Aug. 31 (UPI) — Donald Trump on Saturday said he supports a ballot initiative in his home state of Florida that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and older.
“Someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social about Amendment 3. “We do not need to ruin lives & waste Taxpayer Dollars arresting adults with personal amounts of it on them, and no one should grieve a loved one because they died from fentanyl laced marijuana. We will make America SAFE again!”
One day earlier, he said he opposes another ballet initiative measure in Florida: Amendment 4, which seeks to change the state’s ban on abortion from six weeks of pregnancy to around 24 weeks.
Both measures require 60% of approval by voters in the Nov. 5 election for passage.
The marijuana amendment would authorize 25 companies licensed by the state to sell pot to adults for recreational use and allow the possession of the substance up to 3 ounces. Medical marijuana usage already is legal in the state.
With Trump’s residence in Mar-a-lago in Palm Beach, Trump is eligible to vote on the two measures.
“Whether people like it or not, this will happen through the approval of the Voters, so it should be done correctly,” he wrote. “We need the State Legislature to responsibly create laws that prohibit the use of it in public spaces, so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat run Cities.”
The marijuana proposal is backed by Florida’s medical marijuana industry. It is one of the largest in the country and brings in more than $2 billion in profits each year.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is against both ballot measures, launching a political committee called the Florida Freedom Fund to attack the legalization push and efforts to enshrine the right to abortion in the state’s constitution.
DeSantis helped launch the “No on 3” campaign in July, which released a statement saying that the initiative would lead to “weed everywhere, every place, and in your face.”
Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters, a Trump ally and former state GOP chair, wrote on X: “I am incredibly proud to have President Trump stand alongside us in our effort to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for simple possession of marijuana and to give Floridians the same individual freedom to choose safe, tested products that more than half the country already enjoys.”
Eighty-eight percent of Americans say marijuana should be legal for personal or medical use, according to a March study by the Pew Research Center.
Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, but 24 states and Washington, D.C., have passed legislation allowing recreational use.
The issue also will be on the ballot in South Dakota and Nebraska in November.
Only three states have approved the measure with at least 60%: New Jersey and Arizona in 2020, and Maryland in 2022.
Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have approved medical marijuana use.
Regarding the abortion issue, on Thursday Trump told NBC News that Florida’s six-week ban is “too short” and declined to take a clear stance on a state ballot measure.
But he face backlash from anti-abortion advocates.
“So I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks,” he told Fox News. “I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it, I disagreed with it.
“At the same time, the Democrats are radical, because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation where you can do an abortion in the ninth month. … So I’ll be voting no for that reason.”
Vice President Kamala Harris‘ campaign said that Trump “will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant.”