As Florida prepares to vote on Modification 3, which might legalize adult-use hashish within the state, Florida’s largest medical hashish firm is sueing the Republican Get together and two TV stations for what it calls a deceptive marketing campaign.
Modification 3 is ready to be one of the vital consequential referendums throughout this upcoming November election, and certainly in US historical past, with Florida representing a sizeable potential marketplace for hashish companies.
The vote was already thrown into the highlight final month after former President Donald Trump, a Florida resident, voiced public assist for the adult-use legalization initiative, breaking ranks with the Republican state Governor, Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis has intensified his efforts to quash the legalization poll, and has piled some $15m of taxpayer funds into campaigns urging Floridians to vote in opposition to Modification 3 and Modification 4, which offers with abortion rights.
Now, Trulieve has filed a defamation lawsuit in opposition to the Republican Get together of Florida, accusing it of operating advertisements in opposition to Modification 3 which comprise ‘demonstrably false’ info.
The lawsuit, which can be focusing on two Fort Myers-based TV stations for broadcasting the advertisements, argues that they falsely depict Modification 3 as a measure designed to entrench a monopoly by massive hashish firms like Trulieve.
One advert encompasses a gardener attempting to plant hashish however being blocked by a ‘Huge Weed’ character. Trulieve says that is deceptive, noting that the proposal permits the state legislature to increase the variety of licensed operators, rising competitors.
Trulieve additionally means that DeSantis’s claims that the modification will profit the present hashish trade on the expense of smaller operators and residential cultivators, additionally argues in opposition to this.
The corporate filed the go well with to appropriate the report and search damages. Republican Get together leaders, nonetheless, dismissed the lawsuit as an try and silence opposition, defending the advertisements as truthful and impactful.
