Commissioner questions DeSantis' use of opioid settlement $ to fight Amendment 3

At a meeting of the statewide council overseeing opioid settlement trust funds, a board member referenced published accounts that the DeSantis administration is using settlement money to fund ads urging voters to reject a proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older.

Several news agencies reported last week that the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) allocated nearly $4 million from the Florida opioid settlement trust fund to Strategic Digital Services, a Tallahassee marketing agency, for an educational campaign on the “dangers of marijuana, opioid, and drug use,” specifically directed at Floridian families and youth.

During a virtual meeting of the Statewide Council on Opioid Abatement on Wednesday, Seminole Republican County Commissioner Lee Constantine, a member of the council, referred to what he said was “the elephant in the room” — those news reports that Gov. Ron DeSantis has raided the fund to help pay for television commercials to combat Amendment 3, the proposed constitutional amendment that the governor has gone on a crusade over the past week to try to keep support for the proposal under 60%, the threshold required for it to become Florida law.

“I’m concerned about some of the reports that have been made recently and accusations in some of the newspapers and press concerning the unintended use of these dollars … to educate people on Amendment 3 and being against Amendment 3 in this current election,” Constantine said. “I don’t believe that that was the intended use, nor do I believe it is directly helping abatement on our opioid crisis. I’m not suggesting that it is happening, I don’t know. “



https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/10/30/commissioner-questions-desantis-use-of-opioid-settlement-to-fight-amendment-3/