping more Black farmers secure licenses to grow and sell marijuana, addressing historical inequities highlighted by the Pigford lawsuit, which exposed systemic discrimination by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The law, which took effect this year, could result in a total of six Black farmers involved in the Pigford litigation receiving Medical Marijuana Treatment Center licenses.
Based on recent polling, a bipartisan majority of Florida voters support Amendment 3, but it's unclear if it will reach the 60% threshold needed for approval in November.
If Amendment 3 does pass, existing MMTCs will be allowed to sell recreational cannabis in addition to medical products. The Legislature will continue to have the power to regulate the cultivation and sale of all cannabis products.
Discrimination is one barrier Black entrepreneurs face, and costs are another. Just applying for an MMTC license can add up to nearly $150,000, while total start-up expenses can soar into the tens of millions.
Jana Hrdinová, administrative director of Ohio State'sDrug Enforcement and Policy Center, said it’s only going to get more difficult for Black entrepreneurs because “as the market matures, we see more consolidation, more larger companies entering the market.”
Hrdinová said larger businesses, who had a head start, “push out the smaller companies that do not have the same amount of funding available or resources available to them.”
It’s more than just high licensing costs. Florida requires marijuana businesses to have a vertically integrated license. In other words, marijuana businesses must have the ability to cultivate, process, dispense and transport the product.
Critics say vertical integration requirements make it difficult for small businesses to compete in the market.
A horizontal license, in Florida, would have allowed businesses that specialize in different areas to outsource what it can’t do, focusing on specific parts of the production process, and reducing the financial burden on licensees. For example, cannabis farmers cultivate, a store dispenses and a distributor distributes.
To prevent monopolization, states like New York and Washington removed full vertical integration for their adult-use recreational market, prohibiting retailers from being involved in producing or processing cannabis.
The Florida Legislature has rulemaking authority and maintains its existing vertical integration license requirement, following a state Supreme Court ruling in 2021.
Keep Florida Clean, a well-funded political committee tied to DeSantis which is running ads against Amendment 3, claims Florida's large cannabis businesses will corner the market and create a monopoly if it passes.
Trulieve, the largest marijuana business in the state and the biggest supporter of Amendment 3, has raised more than $100 million through the political committee, Smart and Safe Florida, to support Amendment 3.
Other major cannabis companies in Florida, such as Curaleaf, Verano and Cresco Labs, are also part of a coalition backing the legalization initiative.
“If you read the amendment itself, it clearly states right there that this amendment allows for an expanded marketplace,” said Steven Vancore, a Trulieve spokesman. “It allows for broader licenses. It allows us to create a more competitive market, not a less competitive market.”
Ann Sorrell, founder of Cannabiziac, a Palm Beach County-based network and incubator for cannabis businesses, is in favor of the amendment.
If it passes, she hopes to see government funding to support education, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for Black entrepreneurs trying to crack into the industry.
“Free the plant! Free the people!" she said.
Copyright 2024 WLRN Public Media
