Ron DeSantis Reaffirms Opposition To Pot Legalization, Gets Booed At Prayer Vigil After Florida Shooting

Ron DeSantis reiterated his opposition to legalized marijuana at a presidential campaign event on Saturday in Iowa, stating concern that young children might get their hands on cannabis that could be adulterated with fentanyl.

“I think it’s a real, real problem and I think it’s a lot different than stuff that people were using 30 or 40 years ago. And I think when kids get on that, I think it causes a lot of problems,” DeSantis said, adding that “drugs are killing this country.”  

Speaking at an event coordinated by the Never Back Down Super PAC, DeSantis used San Francisco as an example that cannabis should not be legalized although he acknowledged that Florida has had medical marijuana for years and it has never been spiked with fentanyl.

Shooting In Jacksonville: DeSantis Booed At Prayer Vigil

Following the racially-motivated shooting death of three Black men by a masked white man using a gun painted with a swastika on Saturday at a Dollar General DG, DeSantis and his wife attended a prayer vigil on Sunday. When he was called to the podium, DeSantis was greeted with scattered applause that turned to boos.  

War On Woke: Don't Say Gay

DeSantis’s so-called war on woke campaign got underway several years ago during his ongoing battle with Walt Disney Co DIS and his "Don't Say Gay" anti-LGBTQ+ campaign that has heated up during his presidential primary campaign when he announced a plan to rewrite Black history in Florida’s schools. DeSantis is trailing Donald Trump in the primary race as Vivek Ramaswamy nips at his heels. 

Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, who represents the district where the Jacksonville shooting took place, said Gov. DeSantis has had "an all-out attack on the Black community with his anti-woke policies."

“Look, at the end of the day, the governor has blood on his hands,” Nixon told MSNBC on Sunday.