Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has publicly stated that one of the main reasons why Floridians should reject a measure legalizing recreational cannabis for adults in November is that the smell of people smoking the herb will make the state a less enjoyable place to live.
“This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and counties,” he said days after the Florida Supreme Court approved putting Amendment 3 on the ballot. “It will reduce the quality of life.”
To combat that concern, Sarasota Republican state Sen. Joe Gruters said Thursday that he’ll introduce legislation next year banning smoking in all public places in Florida.
The former Republican Party of Florida Chairman stunned some of his colleagues two weeks ago when he came out in support of the proposed constitutional amendment, but said that he wants to get ahead of the concerns that DeSantis and others have expressed about side effects.
“People don’t want to go outside and smell it,” Gruters said on a remote conference call with reporters.” They don’t want to see it in public places. And so, to me, let’s follow the Arizona law and let’s go ahead and ban public smoking in all public places. I think this is easy to do, this is well within our authority, and I think that we need to get ahead of this. And that’s the whole purpose of the bill. It’s very simple.”
In the referendum that Arizona voters passed in 2020 legalizing cannabis for recreational use, the specific text of the law says that it “does not allow any person to smoke marijuana in a public place or open space.”
Hellbound and Down 