$10 Million in Taxpayer Money Was Diverted Into Florida’s Fight Against Marijuana Legalization, Grand Jury Says

By Nicolás Rodríguez, Managing Editor

A Florida grand jury has concluded that $10 million in taxpayer money was misappropriated and ultimately used for political activity, including the campaign to defeat the state’s 2024 marijuana legalization initiative.

The findings, contained in a sealed grand jury report obtained and reported by CBS News Miami, offer a remarkable new look at the money behind the successful opposition to Amendment 3, which sought to legalize adult-use cannabis in Florida.

According to CBS Miami’s reporting on the grand jury findings, the money originated in a settlement involving health care company Centene and alleged overbilling under the Florida Healthy Kids program. The grand jury concluded that the full settlement represented reimbursement owed to Florida taxpayers.

Instead of all of the settlement money returning to the state, $10 million was directed to the Hope Florida Foundation, a nonprofit connected to First Lady Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida initiative.

What happened next puts the story squarely inside Florida’s cannabis politics.

The grand jury found that the foundation subsequently awarded two $5 million grants to outside organizations. Nearly all of those funds quickly moved again.

According to the report, Secure Florida’s Future transferred $3.75 million to Keep Florida Clean, a political committee chaired by James Uthmeier, who was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff at the time and is now Florida attorney general. Save Our Society from Drugs transferred another $4.75 million to the same committee. A forensic accountant determined that Keep Florida Clean received $8.5 million from the two organizations.

Keep Florida Clean was a major force opposing Amendment 3.

The grand jury characterized the original $10 million transfer as part of what CBS reported it called a “sophisticated scheme to fund political activities.” It nevertheless concluded that there was insufficient evidence to criminally charge anyone, in part because investigators could not establish who ultimately made the decision to direct the money to Hope Florida.

DeSantis, meanwhile, has rejected the controversy surrounding Hope Florida. Asked about the matter Wednesday, he said he was not involved in the settlement agreement and called the controversy a “hoax,” according to CBS Miami.

The grand jury reached a starkly different conclusion.

It found that the money was taxpayer reimbursement that should have been handled as public funds rather than allocated to partisan political purposes without transparency. The panel recommended that Florida lawmakers adopt new safeguards requiring money received by the state to enter the General Fund and establishing stronger oversight over organizations receiving taxpayer funds.

For Florida’s cannabis industry, the findings reopen one of the biggest questions surrounding Amendment 3’s defeat: not simply who opposed legalization, but how the campaign against it was financed.