Tag: ron desantis

Florida Officials Are Revoking Medical Marijuana IDs From Patients And Caregivers With Drug Convictions Under Law Signed By DeSantis

Florida medical marijuana officials are actively revoking the registrations of patients and caregivers with drug-related criminal records.

The policy is part of broad budget legislation signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The provisions in question direct the state Department of Health (DOH) to cancel registrations of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they’re convicted of—or plead guilty or no contest to—criminal drug charges.

The measure says a patient or caregiver will have their registration immediately suspended upon being charged with a covered state drug crime, and the suspension will remain in place until the criminal case reaches a final disposition. DOH officials have authority to reinstate the registration, revoke it entirely or extend the suspension if needed.

Bobbie Smith, director of the Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU), told lawmakers on Wednesday that regulators are already banning people from the medical cannabis program under the new policy.

OMMU has “identified 20 individuals that meet the new requirement for revocation, and there’s roughly 140 that we’re still monitoring as they wait make their way through the criminal justice system,” she said at a hearing of the House Health Professions & Programs Subcommittee in comments first reported by Florida Politics.

Under the law, authorities are required to revoke a person’s registration if the patient or caregiver “was convicted of, or pled guilty or nolo contendre to, regardless of adjudication, a violation [of state drug law] if such violation was for trafficking in, the sale, manufacture, or delivery of, or possession with intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver a controlled substance.”

The enacted version of the legislation focuses specifically on production and distribution. It does not contain an earlier restriction from prior versions that would have also revoked registrations for people who merely purchased illegal drugs, including more than 10 grams of marijuana for their own use.

It also clarifies that patients and caregivers have a process to request their registrations be reinstated. That involves submitting a new application “accompanied by a notarized attestation by the applicant that he or she has completed all the terms of incarceration, probation, community control, or supervision related to the offense.”

It’s not clear from the plain language of the revised bill whether it will impact only future criminal cases involving medical marijuana patients and caregivers or whether DOH would need to review the records of existing program registrants and revoke registrations of an untold number of Floridians with past drug convictions.

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Grand Jury reportedly meeting this week in Hope Florida investigation

Florida’s Hope Florida program, once celebrated by the governor and First Lady as a compassionate outreach effort, is now under a grand jury’s microscope. Prosecutors in the capital are reportedly meeting this week to decide whether criminal charges are warranted in a growing scandal that’s shaken the state’s political establishment.

The proceedings are happening behind closed doors inside Leon County’s 2nd Judicial Circuit courthouse, where prosecutors are taking evidence in the Hope Florida investigation.

At issue: whether anyone broke the law after $10 million from a state Medicaid settlement moved through the Hope Florida Foundation to other nonprofits, and then to a political committee once controlled by now–Attorney General James Uthmeier. That committee later helped defeat a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana.

State Attorney Jack Campbell, who is overseeing the process, declined to provide details.

“No, there’s no comment on that at all. Everything that the grand jury does is, in fact, confidential,” Campbell said when asked about the case last week.

Legal experts say the secrecy is standard procedure. Mario Gallucci of the Gallucci Law Firm is a former New York assistant district attorney and was a principal attorney in its major felony unit. He said these proceedings can take weeks to complete.

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DeSantis Admits Marijuana Legalization Is Popular With Florida Voters Even Though He Opposes It

The Republican governor of Florida is conceding that “more people probably agreed” with a marijuana legalization ballot initiative he helped defeat last year than sided with his prohibitionist viewpoint—but he argued that it was the “morally right” choice for him to intervene to prevent the sale of “dangerous stuff” in his state.

At an event hosted by the Pennsylvania Family Institute on Saturday, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) talked about his administration’s uphill work to dissuade voters from approving both the cannabis measure as well as a separate reproductive rights initiative during the November 2024. While both initiatives received majority support from voters, they failed to meet the state’s high 60 percent threshold required to enact constitutional amendments.

In the speech, DeSantis claimed that the marijuana proposal, Amendment 3, wouldn’t just have legalized cannabis but also made it a “constitutional right to possess and smoke it, including in public,” while giving one company in particular “a lot of benefits,” seemingly referring to the Smart and Safe Florida campaign’s largest financier Trulieve.

“Somehow you got people that are going to spend a lot of money to basically make us California through the back door with these initiatives and these amendments,” DeSantis said. “The marijuana people spent $150 million on this. The abortion people spent $130 million. So we had to contend with $280 million of spending on very misleading language—and, let’s just be honest, they were pushing issues in which probably more people agreed with them than agreed with me or agreed with us.”

“Marijuana was somewhat popular,” the governor said in comments first reported by Florida Politics. “I didn’t do it to be popular. I did it because it was the right thing to do. So we were having to deal with navigating all this.”

Despite raising money to finance ads opposing the cannabis measure, DeSantis said governors don’t officially “have a role in these amendments.” He faulted “special interest” parties and the state Supreme Court approval of the initiative language that he described as a “mistake.”

“I mean, most people that get elected in my positions like mine, all their advisors say, ‘stay away from this. There’s nothing for you to gain by getting involved in this. All you’re going to do is alienate supporters,’” he said. “And that may be true, but that also wouldn’t be the right thing to do. It wouldn’t be the morally right thing to do. So I was in a position. I had this platform as governor. I had a megaphone. There were things being proposed that would be harmful for my state.”

“In terms of the marijuana, I mean, you can’t function as a state if you smell marijuana everywhere—if these kids are doing it,” DeSantis said. “And this isn’t the marijuana they had in Woodstock. This is really, really dangerous stuff, so it would have been terrible for Florida.”

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DeSantis Administration Announces Statewide Investigation into Educators Celebrating Charlie Kirk’s Murder: “Govern Yourselves Accordingly”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration announced a statewide investigation into educators celebrating Charlie Kirk’s political assassination.

Florida Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas sent a letter to superintendents throughout the state warning that the DeSantis administration will not tolerate such vile behavior.

The letter reads:

TO: School District Superintendents
FROM: Anastasios Kamoutsas
DATE: September 11, 2025
SUBJECT: Upholding Professional Conduct and Ethical Responsibilities

It has been brought to my attention that some Florida educators have posted despicable comments on social media regarding the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. These few are not a reflection of the great, high-quality teachers who make up the vast majority of Florida’s educators. Nevertheless, I will be conducting an investigation of every educator who engages in this vile, sanctionable behavior.

This memorandum serves to remind superintendents and their employees that they are held to a higher standard as public servants. Certified educators are also subject to the ethical guidelines established in Rule 6A-10.081, Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.), Principles of Professional Conduct for the Education Profession in Florida. In addition, pursuant to section (s.) 1012.796, Florida Statutes (F.S.), the Commissioner may find probable cause to sanction an educator’s certificate. Furthermore, s. 1012.795,
F.S., authorizes the Education Practices Commission to discipline an educator for violation of Rule 6A-
10.081, F.A.C.

Although educators have First Amendment rights, these rights do not extend without limit into their professional duties. An educator’s personal views that are made public may undermine the trust of the students and families that they serve. If an educator’s conduct causes a student or his or her family to feel unwelcome or unwilling to participate in the learning environment, it may be a violation of Rule 6A-10.081, F.A.C. Florida law allows the Commissioner to find probable cause to discipline an educator
who, “upon investigation, has been found guilty of personal conduct that seriously reduces that person’s effectiveness as an employee of the district school board.”

I expect you to share this reminder with all school district employees. Together, we must uphold the highest standards of professionalism and keep Florida’s classrooms places of safety and academic achievement for every student.

Govern yourselves accordingly.

Teachers are held to a higher standard as public servants and must ensure their conduct does not undermine the trust of the students and families they serve. We will hold teachers who choose to make disgusting comments about the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk accountable.… pic.twitter.com/KzXCCGkvZm

— Anastasios Kamoutsas (@StasiKamoutsas) September 11, 2025

Governor DeSantis added, “Celebrating the assassination of a 31-year-old father of two young kids is disturbing. That teachers would be among those who do so is completely unacceptable.”

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DeSantis and Ladapo aim to make Florida first in US to end all vaccine mandates

Florida is set to push for an end to all state vaccine mandates, state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced at a news conference Wednesday.

For decades, the state has required numerous vaccines for kids attending school, a list that today includes shots that protect against measles-mumps-rubella, polio, chickenpox and hepatitis B.

But Ladapo on Wednesday compared these mandates to “slavery,” and promised that they all will soon end.

“All of them. Every last one of them,” Ladapo said to raucous cheers from the crowd assembled at the Grace Christian School in Valrico. “Who am I as a man standing here now to tell you what you should put in your body?”

Dr. Nancy Silva, a Wesley Chapel pediatrician, said ending the vaccine mandates for schoolchildren will endanger their health and bring back diseases with life-threatening health complications that most parents of school-age children have never faced.

She questioned why the DeSantis administration would make vaccines an issue when school mandates have proven effective at eradicating and minimizing the spread of childhood diseases.

“I hope parents understand the great wonder of vaccines and how they have saved millions of lives over the decades.”

Immunizations have saved at least 154 million lives in the last 50 years, according to the World Health Organization. The vast majority of the lives saved were infants.

All 50 states and Washington, D.C., have laws requiring certain vaccines for students to attend school. Florida is the first state to publicly call for doing away with such requirements.

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Ron DeSantis’ Superior Speaks Out Amid Guantanamo Torture Accusations

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis‘ former boss weighed in on the accusations that DeSantis oversaw the torture of prisoners during his tenure at Guantanamo Bay.

DeSantis, a Republican who has become a leading conservative figure in the United States, was accused of overseeing torture at the prison where the Untied States detained suspected terrorists, despite concerns over detainees being held without criminal charges being filed.

Mansoor Adayfi, former detainee at Guantanamo Bay who was held for 14 years without being charged with a crime, made the accusation during a November 2022 interview on the Eyes Left podcast, in which he said DeSantis observed guards force-feed him amid a hunger strike, laughing during the procedure. DeSantis, however, has not been accused of torturing inmates.

These accusations reemerged on Tuesday following a report from McClatchy/The Miami Herald that shined a light on the governor’s time at Guantanamo Bay, a topic on which he has offered little public comment. He joined the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate in 2006, four years after the facility opened.

Amid these accusations of overseeing torture, DeSantis’ former supervisor, retired Navy Captain Patrick McCarthy, defended the governor, explaining that he was tasked “with detainees when there were any complaints to ensure they were lawfully addressed.”

“DeSantis served honorably and professionally in a very complex mission,” McCarthy told the Herald.

DeSantis has not publicly addressed Adayfi’s allegations, which could not be independently verified.

Retired Colonel Michael Bumgarner told the Herald that DeSantis would have had “very, very intimate knowledge” about conditions at Guantanamo Bay, which have been long criticized by human rights advocates as violating detainees’ rights and due process.

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DeSantis Signs Bill To Strip Florida Medical Marijuana Cards From People With Drug Convictions

Some medical marijuana patients and caregivers in Florida could see their state cannabis registrations revoked under a bill signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) this week.

DeSantis on Monday signed SB 2514, a broad budget bill that touches on cancer, dentistry and other health-related matters. But it also contains a provision that directs the state Department of Health (DOH) to cancel registrations of medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they’re convicted of—or plead guilty or no contest to—criminal drug charges.

The measure says a patient or caregiver would have their registration immediately suspended upon being charged with a state drug crime, and the suspension would remain in place until the criminal case reaches a final disposition.

DOH officials would have authority to reinstate the registration, revoke it entirely or extend the suspension if needed.

Authorities would be required to revoke a person’s registration if the patient or caregiver “was convicted of, or pled guilty or nolo contendre to, regardless of adjudication, a violation [of state drug law] if such violation was for trafficking in, the sale, manufacture, or delivery of, or possession with intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver a controlled substance.”

The enacted version of the legislation focuses specifically on production and distribution. It does not contain an earlier restriction from prior versions that would have also revoked registrations for people who merely purchased illegal drugs, including more than 10 grams of marijuana for their own use.

It also clarifies that patients and caregivers would have a process to request their registrations be reinstated. That would involve submitting a new application “accompanied by a notarized attestation by the applicant that he or she has completed all the terms of incarceration, probation, community control, or supervision related to the offense.”

It’s not clear from the plain language of the revised bill whether it would impact only future criminal cases involving medical marijuana patients and caregivers or whether DOH would need to review the records of existing program registrants and revoke registrations of an untold number of Floridians with past drug convictions.

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‘That’s their fault’: Florida drivers have right to hit protesters if they fear for their safety, DeSantis says

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told drivers in his state that they would not be held responsible if they hit demonstrators during protests so long as it’s because they fear for their lives.

“If you are driving on one of those streets and a mob comes and surrounds your vehicle and threatens you, you have a right to flee for your safety,” DeSantis said on an episode of “The Rubin Report” podcast that was released Wednesday night. “And so if you drive off and you hit one of these people, that’s their fault for impinging on you.”

“You have a right to defend yourself in Florida,” the governor added.

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Protests referred to as “No Kings” are planned across the United States on Saturday, including several in Florida, where one sheriff declared protesters would be killed “graveyard dead” if they get violent or threaten law enforcement.

The most significant protests, which are mostly in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests, have taken place in Los Angeles, California. The demonstrations, which have at times become violent, prompted President Donald Trump to call in the National Guard last week, an action to which California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, have expressed their fierce opposition.

The protests in the southern California city have caused road closures and traffic jams, which can constitute safety concerns. However, there have been numerous examples in recent years, including at the recent protests, of people using their vehicles to ram into crowds, causing injuries and even deaths.

DeSantis, like other Republican leaders, has been strongly opposed to heated protests, including those in 2020 following the death of George Floyd. His recent comments suggest his stance has not changed.

“You have no right to commandeer streets,” the governor, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said. “First of all, it’s just wrong; second of all, that has huge impacts on people’s quality of life.”

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DeSantis Signs Gold Money Legislation Into Law

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed “transactional gold” legislation on Wednesday, aiming to help Floridians use precious metals in commerce and savings to protect their purchasing power from inflation.

The move can also protect the freedom and privacy of citizens if federal policymakers were to ever revisit Biden-era plans for tools such as a central bank digital currency, the governor said. Those federal proposals were among the key reasons this sort of state policy was pursued in the first place, he said.

The new law, passed unanimously by lawmakers in both chambers, aims to create a system that citizens can use to buy, store, sell, save, and transact with gold and silver.

It creates a framework for precious metals to become a part of everyday commerce, with backing and authorization from the state.

Eventually, the law will pave the way for consumers to use a debit card-style card or app to pay for everyday needs with precious metals held in a depository. Merchants, though, could choose to be paid in dollars if they prefer.

The metals are now considered “legal tender” under state law, too, making them exempt from state sales taxes.

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DeSantis Signs Bill Increasing Penalties for ‘Swatting’ into Florida Law

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Wednesday that will increase penalties on people who make false 911 calls, commonly referred to as “swatting.”

The governor signed the bill, HB 279, at a high school in Winter Haven. Rep. Bill Partington (R-Ormond Beach) sponsored the legislation in the House, while Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R-Spring Hill) led the Senate bill.

“If you swat, you are going to get hit with serious criminal offenses,” DeSantis said at a press conference.

Swatting calls are particularly dangerous, as police responding to a supposedly emergency incident are not aware that the call is bogus. Often targeted at a specific residence, the swatter will sometimes say a person is dangerous or someone is in danger, and a gun is present.

The false report can sometimes lead to someone being killed. It can also strain police manpower and resources away from serious emergency calls.

Under the bill, a person who makes a swatting call that leads to death will be charged with a second-degree felony. A person who makes a false report that leads to serious injury will be charged with a third-degree felony.

The bill also increases penalties for repeat offenders. Moreover, a swatter will be mandated by the court to pay restitution to public safety officials and victims for any damages that occur from the false report.

DeSantis signed a bill establishing swatting penalties in 2021.

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