Florida marijuana company sues Republicans in dispute over change

TALLAHASSEE – Florida's largest medical marijuana company filed a defamation lawsuit Wednesday, accusing the state Republican Party of launching a “deliberately deceptive campaign” to mislead voters about a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow it Recreational use of marijuana.

With voting already underway in the Nov. 5 election, the lawsuit filed by Trulieve, Inc. — which has spent nearly $93 million on the recreational marijuana initiative — also accused the owners of two Fort Myers-based television stations , a “provably false” and “attempts to deceive Florida voters” into voting against what will appear on the ballot as Amendment 3.

“The GOP knew the claims in the deceptive mailer and ad were false, intentionally misleading and duplicitous, but published them anyway in order to persuade Florida voters to vote against a ballot initiative restricting recreational use of cannabis in Florida would legalize,” the lawsuit said.

The television ad features a gardener watching a newscast saying the change could “legalize recreational marijuana.” The gardener rushes to start planting, but is confronted by a “Big Weed” figure who says, “Actually, we wrote the amendment, so we're the only ones who can grow it.”

Change 3

People's inability to grow their own weed has become a major problem in efforts to defeat the proposal. Opponent Proponents of the marijuana measure, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, contend the proposal will benefit the state's “monopoly” of licensed medical marijuana businesses by allowing them to begin selling Leisure pot. The measure would also allow lawmakers to increase the number of operators.

“Amendment 3 cannot prohibit anything that is already prohibited, and the plain language of Amendment 3 says nothing about home cultivation of cannabis and does not change the current legal position regarding this issue,” the lawsuit says.

Trulieve's lawyers argued that the “Big Weed” character was “reasonably understood to be Trulieve” by Florida voters because the company is “the largest cannabis producer in the state” and because prominent Florida Republicans have publicly claimed that Trulieve violated Amendment 3 have written.

The “gist of the ad” is that Trulieve designed the proposal to minimize competition, the lawsuit says.

According to the lawsuit, “the Republican Party of Florida paid the media defendants” to air the “deceptive” television advertisements.

The challenge also centers in part on mailings from the Florida Republican Party that call the marijuana proposal “a power grab by mega-marijuana corporations that eliminates their competition and forever enshrines their monopoly advantage in the Constitution.”

The letter is false because the proposal would allow lawmakers to increase the number of marijuana operators in the state, the lawsuit says.

“The truth is that there is a competitive market in Florida with 25 licensed medical marijuana ‘operators’ in which no single company represents even half of the market,” attorneys for Quincy-based Trulieve wrote in the lawsuit, filed March 2 . court district was filed. “And rather than eliminating competition, the ballot initiative would increase competition by allowing the state to approve additional licenses for the cultivation and sale of cannabis.”

In addition to the Republican Party of Florida, the lawsuit names as defendants Sun Broadcasting, Inc., which owns and operates station WXCW, and Fort Myers Broadcasting Company, which owns and operates station WINK and is affiliated with Sun Broadcasting.

Trulieve is the primary source of funds behind the ballot initiative, providing approximately $92.8 million of the nearly $101.4 million in cash and in-kind contributions donated to the Smart & Safe Florida political committee, which is the Proposal supported.

State Republican Chairman Evan Power hit back against the company on Wednesday.

“It's so funny that a company that invests nearly $100 million in a political campaign would be so sensitive to honest television advertising,” Power said in a text message. “Proponents of Amendment 3 are trying to remove these ads, which they know to be true and work. So they use laws to silence us, but we are undeterred in our efforts. “If that’s huge, powerful.” If a company can’t handle that, they should sit at the little kids’ table.”

The television stations did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, which was provided to the News Service of Florida and filed in Gadsden County.

Trulieve lawsuit

Trulieve has 151 dispensaries across Florida – nearly twice as many as any other medical marijuana operator. Trulieve sold nearly 38 percent of the total amount of smokable marijuana sold nationwide in the week ending Sept. 26, according to a report from the Florida Department of Health. The company sold about 30 percent of other products sold nationwide, according to the report.

Trulieve filed the lawsuit “to set the record straight, enforce its civil rights, hold defendants accountable for defrauding voters, and seek compensatory and punitive damages,” the lawsuit says.

Republican leaders in Florida have largely opposed the marijuana proposal.

DeSantis' chief of staff, James Uthmeier, is leading two policy committees aimed at defeating Amendments 3 and 4, a measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. The DeSantis administration has used federal resources to oppose both measures. For example, the Florida Department of Transportation recently released public notices stating that passage of the marijuana proposal could lead to more car accidents and higher car insurance premiums.

The state Republican Party passed a resolution opposing Amendment 3 in May, saying the proposal would threaten the state's “family-friendly business and tourism climate.”

However, former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election, supports the measure.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday repeatedly noted that there are 25 licensed medical marijuana businesses in Florida and that state regulators have accepted applications for an additional 22 licenses.

Trulieve filed the lawsuit about a week after he sent letters to television networks asking them to withdraw the ad.

“The GOP acted with actual malice by either knowingly or recklessly ignoring that the statements it published about Trulieve were false… and — when explicitly pointed out the truth and asked to retract them — refusing to retract them , because the GOP wanted to cheat.” “We want to persuade Florida voters to vote against a ballot initiative that would legalize the recreational use of cannabis in Florida,” the lawsuit says.