Pot companies are pouring money into Florida’s recreational marijuana initiative

Trulieve, the state’s largest medical-marijuana company, has contributed nearly $50 million to the effort to pass a constitutional amendment to authorize recreational marijuana in Florida, according to a new campaign-finance report posted on the state Division of Elections website.

The Quincy-based company pumped $9.225 million into the Smart & Safe Florida political committee from Jan. 1 to March 31, the report shows.

The Florida Supreme Court on April 1 gave approval for the proposed constitutional amendment, Amendment 3, to appear on the November ballot. Until last month, Trulieve had largely been the sole financial supporter of the effort.

Much of the Trulieve money went toward the expensive process of collecting and verifying petition signatures to qualify for the ballot. But the new report showed a handful of the state’s other medical-marijuana operators contributed to the committee days before the Supreme Court ruling.

Verano Holdings Corp., which operates as MÜV in Florida, contributed a total of $2.225 million between March 27 and March 29. Curaleaf Inc. made two $1 million contributions — one on March 27 and another on March 31. AYR Wellness Inc. and Green Thumb Industries each contributed $500,000 on March 26, and Cresco Labs contributed $400,000 on March 22.

As of March 31, the committee had raised nearly $55 million since the launch of the campaign in 2022, and had spent $40.6 million. Florida voters in 2016 approved a constitutional amendment that broadly allowed medical marijuana.

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