Donald Trump has stated he’ll vote to legalize private use of marijuana in his residence state of Florida forward of a November vote on the problem.
The Republican presidential candidate wrote on his “Reality Social” platform that voters will doubtless approve the measure “whether or not folks prefer it or not” and subsequently “must be applied appropriately.”
The previous US president’s stance places him at odds with different senior Republican figures, together with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who believes legalizing leisure marijuana can be “unhealthy for high quality of life”.
In 2016, medicinal marijuana was legalized in Florida.
Marijuana for private and medical use is authorized in 24 U.S. states, in response to the Pew Analysis Middle. One other 14 states have legalized medical marijuana.
“Within the state of Florida, somebody shouldn’t be a legal, which is authorized in lots of different states,” Trump stated.
“We don’t must wreck lives and waste taxpayer {dollars} arresting adults for carrying private property.”
The proposal is one in every of a number of amendments Florida residents will vote on in November as the US elects a brand new president. Trump is working towards present Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Concerning the legalization of marijuana for private use, Trump stated that there must be guidelines “to ban using marijuana in public locations in order that we do not have the scent of marijuana in all places like in lots of Democratic-run cities.”
DeSantis claimed that making marijuana authorized for leisure use “would flip Florida into San Francisco or Chicago” — each Democratic-run states.
Hashish was legalized in Illinois in 2020 and gross sales exceeded $1bn (£760m) between January and July this 12 months, in response to state authorities statistics.
In California, the place private use of marijuana was legalized in 2016, gross sales reached $4.4 billion final 12 months.
Nonetheless, it is unclear how these numbers examine to black market marijuana gross sales, which in response to some are nonetheless thriving.
Authorized growers and sellers should receive licenses and pay taxes, which could be pricey and probably make marijuana costlier.
“The black market may be very prevalent and positively bigger than the authorized market,” Invoice Jones, chief of enforcement for the California Division of Hashish Management, instructed NPR earlier this 12 months.
Trump has already triggered some confusion with one other modification on Florida’s November poll. He stated Friday he would vote towards a Florida measure This will protect abortion rights, after dealing with backlash from conservative supporters.
Florida bans abortion after six weeks of being pregnant – the modification proposes extending being pregnant to 24 weeks. Trump initially expressed help for the proposal.
His marketing campaign later claimed that he had not revealed how he would vote however that the six-week interval was “too brief.” The subsequent day, at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Seaside, Florida, Trump stated he would vote “no.”
