Elections are fast approaching and campaigning for certain ballot initiatives are in full swing in Florida, where a hot button topic is Amendment 3 involving the adult personal use of marijuana.
Elections are fast approaching and campaigning for certain ballot initiatives are in full swing in Florida, where a hot button topic is Amendment 3 involving the adult personal use of marijuana.
On Monday, the 7th annual Cannabis Lab Conference was underway in Hollywood, and their underlying message is to Vote Yes on 3.
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"Amendment 3 is going to increase the customer base exponentially and it's going to require infrastructure in our company builds infrastructure,” Mark Gemignani the CEO of DAG shares.
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Those in the cannabis industry convened on Monday to network ahead of election day and advocate for Amendment 3.
“We are very excited at GoldFlower cannabis for to get a passing vote and it will open up many job opportunities it will help finance many things in the state," said Valeria Berger, the VP of Operations of GoldFlower Cannabis shares.
Those present claim that if passed, the ballot initiative will help bring legal recreational cannabis to users who are not medical marijuana cardholders, bring more jobs to the state, and make the industry more competitive.
“There will be a tax that will bring in a lot of revenue and it's just going to bring just people. If you have a shopping center and people are coming for cannabis it will bring more customers to those tenants in those shopping centers, and for tourists, they will be able to put that money in the Florida economy,” explained Dustin Robinson, known as "Mr. Cannabis Law."
But critics are saying the opposite.
Advertisements from the coalition Vote No on 3 claim the ballot initiative will allow corporations to not be held accountable. They also claim that the scent of weed will be smelled everywhere in Florida.
But Robinson said that is not exactly true.
"At the end of the day the legislature is going to pass a statute, that is going to pass where it can be consumed, how it can be consumed, all of those things will be figured at through the legislature," he said.
The legislature would also be the ones to decide if growing marijuana in your home could become legal, but that’s not a discussion for now, as Amendment 3 makes no mention of home grow.
If Amendment 3 passes, Florida will continue to mandate that cannabis sold in this state be cultivated, grown, packaged and sold right here in Florida. And it can only be done so by a licensed facility.
There are currently 24 medical marijuana treatment centers that have no cap on how many stores they can have in the state.
And there’s no clear indication if there will be more MMTC’s if Amendment 3 passes.
“If the department wants to license more they can license more, if the legislature wants to pass more laws that requires more license they can do so, but right now they way it stands it will remain vertically integrated,” Robinson said.
Some local municipalities have already had discussions on how they will navigate things if the amendment passes. On Monday, Miami Beach was set to have those discussions, but they tabled the conversation until after the elections.
