Donald Trump has said he will vote to legalize personal use of marijuana in his home state of Florida ahead of a November vote on the issue.
The Republican presidential candidate wrote on his “Truth Social” platform that voters will likely approve the measure “whether people like it or not” and therefore “should be implemented correctly.”
The former US president’s stance puts him at odds with other senior Republican figures, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who believes legalizing recreational marijuana would be “bad for quality of life”.
In 2016, medicinal marijuana was legalized in Florida.
Marijuana for personal and medical use is legal in 24 U.S. states, according to the Pew Research Center. Another 14 states have legalized medical marijuana.
“In the state of Florida, someone should not be a criminal, which is legal in many other states,” Trump said.
“We don’t need to ruin lives and waste taxpayer dollars arresting adults for carrying personal property.”
The proposal is one of several amendments Florida residents will vote on in November as the United States elects a new president. Trump is running against current Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
Regarding the legalization of personal use of marijuana, Trump said that there needs to be rules “to prohibit the use of marijuana in public places so that we don’t have the smell of marijuana everywhere like in many Democratic-run cities.”
DeSantis claimed that making marijuana legal for recreational use “would turn Florida into San Francisco or Chicago” — both Democratic-run states.
Cannabis was legalized in Illinois in 2020 and sales exceeded $1bn (£760m) between January and July this year, according to state government statistics.
In California, where personal use of marijuana was legalized in 2016, sales reached $4.4 billion last year.
However, it’s unclear how those numbers compare to black market marijuana sales, which according to some are still thriving.
Legal growers and sellers must obtain licenses and pay taxes, which can be costly and potentially make marijuana more expensive.
“The black market is very prevalent and definitely larger than the legal market,” Bill Jones, chief of enforcement for the California Division of Cannabis Control, told NPR earlier this year.
Trump has already caused some confusion with another amendment on Florida’s November ballot. He said Friday he would vote against a Florida measure This will protect abortion rights, after facing backlash from conservative supporters.
Florida bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy – the amendment proposes extending pregnancy to 24 weeks. Trump initially expressed support for the proposal.
His campaign later claimed that he had not revealed how he would vote but that the six-week period was “too short.” The next day, Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago resort is located in Palm Beach, Florida, said he would vote “no.”
