The Drug Report
The Drug Report
Big Wins Against Marijuana: How Local Advocacy Overcame Marijuana Legalization
Could the defeat of Florida's marijuana legalization measure signal a turning tide in drug policy across America? Despite an avalanche of financial backing and celebrity endorsements, Florida's initiative fell short, leaving many to question the power dynamics at play. Join us as we unpack the surprising outcome, delving into the influential role of grassroots campaigns and bipartisan voices, such as the powerful advocacy from former congresswoman Donna Shalala. Discover how "Don't Let Florida Go to Pot" captured the public's attention and vote, challenging the narrative that financial clout guarantees success in the ballot box.
Explore the broader shift in drug policy attitudes nationwide, as marijuana legalization efforts face unexpected setbacks in states like North and South Dakota. These defeats highlight the power of community coalitions and parental advocacy in steering public opinion. With concerns over youth usage and black market proliferation, the narrative that marijuana legalization is an unstoppable force is being rewritten. Celebrate these grassroots victories as we spotlight the relentless efforts of local communities standing up to well-funded legalization campaigns.
Look to Massachusetts, where the conversation takes a fascinating turn towards psychedelic legalization in progressive hubs like Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville. Uncover the state's storied connection to psychedelics and the surprising voting patterns that emerged. Meanwhile, in Colorado Springs, a significant ban on marijuana sales underscores a commitment to public health priorities. We acknowledge the unwavering dedication of organizations like SAM and the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions, whose work has been instrumental in these recent victories, marking a pivotal moment in the fight for sensible drug policies.
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Yes or no? Do you believe nicotine is not addictive?
Speaker 2:I believe nicotine is not addictive. Yes, Congressman, cigarettes and nicotine clearly do not meet the classic definitions of addiction. I don't believe that nicotine for our products are addictive.
Speaker 1:I believe nicotine is not addictive. I believe that nicotine is not addictive. I believe that nicotine Okay, we are live, all right. Kevin, thank you for joining me this evening on this another momentous election night. You know our smiles, I think, indicate how the marijuana measures are going. So I'm looking forward to talking about that with you. But we'll give our viewers a few minutes to jump on with us before we get going, so maybe we can just talk a little bit about kind of the lead up to tonight, kevin. So you know, what were you kind of thinking coming into this evening and kind of the returns and all of that.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, yeah, here it is, 1230 Eastern on Wednesday, now, number eight, hard to believe or Wednesday November 6th. You know, I think what we were seeing, what we were seeing coming in was, I mean, it wasn't definitely wasn't clear at all. You know, donald Trump endorsed Amendment 3 in Florida, which was a huge disappointment, and we know he did that because of a connection with the company that spent over $141 million on a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in Florida. What's interesting about that is that, you know, when California spent all the money they did to pass Prop 36, we never thought another state could even come close to this. So the fact that they did 140, that was really daunting. It was very intimidating, there's no doubt about it, when you have one big company that stands to profit off of this.
Speaker 2:And you know, the other thing is we had seen the story before where a well-liked governor whether it was Doug Ducey, whether it was Charlie Baker with his Democratic colleague, mayor Marty Walsh, of course later, charlie Baker with his Democratic colleague, mayor Marty Walsh, who, of course, later was the Labor Secretary under President Biden whether it was, you know, multiple, frankly, presidents who were against different legalization measures around the country, those didn't really help, but I think what we saw this time in Florida was a concerted bipartisan effort among both. You know Democrats people like Donna Shalala. You know the former congressman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and it's an interesting story with Donna because you know you and I were at the Clinton Global Initiative. You know, last month in New York City and we happened to just bump into Donna and she knew you from the prior work together and just on the spot we're having a conversation. She says, you know, I want to weigh into this issue, and so that ended up having a major impact. Her op-ed was published in the Miami Herald and you know she was then cut on ads by the campaign and her voice went out to a lot of Democratic and independent voters on this issue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I want to hope that that made somewhat of an issue. I mean Miami-Dade, from the last time I saw it it could have changed, but it was 52-48 against, which is an incredible number for Miami-Dade County to be that, and it just showed how badly this performed across Florida. The best they did was 60% in one county, so they were well below the 60% threshold Still a little too close for my comfort, but we'll definitely take it. It was a huge repudiation of John Morgan, who has so much free press in that state, being one of the biggest trial lawyers in the country, let alone the state, and a huge repudiation of other Republicans and Democrats that supported the measure. But overall I think it was a really good bipartisan effort.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so we went from history to now current, you know. So we obviously those of you who have been following us you see we've won. In Florida, the Florida ballot measure to legalize marijuana had to get 60%. It's well below 60%. We'll see what the final number is at, but it's a huge victory.
Speaker 1:This ballot measure, I believe, was number two or maybe number one in the history of the United States for most well-funded ballot measures $140 million. Most of that from one company, trulieve, and their CEO very checkered past husband, very checkered legal past. She really kind of put her profile on this measure. She was getting profiles written up about her and you know it was really something to behold. They kind of thought this was a done deal and thanks to, yeah, she was made entirely by now. Yeah, definitely so, thanks to, obviously, you. You know we had a great connection of, as you mentioned, a lot of bipartisan folks and then just an extremely well-run campaign. You know Trey Evers was the campaign manager and a number of others who were involved Amy Ronshausen from Drug Free America Foundation and others. The Florida sheriffs just had a lot of different people who understood the state, understood what needed to happen in order to win. That came together that, I think, ultimately led to this truly historic defeat in Florida, and they had a great grassroots effort as well.
Speaker 2:Don't Let Florida Go to Pot, which was just really talking about all the different impacts. So you know, I think it was huge and you know we've seen this covered tonight everywhere, from Fox to MSNBC and everyone from, you know, ann Coulter to Sagar Anyaji to so many other people, including on the left, to. You know they may have different opinions on this, but you know, on MSNBC, joy Reid was talking about how this was really a repudiation of corporate marijuana, which is really interesting. I mean that's incredible. It gave me shivers, so this was yeah, well, and I think the history too.
Speaker 1:You look at Ohio in 2016, where we defeated it, and it was the corporate messaging that won the day there. So I think you know people don't want. People may want to reform marijuana laws in some way, but they don't want to have corporate marijuana and large corporate marijuana where these products are being promoted. Um. So, anyway, that's Florida. Now let's pan over to Massachusetts. This was a surprise to both myself and Kevin. We kind of got involved very late in the game, kind of a Hail Mary pass, with the anti-measure to stop the legalization of psychedelics in Massachusetts, and so, for those of you who've been following this, a measure very similar to Massachusetts passed in my home state of Colorado very narrowly. What it basically does is it legalizes six different psychedelics like ibogaine, which causes heart attacks and all kinds of other issues, psilocybin and a number of other substances that most people don't even know a blasted thing about, quite frankly, and Massachusetts is on track to overwhelmingly reject this measure?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Here we have our little graphic up here. They have rejected it. I don't see them able to really gain any ground. Obviously, they performed very well in Boston, which is 10% of the vote there, but really everywhere else they lost and, unlike the legalization initiative that did sort of split some of the counties, this really went down, and it went down more dramatically than I thought. I did think it was going to be close either way. You know, was it going to be a nail biter like Colorado? That, what was it? 51% or even less than that? Yes, it just squeaked by in Colorado. I thought it was going to be something either like that or you know the other way, but the reality is it was a. It's going to be a pretty big, big whopping there. I mean, that is really big, and you know why is it. Quite people say well, why is it? Because we were outspent $8 million to. You know how much did we end up putting in?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean a fraction, A fraction of that.
Speaker 2:Eight to one, ten to one, yeah, and so I think it was. I think it's just too far. I actually think this is part of a broader realignment of drug policy, where we saw what happened in Oregon, which with Measure 110 passing a couple of years ago and then a huge rejection of Measure 110 because it decriminalized all drugs in Oregon, and people said this is wrong, it's too far. I actually think we're following that wave. Still, I think people are saying we're not ready for this.
Speaker 1:Well, you had all these write-ups from the New York Times, multiple stories in the New York Times, multiple stories in the Wall Street Journal, multiple stories on various television media publications talking about the harms of marijuana, how the black market continues to grow, how the psychosis continues to be a problem, how crime is a problem. So we're starting this in youth use. You know we had a major study, historic study, from the Journal of the Academy of Pediatrics that talked about the increase in youth use. In every state that has legalized marijuana. It has increased because of legalization drew the causal tie there. So I think all of that coming together is I think voters look at that and say we don't want that in our state. And so you know, speaking of that, I guess we should tie it back into the Dakotas to round us out. So four consecutive victories here. This is a historic night for Sam. We're very grateful and thrilled for these states that are going to be a lot safer and better off without marijuana.
Speaker 1:So North Dakota we've got a great, longstanding history with North Dakota. This started in 2018 when they had their first ballot measure. We have now defeated the legalization of marijuana in North Dakota three times in a row. North Dakota is on track to defeat it at just about the same margin as they did last cycle, which is pretty cool. And we're very thankful for our coalition, which really ran the gambit again. Thankful for our coalition, which really ran the gambit again. I mean, it's a really large, robust coalition of municipal associations and business and health associations, lots of strong leadership in North Dakota and a lot of friends, quite frankly, a lot of dear friends and people who are just the grassroots that have been the lifeblood of that campaign. So huge win for them, very, very happy for them.
Speaker 1:And then South Dakota, finally, you know, it's really interesting history with South Dakota, where you know they passed I think it was 2018 or 2020, I think it was 2020. They passed a recreational and medical measure together at the ballot. Then Governor Noem at the time challenged the recreational measure and defeated it. Then they came back to have a vote in 2022. It was defeated. And they've come back again and it was defeated. So two, two times in a row in South Dakota. Um, we, we have now defeated legalization, so that's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they clearly don't want it and there should be some kind of rule. Last year you vote on it a couple of times, yeah.
Speaker 1:There should be a statute of limitations, like if you lose three times in a row, it's a waste of everybody's money and time.
Speaker 2:Uh no, but really it's pretty incredible. And to be four for four, there is a really historic night for drug policy. So obviously we'll see what happens with the rest of the election. We don't know yet. We don't know about where we're going with the legislature and the executive, so we're going to have our work cut out for us no matter what, as we always do, but we will take these victories. This was really really well done, yeah, well, and I think at the end of the day, yeah, I think you know we're underdogs.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, this is a resounding victory for the parents that unfortunately gather by the thousands via email and then connecting into our parent action network which, by the way, you also check out parentactionnetwork where we connect with parents who have stories related to marijuana.
Speaker 1:But this is a rallying cry that we actually can make a difference.
Speaker 1:We actually can stand up to the big marijuana and defeat them, because we literally had the classic David and Goliath fight, which is what our entire organization's existence has been, in Florida, where it's us, with literally a fraction of a percent of what's being spent by Trulieve, to pass that measure, and we defeated them.
Speaker 1:And it wasn't just us, it was a whole huge coalition of a lot of people together. And we can do that when we come together, when we fight together and when parents stand up and share their stories and talk about what happened to their kids, and we are going to keep doing that, we're going to raise the volume and we're only going to get stronger. And I think the beautiful thing about this victory in Florida is that this sets everything back at the national level. You had Trump, who potentially could be the next president of the United States, and he endorsed this, this measure, because he thought it was going to pass and it didn't, and so this sends a message to him. It sends a message to everyone else who thought that this is going to pass everywhere, including in states like Florida, that this is not a foregone conclusion, that this actually can be beat.
Speaker 2:Absolutely no, it's not, it's not inevitable. You know, it actually shows even that money can't buy common sense all the time. It sometimes does, it often does. But when you look at the money spent in Florida and in Massachusetts, of all places, and the fact that it went down the way it did, is really incredible. Yeah, I mean I think we have to. Just it's when you look at.
Speaker 2:I just want to think about some of these state results, some of these counties I'm looking at right now in Florida. You know it is pretty. It's pretty incredible again how you have Miami-Dade County with 90% of the vote and we're at 51-49. You know you have Collier County, which of course, is Naples, fort Myers, that area 53, 47. Obviously, you know you have Broward County 60, 40,. Palm Beach 59, 41 in favor. That's not surprising, but it just it wasn't enough and that's it's really amazing because we weren't sure. You know, florida is the kind of place where we have a lot of confusion about what's legal, what's not medical, non-medical, delta-8. There's a huge debate about Delta-8 and the hemp derivatives and I was worried that was going to be in their favor, because a lot of people, a lot of older people hey, I want to use my CBD cream, or is this going to? Am I going to be if this doesn't pass? Am I going to be a criminal if I want to use my CBD cream or whatever, and they?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to share like a text I got from a former administration official I won't I won't say say who, which administration, but a recent one. He texted and said this is an unbelievable quote, unbelievable victory for Sam. Unbelievable victory for Sam. And another person that was also a higher up official in DC Also said that they're sharing this victories, these victories, with 50 of their closest friends. So pretty cool to get some of the feedback that we're getting these victories with, you know, 50 of their closest friends, so pretty cool to get some of the feedback that we're getting. And I think that you know, again, it's taking notice.
Speaker 1:And the other piece of this too is and obviously we're a nonpartisan organization but when you have a governor of the profile of DeSantis, you know both he and the first lady of Florida put their entire brand behind stopping the legalization of marijuana. They threw everything in the kitchen sink at trying to stop it, and so I think that brought a lot of profile to this. We were thankful to be able to partner with them on this effort, and so I think that is going to also encourage, hopefully, other governors to continue to do the good work. And speaking of other governors, you know we had Kelly Ayotte you know in New Hampshire, who you know. She was the most anti-marijuana candidate running for governor in New Hampshire and she just won her race, and so we're really excited to continue our work in the leave free or die state, to continue to defeat legalization there, which we've been successful at doing with Bill Lutie and Deb Naro and so many of the others that we've been working with there for a number of years.
Speaker 2:Let me go back to Massachusetts for a minute because I just think this place, yeah, I need to. Let me go back to massachusetts for a minute because I just think this place, yeah, I'm showing you here that. You see the screen here and you look at the results by town. I mean it is remarkable to me that boston is only a 53 47 split with two thirds outstanding. That is unbelievable, given people need to understand message. If there's any home base for psychedelics, it's actually not San Francisco or burning man, it is Massachusetts, for many reasons. Timothy Leary in the 1960s, harvard it was Harvard where where a lot of this stuff started. Then you have Rick Doblin, the darling of the Boston metro area, who of course founded maps and the largest psychedelic research advocacy organization, which converted to be the largest for-profit psychedelics company, lycos In Massachusetts. This is incredible.
Speaker 2:And you look at some of these counties here. I mean you have a place like Cambridge. That's only 57, 43. I lived in Cambridge. You're telling me 4.3 out of 10 people in Cambridge said no to this. That is unbelievable.
Speaker 2:Somerville is not surprising. I thought Somerville would be 80%. It's 66. Medford, which is where Tufts is, is basically split. You have some of the Western Northampton and probably Holyoke and stuff where, yeah, amherst, I'm going to guess Williamstown, you know where Williams College is, some of the college towns. You know Nantucket not surprising, but Nantucket is still almost 50, 50. Look at all this, look at all this sort of what I'm going to call it. It's sort of a salmon here and the no side is really, yeah, provincetown not surprising, but Williamsburg, as I mentioned. But again, you look at all this salmon and even the blue. That is really close, most of the blue and it's really remarkable. It's breathtaking actually to see the numbers like this. I think it's worth reflecting 57% so far, no, with 71% of the votes in Really amazing. You compare that to marijuana in 2016, very different.
Speaker 1:Very different. Yeah, well, to round out our conversation, I do want to give a little hometown news. So here in Colorado, colorado Springs, had two really big measures that there was a lot of spending, a lot of work on. My friend, daniel Cole, did a great job there. They passed a ban on sales in Colorado Springs. That's going to preempt another measure that looks like it's going to sneak by and so it will ban all sales, affirmatively in Colorado Springs. So that's pretty exciting. It's a great win for him, great win for the state or for the city of Colorado Springs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, here we go Officially.
Speaker 1:this is what we're looking at here. Yeah, very official now really interesting history.
Speaker 2:Of course colorado springs, because I think they defeated by about 57 some years ago retail sales. It's really been, and is it the second largest city in denver? Yeah, I think it will be the second largest city, but yeah, third yeah yeah, yeah, and you know that that's really remarkable and you know it does go to show that a lot of the local you know sort of not the biggest cities in the jurisdictions but all the other ones often do reject it. They don't actually want pot shops in their own community. So pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:That's right. Yep, so well. This is a great night for public health. It's a great night for public safety. We want to thank all of our partners on the ground in these states who made these wins possible, and I thank you for the great work that you all did. It's really special. You get a chance to work with people who are professionals, who make a living whether it's in campaigns or other such work and it's pretty outstanding when you meet people who have great skill and then they want to put that skill to noble ends, which is just so rare, I think. And it's pretty cool to get a chance to work with such special people in these different states. So, thank you all for the great work you did. Thanks to our national network of people and all of you watching who make this possible through donations, through time, through volunteering, through support, let's keep going. This is a great victory night for all of us and we're going to keep going from here.
Speaker 2:Definitely a big shout out to all the people working in the different states, but also to all of our staff here at SAM and the Foundation for Drug Policy Solutions working so hard around the clock, literally, on these issues. So I'm very grateful for all of you and really an incredible night for drug policy.
Speaker 1:Great Thanks, Kevin. Thank you all. Have a good night.