Ken Griffin is making a serious push to defeat a poll modification that seeks to legalize leisure marijuana use in Florida.
The billionaire financier has pledged $12 million to oppose the measure, based on spokesman Zia Ahmed. The constitutional modification can be determined by voters in November and desires not less than 60% approval to move.
In an opinion article revealed Friday within the Miami Herald, Griffin argued that the proposed modification would create a monopoly for big marijuana dispensaries and permit hashish use in private and non-private areas throughout Florida.
Along with his anti-legalization efforts, Griffin can be contributing $8 million to committes funding Republican candidates working for the Florida legislature, Ahmed mentioned.
The founding father of Citadel and Citadel Securities, who relocated from Chicago to Miami in 2022, has been wielding his $42 billion fortune to affect Florida’s political panorama and to fund philanthropic causes.
Earlier this 12 months, he condemned a proposed on line casino growth in South Florida, likening it to “dumping toxic waste into the Everglades.” Legislators buried it quickly after. Final 12 months, he performed a key function in watering down a proposal proscribing actual property purchases by Chinese language nationals, earlier than it was enacted. In June, he gave $500,000 to again the reelection marketing campaign of Miami-Dade County’s Democratic mayor, Daniella Levine Cava.
“I have lived the nightmare of misguided politicians in other states whose policies are destroying jobs, fostering crime, ravaging schools, and damaging communities,” Griffin mentioned in an announcement to Bloomberg Information. “I am committed to supporting policies and principles that will further elevate Florida as the greatest place to live, work, and raise a family in America.”
Within the opinion piece, Griffin argued that legalizing leisure marijuana will primarily profit particular pursuits, whereas resulting in extra “dangerous roads, a higher risk of addiction among our youth, and an increase in crime.”
To this point, more cash has gone into Florida’s referendum on legalizing weed, often called Modification 3, than every other poll measure within the US this 12 months, based on OpenSecrets, a non-partisan marketing campaign finance group.
Protected & Good, a political committee in help of legalization, has raised $66.7 million, based on Florida finance disclosures.
A latest College of North Florida ballot discovered 64% of Floridians help legalization. Nonetheless, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who has acquired political contributions from Griffin, has voiced sturdy opposition, warning that legalization would result in a rise in marijuana use much like that in cities like San Francisco and Chicago.
“We cannot have every town smelling like marijuana. We cannot have every hotel, theme parks smelling,” DeSantis mentioned in June. “It’s going to be everywhere.”
