Tag: Florida Crystals

Since the summer of 2016, when a campaign to bring a full-fledged medical marijuana market to Florida by constitutional amendment hit high gear, Florida’s licensed cannabis corporations and their executives have given at least $2.5 million in political contributions to state lawmakers and political parties. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald “Their participation goes hand in hand with it being a lawful industry now, or a constitutionally authorized industry, in the state of Florida,” said Senate President Bill Galvano, whose Innovate Florida political committee has received at least $102,000 from marijuana companies and executives since 2016. And in 2019, the three companies have given at least $103,500 to lawmakers’ political committees. All of the donations followed a Jan. 17 press conference DeSantis held in Orlando with marijuana advocate and booster John Morgan to declare that he’d drop the state’s appeals of several lawsuits — including one filed by Morgan — if lawmakers didn’t pass bills by March 15 allowing patients to smoke marijuana. But last month, as Rodrigues’ bill moved through the Health and Human Services committee that he chairs, the Estero lawmaker warned that without legislation to guide smoking marijuana, a federal judge’s ruling striking down Florida’s smoking ban would leave the state with “the law of the wild west.” Ben Pollara, the political consultant who steered the campaign to bring a full-blown marijuana market to Florida, thinks political contributions have helped the industry make its case. Rob Bradley, among the biggest recipients of cannabis donations, was a sponsor of the 2014 Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act long before Costa Farms gave his political committee its first $10,000 contribution from a cannabis company in August 2015. “As is the case with many companies both large and small, we support candidates and elected officials who support our industry,” Curaleaf, the cannabis brand that grew from Costa Farms’ cultivation license, said in a statement. The Democratic politician receiving the most industry money is Nikki Fried, a former marijuana lobbyist who won the race for agriculture commissioner and also happens to date Jake Bergmann, who stepped down as CEO of Surterra the day before the election. Nikki Fried campaign Galvano, the Senate president, says he doesn’t see a link between the campaign money given to lawmakers and the recent change in position on smoking marijuana.