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Tag: Governor Ron DeSantis

  • Florida plans to end vaccine mandates statewide, including for schoolchildren

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    (CNN) — Florida will move to end all vaccine mandates in the state, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo announced Wednesday.

    The move would make Florida the first state to end a longstanding – and constitutionally upheld – practice of requiring certain vaccines for school students.

    The state health department will immediately move to end all non-statutory mandates in the state, Ladapo said at a news conference. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was also at the event, said state lawmakers would then look into developing a legislative package to end any remaining mandates.

    Ladapo said that every vaccine mandate “is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.”

    All 50 states have had school immunization requirements since the beginning of the 1980s, with incoming kindergartners needing shots to protect against diseases including measles, polio and tetanus. No states require a Covid-19 vaccine for schoolchildren.

    All states allow medical exemptions from these school vaccine mandates, and most also allow for exemptions due to personal or religious beliefs. Exemption rates have been on the rise for years in the US, with a record share of incoming kindergartners skipping the required shots in the 2024-25 school year.

    Florida’s school vaccine exemption rate last school year– about 5% – was higher than the national average, data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, and nearly all were for nonmedical reasons.

    “We are concerned that today’s announcement will put children in Florida public schools at higher risk for getting sick, which will have a ripple effect across our communities,” Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said in a statement.

    “For many kids, the best part of school is being with friends – sharing space, playing on the playground, and learning together. Close contact makes it easy for contagious diseases to spread quickly,” she said. “When everyone in a school is vaccinated, it is harder for diseases to spread and easier for everyone to continue learning and having fun. When children are sick and miss school caregivers also miss work, which not only impacts those families but also the local economy.”

    A study published last year by the CDC estimated that routine childhood vaccinations – such as those included in school mandates – will have prevented about 508 million illnesses, 32 million hospitalizations and 1,129,000 deaths among children born between 1994 and 2003. They also were estimated to avert $540 billion in direct costs.

    Ladapo said that vaccination should be an individual choice.

    “People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions,” he said. “What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your god. I don’t have that right. Government does not have that right.”

    But experts say that freedom comes with responsibilities.

    “We’re all routinely subject to rules that enable us to live together safely, and I personally want those rules in place to protect me and the people I care about. We abide by speed limits, traffic lights, infant car seat and seatbelt laws – all requirements that have expanded over the years as safety technology and engineering has improved,” said Dr. Kelly Moore, president and CEO of immunize.org, a nonprofit organization focused on vaccine access.

    “I share with many other people the belief that all children who are required to attend school should also have a right to the best possible defense from vaccine-preventable diseases while they are there,” she said.

    Some vaccine mandates in Florida can be rolled back unilaterally by the state health department, Ladapo said, but others will require coordination with lawmakers.

    Experts who oppose the move to end vaccine mandates emphasize that the change is not final and that timing is critical.

    With the announcement coming after the start of the school year, Floridians will have a chance to experience and reflect on what a year of low vaccination coverage looks like, Moore said.

    “This timing gives leaders several months to reconsider whether this is what’s best for Florida families. It’s quite likely that Floridians will have reasons to regret that decision as time goes by and outbreaks disrupt learning,” she said.

    The American Medical Association “strongly opposes” the plan to end vaccine mandates, Dr. Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, an internal medicine physician and member of the professional organization’s board of trustees, said in a statement.

    “This unprecedented rollback would undermine decades of public health progress and place children and communities at increased risk for diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, and chickenpox resulting in serious illness, disability, and even death,” she said. “While there is still time, we urge Florida to reconsider this change to help prevent a rise of infectious disease outbreaks that put health and lives at risk.”

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    Deidre McPhillips, Shawn Nottingham and CNN

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  • Kim Rivers wants to legalize marijuana in Florida. She has to beat Ron DeSantis first. – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

    Kim Rivers wants to legalize marijuana in Florida. She has to beat Ron DeSantis first. – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

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    Kim Rivers wants to legalize marijuana in Florida. She has to beat Ron DeSantis first. – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news





























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  • Musk Supports DeSantis Blocking Marijuana Legalization

    Musk Supports DeSantis Blocking Marijuana Legalization

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    The battle for legal marijuana continues and it is pitting the leaders of the GOP against each other…and another player has jumped into the fray

    Florida is a battleground state for this election in more than one way.  While the majority of Floridians are pro some form of cannabis legalization, the governor is not and has waged an all out battle with the industry. Now, Elon Musk supports DeSantis blocking marijuana legalization. How is will all end up is anyone’s guess.

    In 2013, the group United for Care turned in 745,613 of the required 683,149 signatures, to do a ballot initiative for medical marijuana. The state contensted, but the Florida Supreme court allowed it to move forward. It failed with 57.6% of the vote, short the 60% supermajority required for constitutional amendments in Florida.  Nevada casino owner Sheldon Adelson rode to he rescue with $5.5 million to help fund the opposition campaign.

    In 2016, a second attempt was made and the initiative was approved on November 8, 2016, with 71.3% of the vote.

    Now a new initiative is on the ballot and has pitted Governor Desanits and Elon Musk against the GOP Presidential nominee. DeSantis has had a testy relationship with the GOP leader since the governor’s failed presidential run. But the nominee seems to have a working partnership with Musk and has suggested creating a new role for Musk of Secretary of Cost Cutting.
    Photo by Andrii Yalanskyi/Getty Images

    DeSantis has struggled in his fight against the popular plant. He is under fire from leaders in his own state for using state resource to fight against legalization. Also, the group DeSantis has  approved to raise funds to stop cannabis has raised less than $20 million. The pro group has raised over $100 million. But now Musk, the owner of X (formerly Twitter), is riding to DeSantis’s rescue.

    Faithful & Strong Policies, Inc., made the $500,000 contribution to Keep Florida Clean, Inc. earlier this month, campaign filings show. Keep Florida Clean. Musk has given the organization $10 million. Musk was also a supporter of the Governor’s campaign.

    Polls show the initiative stands a strong chance of hitting the 60% to pass. Being a presidential year with other big issues on the ballot is a help to cannabis, but with fresh cash nd Twitter fighting it, only time with tell how it goes. And it will be interesting to see what happens with the three mega personalities of the Republican Party.

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    Terry Hacienda

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  • Governor to provide updates on recovery from Hurricane Milton

    Governor to provide updates on recovery from Hurricane Milton

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    Governor to provide updates on recovery from Hurricane Milton

    Good afternoon. We’re here in Plant City. I’m joined with Kevin Guthrie General, John Haass Florida, Attorney General and former Strawberry Festival, Queen Ashley Moody Hillsboro County, Sheriff Chad Chronister is doing *** great job. Representatives, Alvarez and Gonzalez, Pittman County commissioner Miller and also the Plant City Mayor Nathan Kilton and I want to thank everybody for what they’re doing. We obviously prepared for this storm for *** long time, tracked it. I think the number one thing people were saying as the storm was forming and then bearing down on the west coast of Florida with storm surge, storm surge, storm surge. And while we did see some significant, I was down in Charlotte County, there was definitely surge. Tampa Bay did not get the surge that everyone feared. But what you ended up seeing is just massive on the north side of the storm, huge amounts of water. You did have wind, of course. And so that created inland situations where had *** lot of flooding and water continued to rise even after the storm left when we were flying in today, coming in some of these places in Hillsboro County, you know, you saw really, really significant examples of the flooding. So it’s *** real serious thing when you get 1015 inches with one storm coming through. So we are here today. This is one of our fuel distribution sites. We always say leading up to the storm, prepare to have fuel, have all this. Assume you’re going to lose power, assume this will happen for we say five days even though we work to get things moving before then. But the fuel is an issue. When you have power out at gas stations, you can’t pump fuel when you have ports that are interrupted. They don’t get the shipments in as much. So we have *** lot of fuel that we brought into Florida to be able to help get people through the patch as we get back and resolve the private sector resolves the issue. So we stockpiled *** lot of fuel. We’ve activated *** lot of our fuel contracts and we want to be able to give people an option. I see *** lot of people waiting in lines for the gas stations that do have power and these are really long lines and obviously as power gets restored, maybe some of them have generators that they can get on. And then the port of Tampa is open, you’re going to see the fuel flowing. But in the meantime, we want to give people another option. So this fuel depot here is one of the three sites that opened this morning plant city here, Bradenton, 202 180 K road and then ST Pete, 801st Avenue in ST Pete. We’re going to, we’re in the process of doing more. We’re going to do another one closer to the heart of Tampa in Hillsboro County. We’re going to do another one in *** different part of Pinellas County and we’re going to do at least one in Sarasota County and perhaps some more depending on the demand that we have. And so these are, these are free for people. You get, we’re doing 10 gallons per customer. So you go, you get it and you can be on your way. So this is stuff that we are providing for people to be able to do so these public fuel sites, although we have done fuel support in the past, we’ve never done it to this scale. And that is on top of the amount of fuel that we provided directly to service stations as the ports closed, even though they had dockside operations. Eventually that had to stop. We went and did 400,000 gallons of diesel directly into the supply chain and then 500,000 gallons of regular gasoline directly into the supply chain. So some of the fuel that people got at the service stations as *** result of Florida providing that we also prior to the storm had 31 sites for emergency fuel distribution for first responders, health care workers and other critical personnel. So right now, we still have 1.8 gallons of diesel and over *** million gallons of regular fuel that are on hand in the state. And these are going to be used at these fuel depots primarily until the entire fuel situation is resolved. Now, we have Florida ports that are actively receiving shipments like Port Tampa Bay. Additional vessels are en route, they are filling up the trucks and we’re bringing the where they need to be. Port Canaveral has taken on additional fuel vessels and one terminal alone did 531 trucks yesterday. And then we have Florida highway patrol that will escort the tankers from the ports to the respective service stations. Now, most of the fuel, if you see *** gas station is out, most of that is, they don’t have power. Now, they may also need to get their fuel shipment as well. But if they don’t have power to be able to run the pumps, then it’s an academic issue. So what we’re doing in the state of Florida, Kevin Guthrie and his team, they have generators that can be deployed. Now, *** lot of these gas stations quite frankly are supposed to have generators. Very few of them have used them that I’ve seen, especially in the areas that were the hardest hit be that as it may. And so Kevin and the DM are working with the utilities if you have *** stretch where you got service stations and power is anticipated to come on later today. Well, then they’re not going to rush *** generator down to rewire it for the generator when the power is going to come on. Anyways, if they think it may be, you know, 48 hours or more, then they’re seeing that demand and bringing generators to those service stations. So I think you’ll see, you can continue to see that, but we are also optimistic that you’re going to see *** lot of these stations end up getting power relatively short order in the coming days. So major fuel effort under way, you’re going to have more of these state run sites that are going to be available. We understand particularly to get people through the weekend. We want to be able to do, use the fuel reserves that we provided and get those into people’s tanks. So I appreciate Kevin and his team working very quickly to make this happen. Yesterday, the state of Florida submitted our post landfall major disaster declaration to unlock additional resources for the state. And this morning, we got that approved by the president of the United States and we have been granted individual assistance which is individual and households and public assistance, which is emergency work and repair and replacement of disaster damage facilities for 34 impacted counties including Hillsboro and all the counties in this area. We’ve also submitted requests for the following federal programs to supplement other efforts. We already have active transitional sheltering assistance, clean and sanitized, non congregate, sheltering like travel trailers and hotels and direct housing 18 month trailers. So Kevin can talk *** little bit more about that, but he’s working very hard on that. We have continued to have search and rescue teams active. I think as you’ve seen around Hillsboro Pinellas, Pasco, when the storm left and Kevin and our team had said this was going to happen, water continued to rise. So you’ve seen rescues done by the Hillsboro County Sheriff’s office, Florida National Guard, Florida State Guard, the other sheriff’s departments and police departments in the area. And we appreciate that, you know, fortunately, some of the stuff we’ve seen is damaging, not though at the 1520 ft. And so fortunately, we never had the 15 to 20 ft storm surge, but still rising, water is very dangerous and these guys have sprung into action. So all the folks who have responded locally, thank you for what you’ve done. We’re now with Florida National Guard supporting 19 counties. We have 115 active missions. 28 engineer missions which are helping clear sand off the roads and some of the things that the counties need focused on 39 points of distribution in 14 counties. I know there are *** number that opened in Hillsboro this morning. Those are basically responding to requests from the counties. So, for example, you know, some counties like Pinellas have opened their own pods. I think they have some municipal pods and some county, they’ve asked us to do three mobile pods to supplement. That’s fine. If you want us to do that, we’ll do that. If you want us to do full pods, we’ll do full pods. One of the things I’ve spoken with some folks locally about is ensuring that there’s supplies of things like ice. And so we have major trucks filled with ice that are now en route to the Tampa Bay area and that will be available at these pods once those trucks arrive, and we’re happy to do that. So, as of this morning, over 1000 individuals have been rescued from flood waters or other hazards. We still have massive amounts of resources available and we were able to successfully help over 400 health care facilities evacuate prior to the storm and we’re proud of how well those facilities have responded and done very well. So as of nine o’clock this morning, 2.4 million accounts have been restored with power. 2.4 million accounts restored since the storm hit on Wednesday night. And if you think about it yesterday, Friday was really the first full day of restoration efforts because the storm didn’t fully leave the state until the afternoon on Thursday. And so I know people were working hard on Thursday and they got in very quickly. But Friday was like the first full day. So 2.4 million restored 1.6 million currently remaining without 440,000 FPL, 620,000, Duke, 418,000 Tico Co Ops, 94,000 Muni’s 38,000 Co ops have done very, very quick. You know, you think you have FPL, these are major companies, right? You kind of see how they can do it. The co ops traditionally have not been able to do that. They are really, really doing well on the co op side. So good job on that. So as of 9 a.m. this morning, Hillsboro was 56% out. Manatee 42 Pinellas, 67 Sarasota, 30 Volusia, 26 state of Florida has responded to local requests from Hillsboro with the following resources, 15 truckloads of shelf stable meals, 10 truckloads of water, four truckloads of Tarp, five truckloads of ice sleeping trailers for 200 water pumps, six vacuum trunks for trucks for storm water removal and 14 additional high water rescue vehicles cut and toss began at first light by Florida Department of Transportation. They’ve now cleared 12,000 miles of roadway. They are now focusing on debris pickup on state road and are doing that very rapidly. They’ve done 150 bridge inspectors for *** total of 2400 bridges that have been inspected. We’re getting close to over 90% of all traffic signals that are back optional without the need for *** generator. If you come to *** traditional four way stop signal and it’s out treated as *** four way stop. All the major highways and bridges in the Tampa Bay area are open. All commercial airports besides Sarasota Bradenton are open. We originally had *** report that I said yesterday that it was going to be open this morning. It turns out they are going to need *** few more days for that. So that will reopen Wednesday, October 16. But all other commercial airports are open. 18 school districts that experienced closures last week will be open on Monday, October 14th. You can find the information for your school district. If you go to fl e.org/storm info, FL e.org/storm info. Remember we’re still seeing hazards after the storm, especially in standing water. We have continued to see unfortunately, some fatalities as *** result of things like downed power lines. So please continue to exercise caution as you recover from the storm ladder, safety, generator safety. If you need help with things like clearing debris off your property, we have organizations that are in Florida that can help you with that and you can call Hope Florida 1 833 get hope 1833, get hope to be able to see the resources that are available for you and that hope line will be 24 7 for the next two weeks. The Hope bus will be located in the following places today. New College of Florida in Sarasota 10 a.m. to three Bayside church in Bradenton 12 to 5 and then Murdoch Baptist Church in Port Charlotte. 10 to 3. Hope teams will be deployed to canvas in ST Lucie, Fort Pierce and Fort Myers neighborhoods to support communities that were impacted the tornadoes and they will be going door to door with supplies as well as with activate hope cards. Of course, we have our emergency bridge loan that has been activated, businesses up to 50,000 agriculture, up to 100,000 cattle and Citrus, up to 150,000 interest loans, www dot Florida jobs.org/e. We’ve also now raised millions more for the Florida disaster fund. But if folks want to participate and help with that, I know there will be *** lot of people in this community that will appreciate that Florida disaster fund.org Florida disaster fund.org again. I want to thank everybody that’s been involved. I know particularly here in Hillsboro County. You’ve had folks, Chad and his team have been working not just this storm but from the previous storm, same with Pinellas and Manatee Sarasota Pasco. All these places have been doing this now for close to three weeks from when we did the state of emergency for Helene. So it’s not easy to do. People are rising to the occasion. We got *** lot of work left to do, but we will absolutely get through this. Ok. Kevin. Thank you governor. Good morning everyone. I want to pick up where the governor left off on this fuel. We are happy to report that he, as he said, the ports are starting to take in fuel by 12 o’clock today. There will be four different locations at the Tampa port that will be offloading 37.3 million gallons of fuel that will happen starting at 12 o’clock today. And that will immediately be available for pumping into the distribution lines. Governor’s because of leadership like that, that makes us successful, that you were able to sit and work, sit with federal partners, state partners, state agencies and get that done. Urban search and rescue teams are finishing up the search and rescue operations. And I want to thank all the first responders, those that are here at this site and those that are at sites all around the state of Florida for immediately jumping into action and getting to work. If you are still in need of reunification, you cannot find *** loved one. American Red Cross is the best of that. So please make sure you call them at 1 800 Red Cross. That’s 1 800 Red Cross for the Reunification line. As the governor mentioned this morning, we have been approved actually, technically, it was like midnight last night. But this morning, we were approved for our major disaster declaration for fema. They have given us full category *** which is debris removal, full category B which is the emergency protective measures that government, both of those categories are things that government run into problems. I’m going to address that in just *** second. But more importantly, they’ve given us 100% individual assistance for the 34 counties that we requested. So that means now that all 34 counties have been approved for individual assistance, you could go to disaster assistance.gov, that’s disaster assistance.gov and start registering today. Now, I want to caution you if you’re *** victim of both Helene and Milton, you need to separate those two. Talk about Milton in Milton’s case, talk about Helene and Helene. Helene’s case. If you cross them over, that’s gonna lead to additional bureaucratic, what we call requests for information. So keep them specific talk, Helene Damage, talk, Milton Damage with this. We have formally requested this morning at eight o’clock, four specific programs to be turned on by FEMA. They are awaiting these letters and they are already working these letters. The first one is transitional sheltering assistance. The second is one is called clean and sanitize the third one, non non congregate sheltering and then the last is direct temporary housing. So transitional sheltering assistance, this will provide up to six months of direct lodging for displaced survivors. T SA. The FEMA program will announce more of that later today after it has been announced today or once they approve that that is *** federally run program, you will go to *** federal location to get into that program. And when I say federal location I’m talking about *** federal website, federal phone number. The next one is clean and sanitize assistance. This provides *** one time payment of up to $300 for homeowners and renters to make their domiciles or homes clean and sanitize them so they can get back into their home. Next one is non congregate, sheltering, non congregate. Sheltering is the state provided travel trailers and non congregate sheltering hotel. We have been approved as *** category B measure to turn those things on. Again, category B emergency protective measure at the state and local government level to run those programs. So we are requesting that that be turned on and again, we anticipate all of these being approved. The last one is Fema’s Direct Housing Mission. Fema’s Direct housing mission is the one where they go in and put *** Fema trailer on someone’s property or in *** group site location. And that is for up to 18 months. We will provide much, much more information on all of these as they’re approved and give people access to what the programs are. Yeah, one of the things that I mentioned at the top of this in reference to what we asked for fema has approved 100% of category *** and B measures for 90 days. So I’m going to talk for just *** second to local city, special district county governments. What does this mean in layman’s terms? Every day is *** pickup day 24 7, we got 90 days at 100%. Also, that means you can do expedited project worksheets, which means FEMA will take your estimates of what you have on the ground and they will give you 50% of that cost up front so you can start paying bills. The state of Florida does this all the time. This is nothing new. It’s been around, we do it. We were approved for category B of protective measures for hurricane Milton. And within four hours, the federal government approved over $200 million for the state of Florida to start paying their bills. This is one of those times. I’m going to say city, local government, special districts be like the state ask for the expedited project worksheet, get the money in hand. They did it in four hours. All right. So please please file your expedited project worksheets if you do not know how to do that, contact the state of Florida through the county emergency management facility and we will come and help you write those expedited project worksheets as you continue to take your own recovery back to homeowners actions at home. Remember to wear appropriate safety gear. Make sure that you’re not getting involved in any type of hazardous situation. There may be down power lines in your area. Please stay away from them. If you do come across those down power lines, call your local authorities and report them if you did receive damage to your home. Make sure you’re taking pictures inside and out. Make sure that there’s *** frame of reference like *** doorknob or electrical socket outlet so that we can see exactly how high the water came up in your homes. If you need assistance with clean up, we are proud to say that we are partnering once again with crisis clean up. Crisis cleanup is available to come help you at your home at 8449651386. That’s 98449651386. Do not get caught off guard by scammers. If somebody comes to your house and says give me cash, I’ll help you out, send them packing. We will send you volunteer organizations for free $0. As I often like to say, if it’s free, it’s for me. All right, you want the free help, not the paid help. Be sure to verify contractor licenses by visiting my Florida license.com, my Florida license.com and then report any unlicensed activity at 8665321440. We have nearly 20 points of distribution open in this impacted area alone. These sites have shelf stable food, water and other items like tarps that you may need. You can find up to date locations, visiting our website at Florida disaster.org/updates. Our state assistance information line is still taking calls 24 7 and that number is 1 803 423557. Now, I know I’ve given out *** whole lot of numbers today. *** whole lot of information. The best place to go online is Florida disaster.org/updates. I encourage all of our news media outlets to link their sites to our site. And then you can also get the most up to date up to the minute information. If you follow us at FLSE RT, that’s at Florida Cert on X and Instagram and at FDEM on Facebook for real time updates again, Governor Santos, thank you so much. It makes it very easy for us to do our job when you’re at the help. Ok. Ok. So we will be announcing additional fuel depots for folks in the affected areas. As I said, we’re definitely going to do one in Tampa, do another one in Pinellas and then likely Sarasota and then maybe another one in that area as well. In addition to the Sarasota Manatee ones that we’re going to bring on the manatee one is open now. So, and then the power restoration, I mean, I know no one ever wants to have any interruption, but these linemen have been working. They were staged to have 2.4 million done within basically, I mean storm left the state Thursday afternoon and so here we are less than 48 hours from that and they do 2.4 million. These guys are working really hard. Not always an easy thing, I think *** lot of this stuff, they got *** good handle on. There may be some that has more damage. We’ll see. But everyone’s been working really hard. Ok. Anybody just getting the rest of the power back on for everyone else right now. Well, I think you talk to the utilities on that. I mean, they have the personnel, they need. Those folks were pre staged. I think it’s just *** question of, you know, there was *** lot of damage done in, in *** broad area. It takes time to assess initially. I think they worked really hard yesterday. I think you started to see numbers start to come down and I think you’re going to see *** very productive weekend for them. Good to how many trucks are actually at each site. And can you assure the people who are in these lines that they will have access to fuel here? Right. So I think it’s dependent on what the demand is, right? Do you want to give those numbers? So, in reference to the question, how we set these sites up are based on demand based on what we see in the market area as far as fuel stations down. So what you see behind us here, we’ve got over 200,000 gallons of fuel just for this site alone. And I’ve got more rolling in the way on the way, we just passed *** 7-Eleven on the way they had just run out of gas. I picked up the phone, our state emergency response chief in Guel has already got fuel running to that station because we want to get that station back up and running. It certainly helps much more pumps there. So it’s, I would say *** parallel effort between getting power back on the stations that are going to be without power for more than 48 hours. That’s the, that’s the generator program along with stations that are out of fuel, getting fuel into those stations because they can dispense much faster than we can here and then where we have both *** power problem and *** fuel problem, setting up temporary sites like this until we can get stabilization back in the market. One of these sites or go to *** gas station, I would say right now, if you’ve got the financial means and you’ve got *** gas station that’s open next to you, that’s always going to be your best option. But if you’re in *** situation where you’re financially struggling and you need help now and I see *** car that’s being pushed up off to our left here, you know, you’re in that type of situation. This is the place you need to be. Can you also touch on your conversations with President Biden? What have they been? Has he said anything about coming to Florida to the damage? He didn’t say anything to me about it, but he basically said, you know, you guys are doing *** great job. We’re here for you if you need something, ask. And so we sent *** big request and we got approved for what we wanted. They’ve also been, I think, admirably flexible about, ok, we don’t want bureaucracy to stand in the way of helping people, you know, in Florida, look, we do things different. I mean, how the federal government normally operates and how we operate is just miles apart and, you know, sometimes FEMA does things and people, people get frustrated and that’s understandable, but sometimes it’s like, you know, you have all the bureaucracy. So it’s just like, ok, let’s try to clear that. So Kevin’s really been working, I think productively with the administrator of FEMA to say, let’s get this stuff going, let’s make sure we’re helping people and let’s not get mired in *** lot of the bureaucracy. And so I think that the administration has been receptive to that and that ultimately is going to be the way, you know, that you do. Like when we did this debris thing to help the Pinellas beaches, we didn’t worry about, you know, the reimbursement of fema. Now we did talk with FEMA parallel to us doing it and saying they should qualify and they have said that they are going to, that they’re going to qualify us for it. But I think what happens in some of the, some of the local governments will wait on debris removal until all the paperwork with this and you lose valuable time. So we don’t want to lose valuable time. We want to push out resources now. And I think we’re all singing on the same sheet of music on that. So I think it will be *** good thing. Former President Trump or vice President Pamela Harris, um, former President Trump, you know, he’s somebody that I’m in regular contact with just, you know, given his campaign and me being *** supporter and he’s has helped with, I think some of the linemen I think they housed *** couple 100 he sends his well wishes. But we’ve just, we’ve got *** lot more ahead of us. The fuel situation. This is good to have this here. There’s going to be more, I know we’ve got one in ST Pete man, you’re going to see Sarasota in Tampa, probably another one in Pinellas. But as we’re doing that, you’re also going to continue to see more stations get power back. And when we have *** station that has power, as Kevin said, that runs out, we’re getting fuel back there sometimes escorting with FHP, the fuel coming from the ports. But if we have some fuel on hand that we can dump into *** station, we’re willing to do that, we just want people to be able to get what they need. And so we’re being very nimble about how we approach this. So, ok, well, you’ll hear more from us on additional fuel sites. I know we have *** lot of pods open and if there’s *** demand for more, then we’ll go ahead and get more open as well. Thanks. All right. Thank you. Thank you for your, thank you. You get damaged in your place.

    Governor to provide updates on recovery from Hurricane Milton

    Governor Ron DeSantis provided updates on recovery efforts after Hurricane Milton impacted Florida this week.The governor was joined by Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie and Major General John D. Haas. The press conference was held Saturday morning in Plant City.Hurricane Milton made landfall around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night near Siesta Key, Florida as a category 3 hurricane. Several people have been confirmed dead from the storm.Heavy flooding from Milton has impacted parts of Volusia County, and areas along the St. Johns River in Central Florida.The Tampa Bay area saw heavy wind-related damage, including toppled cranes and a destroyed roof at Tropicana Field.

    PLANT CITY, Fla. —

    Governor Ron DeSantis provided updates on recovery efforts after Hurricane Milton impacted Florida this week.

    The governor was joined by Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie and Major General John D. Haas. The press conference was held Saturday morning in Plant City.

    Hurricane Milton made landfall around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night near Siesta Key, Florida as a category 3 hurricane. Several people have been confirmed dead from the storm.

    Heavy flooding from Milton has impacted parts of Volusia County, and areas along the St. Johns River in Central Florida.

    The Tampa Bay area saw heavy wind-related damage, including toppled cranes and a destroyed roof at Tropicana Field.

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  • 1,300 Florida gas stations have run out of fuel. Hurricane Milton could cause even more trouble.

    1,300 Florida gas stations have run out of fuel. Hurricane Milton could cause even more trouble.

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    New York (CNN) — Gas stations in many areas of Florida are running out of gasoline, as residents prepare for Hurricane Milton.

    Demand for gas has surged as some residents in Milton’s path are trying to fuel up before they evacuate. Others who plan to stay put are trying to fill gas tanks so they’ll be able to power their generators should they lose electricity for an extended period.

    Gas price tracking service GasBuddy reported that as of 2 pm Tuesday afternoon, 17.4% of gas stations statewide were without fuel, a dramatic spike from just 3% on Monday. With about 7,500 stations in the state, that estimate means there are about 1,300 currently without gasoline.

    The situation was far worse in areas facing mandatory evacuation orders. In Fort Myers, on the state’s Gulf Coast, 70% of stations were without gas as of Monday night.

    “It’s a testament to how fast the storm is moving and how intense it is,” said Patrick De Haan, an energy analyst at GasBuddy. “It’s a game changer.”

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tried to tamp down panic buying and drivers topping off tanks, which can make shortages worse. DeSantis in a press conference Tuesday morning assured residents that the state is working to bring emergency supplies of gasoline to stations that have run out of gas.

    He said the state’s reserves include 110,000 gallons of gasoline and 268,000 gallons of diesel fuel. And he said while those reserves are falling because of distribution that has already taken place, there are 1.2 million gallons of both fuels currently in route to the state. DeSantis said 27 fuel trucks were escorted by the Florida Highway Patrol to deliver fuel to stations in the anticipated impact area of the storm.

    “We have been dispatching fuel over the past 24 hours as gas stations have run out,” he said at a press conference early Tuesday. “There is no fuel shortage. Fuel continues to arrive to the state of Florida. But lines at gas stations have been long and gas stations are running out quicker than they otherwise would.”

    Problems could persist after Milton passes

    Once the storm passes, problems getting gasoline into the state could persist if there is damage to the Port of Tampa from the hurricane, said gasoline market experts. That’s because that port is a key entry point for much of the gasoline that arrives in the state, via tanker or barge.

    From there, it is distributed the rest of the state by tanker trucks and by a pipeline leading to the Orlando area. But there are no pipelines bringing gasoline from refineries on the Gulf Coast or northern states as fuel is moved around much of the rest of the country.

    “The Port of Tampa is critical to supply for much of the state,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis for OPIS, which tracks gasoline prices for AAA. “It is one of most crucial pieces of fuel infrastructure in the country. I’d be hard pressed to find a market more dependent on waterborne supply and more susceptible to hurricane and storm surge.”

    The port has been closed due to the storm, although DeSantis said it has fuel at its gasoline terminals currently, and continues to operate ahead of the storm. It could take a little while for it to reopen to tankers and barges once the storm passes, said Andy Lipow, oil analyst with Lipow Oil Associates.

    “They will not return until the storm has passed and the Coast Guard checks for debris sunk in the channel and put back the navigation buoys,” he said.

    And the real fear is that the hurricane and storm surge could cause significant damage to the port.

    “We are assuming, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, but we are assuming that there’s going to be significant damage to the Port of Tampa, so we’re operating as if there’s going to be a significant interruption in their ability to receive fuel,” said DeSantis. He said state officials are working to make other arrangements to get fuel into the state.

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  • DeSantis Uses Hurricane To Damage Marijuana Initiative

    DeSantis Uses Hurricane To Damage Marijuana Initiative

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    A second hurricane is less than 2 weeks is barreling down on Florida – the governor sees it as a chance to hurt the marijuana initiative

    Hurricane Helene hit the Florida Big Bend causing havoc all the way to North Carolina with over 200 dead and thousands homeless.  Now,Hurricane Milton hast targeted the Tampa area and, in a rarity, grown from a tropical storm to a category 5 storm in a matter of days. While people are prepping and worrying, DeSantis uses hurricane to damage marijuana initiative.

    RELATED: Is New York Finally Getting Its Marijuana Act Together

    Hurricane Milton strengthened to a powerhouse Monday, driving sustained winds of 180 mph as it headed to the Sunshine State. Tampa, Orlando and St. Petersburg are three of of 5 largest population centers and are targeted by the storm. With people either planning evacuation or prepping their home for the massive storm, DeSantis sees an advantage. The Governor has decided to not extend the voter registration deadline. He has stated there’s “nothing inhibiting” unregistered voters from registering ahead of the deadline. At the same time he is urging residents on the populated west coast to heed evacuation orders ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall on Wednesday.

    as it

    DeSantis has been concerned about the recreational marijuana initiative as public support and backing have been huge.  The Governor has made it clear the voters are “confused” and “should leave decisions to him” around marijuana. He worked hard to block medical marijuana, but it passed with 71% of the states voters. He has worked hard to stop this one also, but with lackluster success.  The PAC he encouraged to fight it has raised less than $20 million versus the pro group which has raised over $100 million.  Even AARP has joined the fight with research seniors (a significant voter population in Florida) has accepted and starting consuming not just for fun but for chronic pain, inflammation, insomnia and more.

    RELATED: Cannabis Can Help Soreness After Summertime Activities

    With back to back storms, voting rights groups shared  the current situation has the highest impact on residents who just moved to Florida or eligible voters who just turned 18 and likely haven’t registered. To show the concern over Hurricane Milton, Disney is considering closing, which has only happened 8 times previously in its history. Six times for a hurricane, 9/11 and Covid…and potential a 9th with Milton.

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  • Another State’s Leaders Want to Stop Medical Marijuana

    Another State’s Leaders Want to Stop Medical Marijuana

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    The old guard is still working hard to bring back the War on Drugs – state by state.

    The cannabis industry is holding its breath until after the election. Both presidential candidates have endorsed some type of movement on marijuana but the big nail biter is how the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) will move on rescheduling.  Also, Florida is deciding on becoming the next major recreational market and other states are trying to move forward.  And while almost 90% of the general public supports it, the 10% who oppose it are still fighting to the end. Now another states’s leaders want to stop medical marijuana. Nebraska is the latest to ignore public opinion and will by trying to stop medical cannabis.

    RELATED: Science Says Medical Marijuana Improves Quality Of Life

    Legal states have seen increased tax revenues, no change on crime and a decrease in youth consumption. The American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians along with the federal agencies Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have all spoke up about the need for rescheduling additional research to unlock more medical medical benefits. But it makes no difference to Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and Secretary of State Bob Evnen.

    Cornhusker state citizens started a ballot initiative to bring medical marijuana to the state.  The group, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, garnered over 115,000 signatures. This was enough for the initiative to move forward and allow the public to decided the fate. The state has almost 2 million people with 288+ being over 65. This is a group with an increasing interest in medical marijuana use to help with chronic pain, insomnia, anxiety and other issues. But after being certified, the Attorney General and Secretary of State are calling foul and say half of the signatures are invalid. Early voting has already begun, but they would use this issue to void the results if the pro marijuana group wins.

    Attorney General Hilgers’ office seeks to go further than a 1919 Nebraska Supreme Court case dealing with an anti-woman-suffrage referendum used to defeat the effort. A bench trial is set to begin Oct. 29, one week before Election Day. The case is likely to be appealed to the Nebraska Supreme Court, no matter the outcome.

    RELATED: Biden Administration Puts A Knife Into The Cannabis Industry

    Like Florida, where Governor DeSantis has worked against the public will on marijuana. Nebraska has a history. In 201 the “Cannabis Compassion and Care Act,” was proposed in the l state legislature. The legislation would have allowed certain patients with prescriptions to use marijuana in liquid or pill form (but not smoked leaf form) for medical purposes. Following an initial 27–12 vote in favor, the bill’s sponsor, Senator Tommy Garrett requested the bill be held until 2016. The the bill was blocked by a Senate filibuster, falling three votes short of the number failed to advance. The bill encountered strong opposition from Governor Pete Ricketts and  then Attorney General Doug Peterson.  In 2020, a medical cannabis ballot measure was invalidated by the Nebraska Supreme Court. So it is up to the voters to see what happens next.

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  • Florida Governor’s Fight Against Cannabis Could Put Him In Hot Water

    Florida Governor’s Fight Against Cannabis Could Put Him In Hot Water

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    DeSantis is continuing to go full steam against recreational marijuana and other ballot initiatives, and it is not going well for him.

    The big news this week has been new tapes revealing Nixon stated marijuana was “not addictive and dangerous.” Nixon, who had a penchant for tapes which got him in trouble,  was the founder of the War on Drugs, which plagues the country to this day. But some leaders haven’t listened to reason and science. In fact the Florida’s governor’s fight against cannabis could put in hot water.

    RELATED: The Most Popular Marijuana Flavors

    It is public opinion and the medical community see value in legal cannabis by the positions of the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians.  But the message has reached Florida. Governor DeSantis has lead the fight against marijuana, despite the a significant majority of his voters opposing his position. He has used a variety of tactics to get his way, often with poor results.  He fought medical marijuana, lost and his popular, he has fought the insurance industry and now the sunshine state has sky high premiums, he appointed a president of one the states premier university only for him to leave after extravagant spending.

    DeSantis opposes citizen-led amendments on the ballot this November and has tried to rise money to combat the swell of voters who support them. Reflecting the will of the public, the pro marijuana group has raised 5 times the amount as the governor’s team. But it seems the governor may have dipped into state funds to help. In a two-front battle, DeSantis is also at odds with the GOP Presidential nominee who. stated he plans to vote yes for the initiative. A direct opposition to DeSantis stance.

    A Florida public service announcement, funded by the state and promoted on social media last week, warns viewers not to drive high. In the middle of the 30-second video, the narrator says, “DUI crashes increase in states with legalized marijuana, putting everyone at risk.” The claim legalization leads to increased instances of impaired driving is misleading. Research on the topic has been mixed, and even federal reports have said the effects of cannabis use needs more research.

    Smart & Safe Florida, the campaign that put Amendment 3 on the November ballot, sent cease and desist letters to about 50 news stations across the state. It seems legal and ethic issues are right around the corner.

    RELATED: This Natural Cannabinoid Makes You Feel Happy

    One irony is the state is PSA talks about it causing higher insurance rates. Florida is among the most expensive states for auto insurance. According to estimates from Quadrant Information Services, Florida drivers pay $134 per month or $1,605 per year on average for minimum-coverage auto insurance. Property owners already pay more than four times the national average for home insurance, up from triple the national average just last year. The cost of homeowners insurance on average increased more than 40% in the last year.

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  • Gov. Ron DeSantis to give second news conference from Tallahassee after Debby’s landfall

    Gov. Ron DeSantis to give second news conference from Tallahassee after Debby’s landfall

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    Governor Ron DeSantis held a news conference early Monday morning after Hurricane Debby made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region, and he’s expected to speak again Monday afternoon. The governor was joined by the Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie shortly after landfall. The two are expected to address the state again at 3:30 p.m. as Tropical Storm Debby continues to work through the northern part of the state. First news conferenceShortly after then Hurricane Debby made landfall near Steinhatchee, DeSantis laid out some important safety tips for Floridians as the hurricane continues its path across the northern portion of the state.DeSantis and Guthrie were both very adamant that post-storm deaths are preventable. They remind Floridians to stay put as the weather continues to pass, to avoid driving (especially on flooded roads) and to run generators at least 20 feet away from any home. While the governor said the amount of reported power outages was much less than previous hurricanes, he assured the population that officials were being deployed to restore power where needed. DeSantis also reminded residents the state is stocked with resources and rescue personnel, but doubted the need to use all of the assets.As the state continues to monitor the progress of the storm and the historic amount of rainfall the system is expected to dumb on the southeast, DeSantis told residents that Florida was prepared to respond appropriately. Second news conferenceDeSantis and Guthrie are expected to speak again from the State Emergency Operations Center as the system works across Florida and into Georgia.Just after 11 a.m., Hurricane Debby was downgraded to a tropical storm. The system continues to threaten the state with heavy winds and rains. WESH 2 will stream the news conference in the player above at 3:30 p.m. >> Track Tropical Storm Debby

    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. —

    Governor Ron DeSantis held a news conference early Monday morning after Hurricane Debby made landfall in Florida’s Big Bend region, and he’s expected to speak again Monday afternoon.

    The governor was joined by the Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie shortly after landfall. The two are expected to address the state again at 3:30 p.m. as Tropical Storm Debby continues to work through the northern part of the state.

    First news conference

    Shortly after then Hurricane Debby made landfall near Steinhatchee, DeSantis laid out some important safety tips for Floridians as the hurricane continues its path across the northern portion of the state.

    DeSantis and Guthrie were both very adamant that post-storm deaths are preventable. They remind Floridians to stay put as the weather continues to pass, to avoid driving (especially on flooded roads) and to run generators at least 20 feet away from any home.

    While the governor said the amount of reported power outages was much less than previous hurricanes, he assured the population that officials were being deployed to restore power where needed. DeSantis also reminded residents the state is stocked with resources and rescue personnel, but doubted the need to use all of the assets.

    As the state continues to monitor the progress of the storm and the historic amount of rainfall the system is expected to dumb on the southeast, DeSantis told residents that Florida was prepared to respond appropriately.

    Second news conference

    DeSantis and Guthrie are expected to speak again from the State Emergency Operations Center as the system works across Florida and into Georgia.

    Just after 11 a.m., Hurricane Debby was downgraded to a tropical storm. The system continues to threaten the state with heavy winds and rains.

    WESH 2 will stream the news conference in the player above at 3:30 p.m.

    >> Track Tropical Storm Debby

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  • Has Marijuana Become A Political Football

    Has Marijuana Become A Political Football

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    With almost 90% of the country believing it should be legal in some form, especially among younger voters – who is going to be the party make the goal?

    The presidential race is heating up and both parties are grappling with changing demographics and a tight race.  Also, there will be 41 million new Gen Z voters who will be able to participate in the election, and they see things different from boomers.  One big issues is causing heartburn on at least one side….has marijuana become a political football?

    RELATED: The Feds Have Until November To Help Veterans

    Data shows between 85-89% of the country believe cannabis should be legal in some form.  Florida went against their governor to force recreational marijuana to be on the ballot, and have raised $60 million to the Governor’s team which has raised less than $100,000.  But the biggest issues is Gen Z, the generation who is drifting away from alcohol and toward weed.  To them, it is like buying alcohol and they don’t understand why old politicians are so resistant to what has been proven to a medical aide.  While it is behind voter concerns of the economy, public safety and democracy, it is still will play a role in influencing millions of votes. And the party who gets it across the goal line will be a hero.

    The current administration has been slow to make a movement and only in the election year has significant progress been made. Following the recommendations of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American College of Physicians (ACP) have used science to encourage the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to follow the process and reschedule cannabis to a Schedule III showing it has medical benefits and is classified like Ibuprofen.  But the late start is hurting as the GOP is throwing up roadblocks as the public (by 90%) and the medical community has taken very public stances.  The Biden administration may have waited too long to secure it before ballots drop.  Vice President Harris, who was a vocal, strong adversary of legalization has revered course and embraced the rescheduling mantle and the potential benefits for patients, veterans and voters.

    RELATED: Science Says Medical Marijuana Improves Quality Of Life

    The Republicans are pulling out all stops to keep it from passing at all. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-KY), long a critic, has allowed votes to stop the process and allowed members to demand the DEA stop, slow, or delay the process. In a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra GOP members of the House expressed something fishy is going on for the process to move at the usual pace. Part of the change in policy the overwhelming support of the the major medical associations. The Republicans are pushing a policy which is clearly against the public desire, which is somewhat confusing if you want to win.

    In addition, Florida Governor DeSantis, despite received donations from some in the industry, has taken a full frontal attack.  Despite dropping out of the race, DeSantis still likes the spotlight. At a Florida Sheriff’s convention, he spoke on the subject of legal weed and was a bit loose on the facts, especially when it comes to the success is in Colorado.  DeSantis has called voters confused and patiently explained his nanny state philosophy is best and has state the will of the voters should be set aside for his personal beliefs.

    The voting public has been showing its will with their purchase power. Already Illionis, a key state, has sold over $1 billion in weed this year. The next 100 days will be critical for the  cannabis industry and for rights of voters.

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  • Public Vs Governor In Florida Marijuana Legalization Fight

    Public Vs Governor In Florida Marijuana Legalization Fight

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    It is becoming a messy in the public vs Governor fight for legal marijuana and DeSantis is NOT happy.

    Florida has had a troubled history with marijuana. Originally part of a Tri-state growing kingdom (the Florida Panhandle, Georgia, and Alabama)…the national transition toward legal weed has been tough. Now, in the latest chapter of the fight for legal marijuana, the Governor is upset the the state’s citizen’s desire is pulling ahead of his focus on nanny state policies. The public vs governor in Florida marijuana legalization fight is clear who wants to win.  The public has significantly raised more than the Governor and his allies.

    RELATED: The Best Hydrating Cocktails For A Hot Weekend

    When medical marijuana was first put on the ballot, citizens were supportive. It was reasonable considering the amount of veterans and senior citizens in the state. PTSD and chronic pain are two of the ways the American Medical Association, Health and Human Services and science acknowledge cannabis has medical benefits. In general, Florida is in the top 3 states with retirees, a group the Governor thought he can rely on for support, but the state supported medical marijuana by 61%.  When he said it wasn’t enough, they voted again passing it at 71%.

    Photo by Cappi Thompson/Getty Images

    When the public started a ballot campaign to put recreational marijuana to a vote, DeSantis and his allies swung into action. The Florida Attorney General said it didn’t overcome the threshold and accused it of being misleading. The Florida Supreme Court disagreed and now it is on the November ballot. But the Governor is unhappy and has said the public is confused and they should rely on him for the marijuana policies.

    RELATED: California or New York, Which Has The Biggest Marijuana Mess

    In a further setback, the Governor’s efforts to slow support seems to be collapsing. DeSantis’ Freedom Fund PAC, with a stated goal of defeating cannabis legalization and abortion access, has raised only $10,000. DeSantis wanted neither topic on the ballot as it tends to pull in more democratic, independent and moderate voters. Smart & Safe Florida, the committee leading the initiative, which is the best-funded cannabis legalization amendment in American history, reported it had has raised over $60 million. Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group behind the proposed amendment around abortion rights has brought in $20 million since it went on the ballot.

    The state is home to #Floridaman, so there is bound to be more wackiness in the lead up to the election.

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  • Things Are Heating Up For Cannabis This Summer

    Things Are Heating Up For Cannabis This Summer

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    Temperatures aren’t the only thing warming up this summer – the cannabis market is heating up with potential changes.

    It is the time of year for high temperatures, travel, grilling, and more. And as a bonus this year, things are heating up for cannabis this summer.  The industry is holding its breath as the current administration lumbers toward rescheduling, Florida is setting the stage again for a fight between the governor and his residents and licenses are granted as Ohio opens the marijuana market.

    RELATED: California or New York, Which Has The Biggest Marijuana Mess

    The cannabis industry is starting to rise out of a mess caused by overexcitement, federal regulation and zero tax relief for mom and pop businesses. And, it seems, the Biden administration seems to be finally taking rescheduling serious with both President Biden and Vice President Harris using it as a talking point in speeches.

    The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) hasn’t be the most excited despite both Health and Human Services (HHS) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommending the change. Several key federal health agencies were part of conference recently to discuss the marijuana science and policy considerations for researchers navigating cannabis studies, but the DEA cancelled their participation. Currently, it is in a 60 day public comment period and they DEA will move afterwards. Fall seems to be the time a final decision will be made.

    Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

    Florida has voted on marijuana three times. The first time medical passed by 60% and the the then popular Governor declared it not enough. The second time it passed by over 70% and the Governor said the public was confused. Now they go for a third time and the Governor doesn’t want a vote and especially doesn’t want support from his citizens. But things have changed. Faced with soaring problems and a more negative view of his nanny state policies, DeSantis barely breaks 50% approval ratings. In a new Fox New poll, 66% of the state backs expanding legalization. Included in the poll is Republicans are at 57% for making the plant more available, it seems DeSantis is again swimming against what Florida wants.

    RELATED: Was There Marijuana In The Old West

    The state where 7 US presidents were born, Ohio, is gearing up to sell recreational marijuana in dispensaries. Ohio’s 132 medical marijuana dispensaries are now able to apply for recreational sales permits. It means marjijuana could be sold to the adult general public begin by mid July. And, most likely, it means most Buckeyes should have access by the later part of the summer. And it means the end of the year will be a boon for the states tax coffers. Smaller state Missouri did over $1 billion in sales in their first year, so the state budget should look good next year.

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  • DeSantis moving toward vetoing bill that would regulate sale of cannabis products in Florida – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

    DeSantis moving toward vetoing bill that would regulate sale of cannabis products in Florida – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news

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    DeSantis moving toward vetoing bill that would regulate sale of cannabis products in Florida – Cannabis Business Executive – Cannabis and Marijuana industry news




























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  • Consumer Spending Validates Marijuana Rescheduling

    Consumer Spending Validates Marijuana Rescheduling

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    It is a historic move for a country which had prohibition, but consumers are using their wallets to show they support it.

    Culture wars have been an American tradition – from the battle over TicTok to the alcohol prohibition in the 1920s. It was said the only thing to come out of the anti-liquor period was it taught good citizens how to break the law.  But in general, if the public wants it, the public will have it, legal or not. The perfect is example is the Pornhub ban in Utah and Texas, which has sent VPN sign ups sky high. And consumer spending validates marijuana rescheduling in a major way.

    RELATED: Beer Sales Flatten Thanks To Marijuana

    Some politicians and leaders believe in the nanny state option.  Those include a few governors lead by Ron DeSantis, Mitch McConnell, and a few other special interest groups.  But the Biden’s administration’s decision to reschedule cannabis lines up with public opinion. Over 85% believe it should legal in some form, and more importantly, they are putting their money toward what they want.  Leading analyst firm, BDSA, shared the public’s spending habit’s match their thoughts on rescheduling.

    Photo by Anton Petrus/Getty Images

    Following the tradition, cannabis sales moved higher again this year. Sales on 20 April 2024 sales were $167M, a 33% increase over the previous year.  Trends like California sober are going strong and Gen Z continues to move away from alcohol and move toward marijuana vapes and gummies. Lifestyle habits are starting to adjust slightly away from alcohol and more low alcohol drinks, mocktails, and cannabis eat away at the traditional market.  Alcohol is much rougher on the body, so many are opting for a semi-healthier option.

    It is a benefit for fully recreational states as even Missouri makes significant tax income on cannabis. Most governors are on board with rescheduling at it is not only the public’s will, but it helps the state’s coffers and actually helps in other areas. Even New York State, with over 1,500 non tax paying illicit stores making money, made some income.  They have less than 100 licensed dispensaries generating over $175 million.

    RELATED: How To Microdose Marijuana

    On an interesting sidebar, like holidays, there are some holidays where cannabis use is up. Here are the largest for 2023

    1. 420
    2. Green Wednesday
    3. Black Friday
    4. St Patrick’s Day
    5. Veteran’s Day

    In comparison, alcohol’s largest days are:

    1. New Year’s Eve
    2. St. Patrick’s Day
    3. July 4th
    4. Day Before Thanksgiving/ Blackout Wednesday/ Drinksgiving
    5. Black Friday

    Let’s see how the next 12 months works for the industry, the government and the public.

     

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  • Iowa And Marijuana

    Iowa And Marijuana

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    The current governor, Kim Reyonlds is not a fan and has been a roadblock.  Reynolds has stated “I believe marijuana is a gateway drug that leads to other illegal drug use and has a negative effect on our society.”

    Cannabis in Iowa is illegal for recreational use but hemp products including CBD products are legal for consumers to possess and registered retailers to sell. Possession of even small amounts of marijuana is still a crime. The state’s medical marijuana program for patients with qualifying debilitating health conditions allows for the legal sale and possession of no more than 4.5g of THC per patient every 90-day period.

    RELATED: Science Says Medical Marijuana Improves Quality Of Life

    According to a 2021 Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll, 54% of Iowans support legalizing recreational marijuana. But with firm resistance from the Governor, it will be hard ot have progress.  Despite public acceptance, the Governor believe she knows what is better for the population.

    In the meantime, Missouri and Illinois will benefit from consumers and taxes.

     

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  • Trump’s Plan to Police Gender

    Trump’s Plan to Police Gender

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    After decades of gains in public acceptance, the LGBTQ community is confronting a climate in which political leaders are once again calling them weirdos and predators. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the parents of transgender children; Governor Ron DeSantis has tried to purge Florida classrooms of books that acknowledge the reality that some people aren’t straight or cisgender; Missouri has imposed rules that limit access to gender-affirming care for trans people of all ages. Donald Trump is promising to nationalize such efforts. He doesn’t just want to surveil, miseducate, and repress children who are exploring their emerging identities. He wants to interfere in the private lives of millions of adults, revoking freedoms that any pluralistic society should protect.

    Explore the January/February 2024 Issue

    Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.

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    During his 2016 campaign, Trump seemed to think that feigning sympathy for queer people was good PR. “I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens,” he promised. Then, while in office, he oversaw a broad rollback of LGBTQ protections, removing gender identity and sexuality from federal nondiscrimination provisions regarding health care, employment, and housing. His Defense Department restricted soldiers’ right to transition and banned trans people from enlisting; his State Department refused to issue visas to the same-sex domestic partners of diplomats. Yet when seeking reelection in 2020, Trump still made a show of throwing a Pride-themed rally.

    Carter Sickels: Being trans shouldn’t exclude me from health laws

    Now, recognizing that red-state voters have been energized by anti-queer demagoguery, he’s not even pretending to be tolerant. “These people are sick; they are deranged,” Trump said during a speech, amid a rant about transgender athletes in June. When the audience cheered at his mention of “transgender insanity,” he marveled, “It’s amazing how strongly people feel about that. You see, I’m talking about cutting taxes, people go like that.” He pantomimed weak applause. “But you mention transgender, everyone goes crazy.” The rhetoric has become a fixture of his rallies.

    Trump is now running on a 10-point “Plan to Protect Children From Left-Wing Gender Insanity.” Its aim is not simply to interfere with parents’ rights to shape their kids’ health and education in consultation with doctors and teachers; it’s to effectively end trans people’s existence in the eyes of the government. Trump will call on Congress to establish a national definition of gender as being strictly binary and immutable from birth. He also wants to use executive action to cease all federal “programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition at any age.” If enacted, those measures could open the door to all sorts of administrative cruelties—making it impossible, for example, for someone to change their gender on their passport. Low-income trans adults could be blocked from using Medicaid to pay for treatment that doctors have deemed vital to their well-being.

    The Biden administration reinstated many of the protections Trump had eliminated, and the judiciary has thus far curbed the most extreme aspects of the conservative anti-trans agenda. In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that, contrary to the assertions of Trump’s Justice Department, the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ people from employment discrimination. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the investigations that Governor Abbott had ordered in Texas. But in a second term, Trump would surely seek to appoint more judges opposed to queer causes. He would also resume his first-term efforts to promote an interpretation of religious freedom that allows for unequal treatment of minorities. In May 2019, his Housing and Urban Development Department proposed a measure that would have permitted federally funded homeless shelters to turn away transgender individuals on the basis of religious freedom. A 2023 Supreme Court decision affirming a Christian graphic designer’s refusal to work with gay couples will invite more attempts to narrow the spaces and services to which queer people are guaranteed access.

    Listen: When the state has a problem with your identity

    The social impact of Trump’s reelection would only further encourage such discrimination. He has long espoused old-fashioned ideas about what it means to look and act male and female. Now the leader of the Republican Party is using his platform to push the notion that people who depart from those ideas deserve punishment. As some Republicans have engaged in queer-bashing rhetoric in recent years—including the libel that queerness is pedophilia by another name—hate crimes motivated by gender identity and sexuality have risen, terrifying a population that was never able to take its safety for granted. Victims of violence have included people who were merely suspected of nonconformity, such as the 59-year-old woman in Indiana who was killed in 2023 by a neighbor who believed her to be “a man acting like a woman.”

    If Trump’s stoking of gender panic proves to be a winning national strategy, everyday deviation from outmoded and rigid norms could invite scorn or worse. And children will grow up in a more repressive and dangerous America than has existed in a long time.

    This article appears in the January/February 2024 print edition with the headline “Trump Will Stoke a Gender Panic.”

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    Spencer Kornhaber

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  • How Election Denial Lost

    How Election Denial Lost

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    Outside the Maricopa County tabulation center last weekend, a few dozen outraged Arizonans paced single file along the sidewalk waving KARI LAKE flags. Through megaphones, some of them denounced imaginary corruption schemes and clamored for a “redo” election. Others chanted the Lord’s Prayer, like the musicians on the Titanic playing hymns to calm the passengers.

    The noteworthy thing about the Maricopa protest, though, wasn’t the scene. It was its singularity. Two years ago, shouts of “Stop the steal!” could be heard across the country in nearly every state. This year, the refrain was largely limited to one block in downtown Phoenix, where at times reporters outnumbered the demonstrators.

    If any state was going to devolve into chaos after a disappointing election for Republicans, it would have been Arizona—ground zero for election denial in 2020, and where this year, primary voters nominated an entire slate of fringe election cranks to all of the state’s major offices. Instead, the midterms delivered a sure blow to the election-denial movement, both there and everywhere else: The most prominent conspiracists, such as the Arizona secretary-of-state candidate Mark Finchem and Pennsylvania’s Doug Mastriano, lost by significant margins; some of these candidates even acknowledged their losses by—surprise!—actually conceding. On Monday night, Lake was declared the loser in her race for Arizona’s governorship, adding a final note to what has seemed like a comprehensive repudiation of the denialists. And where experts and reporters had anticipated widespread election-fraud mayhem, nothing close to it has yet emerged.

    Read: In Arizona, shouts of ‘fraud’ again

    It would be foolish, though, to pronounce “Stop the Steal” dead. The movement may have fizzled without Donald Trump, but if he runs again in 2024, we haven’t seen the last of it. Even if Trump isn’t on the ballot, an entire swath of the Republican Party is now open to the idea that any narrow loss can be blamed on fraud. Trust in elections among rank-and-file GOP voters remains low, and in some respects has gotten worse, according to a recent survey from the Pew Research Center. The damage inflicted in 2020 endures. “He’s broken the seal,” Sarah Longwell, the publisher of The Bulwark, told me. Election denial “is part of our politics now.”

    Things could have been so much worse.

    Ahead of the election, poll workers in Arizona and beyond feared for their safety, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law reported an uptick in calls to its Election Protection hotline. In the Phoenix suburbs, armed men were patrolling ballot drop-off sites. The day before the election, I watched a group of women stake out a ballot box, studying voters through binoculars for signs of cheating. The central counting facility in downtown Phoenix was fenced off with a ring of plastic Jersey barriers, and police patrolled the streets on horseback.

    Election officials in Maricopa County, who appeared very tightly wound, held a press conference to get ahead of any potential claims of election chicanery. A time-consuming vote count does not indicate fraud, they reminded the room full of reporters; ballots are processed and reviewed by bipartisan teams; tabulation machines work.

    Unfortunately, events on Election Day quickly undermined those careful efforts at reassurance. The sun had not yet risen when the first handful of tabulation machines stopped reading ballots. By midday, dozens of machines were malfunctioning at polling sites throughout the county. Voters at those sites were told to feed their ballots into “Door 3,” a regrettably sinister-sounding name for a secure slot that would sort the misread ballots to be counted later. And they would be counted later, as officials reassured voters in a series of follow-up press conferences.

    Read: Trumpism has found its leading lady

    Voters I spoke with were understandably confused and frustrated. And the malfunctioning machines had state GOP leaders immediately taking to Twitter to suggest wrongdoing. “They are incompetent and/or engaging in malfeasance just like in 2020,” GOP Chair Kelli Ward posted. Those complaints spiraled into partisan hysteria as the counting went on. Frustrated MAGA commentators suggested that Maricopa County officials had engaged in outright corruption and “CIVIC TERRORISM.” Finchem accused them of “screwing with the election counts.”

    Still, despite those initial glitches and dark mutterings, Election Day unfolded mostly without threats or funny business. Poll workers weren’t harmed, and voters were, for the most part, not intimidated. Almost everyone on the America First Secretary of State Coalition slate lost last week, including Michigan’s Kristina Karamo, who’d described Democrats as having a “satanic agenda”; Finchem, the mustachioed Oath Keeper of Arizona; and the head of the coalition himself, Nevada’s Jim Marchant.

    Parroting Trump’s election lies got many Republican candidates across the finish line in their primary. Finchem’s repeated election-fraud claims won him a regular spot on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. The former president has praised Lake’s commitment to the bit, too, reportedly telling donors that even if asked about the weather, Lake would find a way to bring the conversation back to 2020. But these wild claims proved poisonous to moderates and swing voters—polling suggests that some went to the polls explicitly to vote against deniers. We know this because many Republicans who didn’t traffic in election lies performed well: Brian Kemp beat Stacey Abrams by almost eight points in the Georgia governor’s race. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis won reelection by nearly 20 points.

    Fans of democracy can take heart that only 14 out of 94 election deniers won in races for positions that oversee elections, including secretary of state, attorney general, and governor, according to States United Action, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for election integrity. Of those 14, only five candidates were not incumbents. “The movement is still not gaining ground,” Joanna Lydgate, the CEO of States United Action, told me.

    David Frum: Trump lost the midterms. DeSantis won.

    That things didn’t turn out worse is a relief, given the chaos of 2020. But the dynamic of this year’s election was different in a few important ways. Republicans were on the defensive back then: The general election was a national referendum on their president. This year, Trump himself wasn’t on the ballot—whereas, in 2020, he had spent months priming the base to blame polling fraud if he lost. It’s clear now that nobody does Stop the Steal like 45.

    “The thing that gives you power as an election denier is that people believe you, and Trump was able to make people believe him,” Longwell told me. Few other candidates have that power, and none in this midterm election could nationalize the issue as he did in the presidential contest. This time, the GOP had no central character over whom Trump supporters could feel outraged.

    Yet the election-fraud fires that Trump and his allies have fanned for so long will not be easily extinguished. If repeated audits and cold evidence haven’t done enough to deter conspiracists these past two years, then a disappointing midterm cycle won’t dissuade them either.

    Election deniers didn’t win in swing states, but elsewhere they did. Four of them will oversee elections in Indiana, Wyoming, Alabama, and South Dakota. More than 200 Republicans running for Congress and statewide positions who’d questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election won or retained their office last week, including more than 180 in the House. Other election deniers won at the state level in ultraconservative districts across the country. These ruby-red areas might sink deeper into denial, creating islands where both voters and officials are debilitatingly distrustful of elections.

    Read: ‘Stop the steal’ is a metaphor

    Take Cochise County, Arizona. There, 170 miles southeast of Phoenix, some GOP election officials have been hankering to do a full hand-count audit in the election. Paradoxically, Republican candidates won handily there both this year and in 2020, so no obvious motive for distrusting the results is apparent. But the years-long drumbeat of misinformation from the state GOP chair, Ward, and her allied band of election-fraud kooks have nurtured a deep suspicion of the whole process.

    Republican leaders in Arizona don’t believe in machine tabulation and view hand counts as the purest, most accurate way to tally votes—never mind the extensive evidence that the opposite is true. This year, Cochise County tried to forge ahead with a full hand-count audit, even after a judge ordered local officials not to. Only a timely ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court last week kept them from carrying one out. “What I’ll be doing over the next two years is looking at these counties that have gone really hard to the right,” Jessica Huseman, the editorial director of Votebeat, a nonpartisan election-news outlet, told me. “Because there’s no one to push back.”

    Even in states where election deniers lost, voters have been primed to suspect outcomes they don’t like, glitches they don’t understand, and delays in counting. “If [Lake] doesn’t announce that she’s going to win tonight, we might have to go through like a week or so of shenanigans—the same shenanigans that they pulled in 2020,” Stephen Tenner, a former actor from New York, told me at a lavish GOP Election Night party in Scottsdale. “We’re waiting for it this time; we weren’t ready last time. So we’re going to catch the fraud.”

    Other Republicans I interviewed were less persuaded of the likelihood of fraud, but were comfortable entertaining the idea. “I’d like to go back to same-day voting and paper ballots. There are problems with machines,” a man named William from Phoenix, who declined to give his last name, told me at the party. Would he blame fraud if Republicans lost? I asked. “Well, there were problems with the elections two years ago,” he said, adding that, this time around, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs should have recused herself from official duties during the election. “I would be hesitant to say I thought [this one] was completely honest.”

    Barton Gellman: The impeachment of Joe Biden

    The thing about trust is that it’s painstakingly hard to build and relatively easy to demolish. Election denial is now a chronic wound in America’s body politic, only partially healed, and ready to reopen—red and raw—whenever circumstances permit. Those circumstances may arise sooner rather than later if Trump is on the ballot again in 2024. Even if he isn’t, the former president has already broken the tradition of gracious presidential concessions and peaceful transfers of power. He’s encouraged a populist animus toward institutions that will likely remain a litmus test for future Republican candidates. And more than anything, Trump has created a blueprint for exploiting the messiness and complexity of America’s elections. An audience for this type of exploitation is still out there, if Republicans want to take advantage of it.

    On Monday, after Maricopa County released a decisive batch of ballots that led all major news networks to declare Hobbs the next governor of Arizona, a few members of Team Lake sprang into action to ensure that any ballots with errors were quickly cured. That’s a standard and legitimate procedure in elections, and can be helpful in especially close ones. But other Republicans continued to follow the denialist script. Ward accused Maricopa County of voter suppression. Finchem, the failed secretary-of-state candidate, began to do the impossible calculations. “I should win by 3% and @KariLake should win by 11%,” he tweeted. “If that doesn’t happen you know the real story.”

    Lake’s own account was silent for more than an hour after the networks had called the race. After all of this, would this cycle’s Stop the Steal standard-bearer actually concede? The answer came at 10:30 p.m. eastern, with a simple tweet: “Arizonans know BS when they see it,” Lake wrote.

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    Elaine Godfrey

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