Businesses banking on Florida’s cannabis industry are adjusting their plans after an amendment to allow recreational marijuana in the state failed in Tuesday’s election.
A 60% super-majority of votes is required to amend Florida’s constitution. Amendment 3, which would have allowed recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older, fell short of that at 55.9%.
“I'm a little surprised that it didn't pass. A little disappointed,” said Roger Brown, President of ACS Laboratory.
Brown’s Boca Raton-based company conducts state-mandated compliance testing for Florida’s medical marijuana. With recreational use on the ballot, he had plans in motion to ramp up business.
Elections Local
Recreational marijuana amendment fails in Florida
“We were planning on increasing our volume quite significantly — somewhere between four and five times volume — and had already started hiring people to prepare for it, and ordered equipment to prepare for it,” Brown said.
Brown said he will reassign the newly-hired employees and cancel the equipment orders, which he said were contingent upon Amendment 3’s success.
Others in the cannabis industry took a more conservative approach ahead of Tuesday’s election.
“I was not willing to extend our resources and in a ‘build it, and they will come’ strategy, given that that there was an unknown step in the process,” said Robert Beasley, CEO of Cansortium, which owns 35 Fluent medical marijuana dispensaries in Florida.
The defeat of Amendment 3 came as a surprise — albeit a pleasant one — to Florida Police Benevolent Association President John Kazanjian, who campaigned against the measure in the week leading up to the election.
“I don't know if it's something that we need here in Florida," Kazanjian said. “And you’ve got to bring up the driving in [states with recreational marijuana] — you know, they're always driving high. That's a distraction, and you're going to see the fatalities jump up,” Kazanjian said.
So, where does Florida’s cannabis industry go from here?
The week, before the election, WPTV visited Cresco Labs’s cultivation facility in Indiantown. Employees were wearing “Yes on 3” and looking forward to upgrading the facility to accommodate more production.
Elections Local
How is marijuana grown in Florida? We got an inside look.
On Wednesday, a spokesman for Cresco said they’ll continue to scale up — just not as quickly as they’d hoped.
“Florida has one of the most robust and largest medical programs in the country, and it grows at a pretty steady pace,” said the spokesman Jason Erkes. “For the majority of voters to come out in support of adult use cannabis legalization, I think is a pretty loud message.”
“I’m sure there will be another push for a recreational marijuana ballot initiative again, and also for the legislature to pass recreational marijuana as well,” said attorney Paula Savchenko, who consults businesses in the cannabis industry.
Everyone WPTV spoke to for this story agreed it’s not likely for Florida’s legislature to pass a recreational marijuana bill.
