As he wanders around the state campaigning Against a proposed expansion of abortion rights and the legalization of recreational marijuana, Gov. Ron DeSantis has touted a version of Florida that would surely be nice to live in. There is no need for a constitutional amendment protecting reproductive rights, he said, because women can now abort Whenever they need it, he will personally take care of it. And marijuana? Hey, the police are great: in Florida, nobody gets into trouble for simple possession. DeSantis’ loyal band of law enforcement sheriffs are happy to turn a blind eye on that one, so go ahead and turn it on.

You see, in Florida we don’t enact changes to the law driven by special interests, no sir. DeSantis will protect Floridians from dark corporate interests, such as Trulievethe state’s largest medical marijuana operator, who are pulling the strings to get the proposed recreational marijuana amendment passed on November 5, enshrining a cartel for themselves and depriving the rest of us of the right to grow marijuana in our own backyard.

Yeah, that Florida sounds like a nice subtropical paradise.

The real Florida doesn’t look like Governor Ron DeSantis’ fantasy

Needless to say, a tantalizing sight is nothing like the rather prudish Florida we live in today, where pregnant women and doctors must navigate a Draconian ban on abortion at six weeks with criminal penalties attached for healthcare providers who step out of line, and thousands (of disproportionately black Floridians) are routinely arrested for minor marijuana charges. Florida sheriffs tend to be bigoted scolds who jealously protect their right to lock up citizens for extremely minor infractions, such as nodding on a park bench. The only offender whose numerous misdeeds they seem to tolerate is the Republican presidential candidate, who have they supported.

DeSantis might criticize Trulieve today, but not long ago the marijuana company and the governor were on much friendlier terms. In the early days of his administration, DeSantis, surrounded by allies linked to the marijuana industry, played a key role in preparing the company for success in Florida, where voters had recently legalized medical marijuana. In turn, he benefited from the company’s significant contributions to his political committee, according to a CNN report. It was the same kind of symbiotic relationship between a politician and a private interest that DeSantis is now criticizing as he fights Amendment 3, which would legalize recreational marijuana.

DeSantis is blatantly dishonest about Florida’s six-week abortion ban

DeSantis signed Florida’s six-week abortion ban last year as a red meat pitch to Republican primary voters as he prepared to run for president. The fact that he is arguing today that his near-total ban is more like a set of lax guidelines is just a thinly disguised ruse aimed at undermining Amendment 4, which would restore the more expansive reproductive rights of the Roe era.

In fact, the permissive Florida that the puritan DeSantis has described throughout his campaign against greater personal freedoms is a flimsy and deceptive fantasy that will expire at midnight on November 6, when he will no longer be able to use deception.

His astonishing dishonesty has gone somewhat unnoticed because DeSantis has drawn attention in other important ways: namely, his campaign against the two proposed amendments is backed by millions of taxpayer dollars. DeSantis is undertaking an unprecedented, state-sanctioned effort to kill two citizen-sponsored constitutional amendments with election speeches, television advertisements and a large amount of official state resources.

Throughout this campaign (which, again, you are paying for), DeSantis and his allies have repeatedly presented a Bizarro-World version of Florida to undermine the greater freedoms that the proposed amendments would sign into law. “Under Amendment 3, you wouldn’t be allowed to grow your own weed; you’d have to buy it (from a marijuana dispensary),” one of DeSantis’ advisers said. macabre spokesmen recently warned.

This is the kind of criticism that might be compelling if Floridians could now grow marijuana in their backyard, but of course, in DeSantis’s sweltering Florida, that’s illegal. and that is precisely The reason citizens signed enough petitions to put this proposed amendment on the ballot is that Florida politicians have not responded to the popular will of actual Floridians, so voters are trying to force the change themselves.

Governor DeSantis argues against himself on recreational marijuana

DeSantis has also recently begun telling voters that marijuana possession is no big deal.

“Not a single person is in jail for this” he said at a taxpayer-sponsored campaign event this week.

This is accurate if you ignore the thousands of Floridians in places like Miami-Dade who are, in fact, arrested on minor marijuana charges, resulting in ruined lives and a profound waste of taxpayer resources. Police also routinely cite the smell of marijuana as a reason for escalating traffic stops.

But even accepting DeSantis’ false framework, isn’t that then an argument for getting rid of the law? If no one is in jail for it and no one really thinks it’s a big deal, repeal the law. No harm, no foul, right?

Mistaken. If Amendment 3 fails, DeSantis will not sign a bill relaxing marijuana laws. Your simple attitude will disappear. While DeSantis and his allies flirt with marijuana users in some places, he and his allies are simultaneously saying things like this in others: “I don’t want legal drugs in our city. I don’t want legal drugs in our state. I don’t want legal drugs in our country. It’s not good for us. It’s not good for our community.” “

That was Duval County Sheriff T.K. Watersone of the governor’s close allies who has appeared in some of the taxpayer-sponsored anti-Amendment 3 ads.

Does that Sound like someone a weed-curious gardener should link arms with? Does that Does that sound like a leave-by-bygones cop who doesn’t care if you light up a cigarette? “Marijuana smoke is the most unpleasant smell to me that has ever existed,” he told the Jacksonville station. News4Jax. “I was in Stockton, California, not long ago, and I walk from place to place just smoking marijuana. Why do I have to smell other people’s smoke?”

Governor Ron DeSantis is not a protector of women’s health, no matter what he says

On abortion, DeSantis has truly perfected his fork-tongue act: The architect of Florida’s six-week abortion ban has recast himself as a protector of women’s reproductive rights and health and turned doctors into The villains who deny abortion..

The reality of Florida’s abortion ban (which puts doctors in a unsustainable dilemma of providing necessary care or risking future prosecution, is temporarily inconvenient for DeSantis, so he decided to pretend that there is essentially no such ban. And he has taken this deception quite far: a federal judge recently reprimanded the DeSantis administration for threatening to prosecute television stations for airing pro-Amendment 4 ads that accurately explain the hardships Florida’s near-total abortion ban has imposed on patients and doctors.

DeSantis insists that his abortion ban provides medical exceptions that should ensure that women in need receive care, but some doctors (who risk committing a felony if a prosecutor decides they did not exercise “reasonable medical judgment” in performing a abortion after six weeks) disagree.

For that sin, DeSantis has promised retribution.

“If you have a doctor who fails to provide necessary medical care in these situations … he should not only be sued, but he should have to pay a huge monetary damages, a huge malpractice verdict,” DeSantis said this week. He added that he would be willing to work with lawmakers to change the law to make it easier to file these types of lawsuits.

This is all a trick: In DeSantis’ twisted version of Florida, it’s the doctors (many of whom never supported this abortion ban) who are to blame, not the reactionary governor and his legislative sycophants who actually wrote it and then implemented it.

Indeed, it is an irony that the Florida version of the fantasy land that DeSantis is opportunistically selling to voters recognizes the cruelty and unresponsiveness of the Florida we actually live in today and, if his ambitions are realized , in which we will continue to live for the rest of our lives. foreseeable future.

Nate Monroe is a Florida columnist for the USA Today Network. Follow him on Twitter @NateMonroeTU. Email him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared in the Florida Times-Union: Gov. Ron DeSantis cheats in war on Florida election amendments