Smoke shops sprout like weeds in Florida. You’ll be surprised at what one owner says about marijuana legalization bill.

Jay Work opened his first of five Grateful J’s smoke shops in Margate in 1995. He sells familiar smoking products: water pipes, rolling papers, and lately, an array of THC-infused hemp products that distributors contend were legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.

Customers might be surprised to see signs that Work posted around his stores urging them to vote “No” on Amendment 3, the measure that would legalize adult-use marijuana in Florida.

The number of smoke shops in Florida, like Grateful J’s, has increased by more than 1,000 since 2019, according to data by the state Department of Revenue. Hemp entrepreneurs say an explosion of hemp products since 2018 has fueled the growth.

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They’re identified by the department as retail stores engaged in the sale of “retailing cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, cigars, tobacco, pipes, and other smokers’ supplies.” Their number increased from 630 in 2009 to 1,579 in 2019, and by another 1,053 over the past five years. They totaled 2,632 in 2023. Taxable sales at smoke shops increased from $615 million in 2019 to $1.7 billion in 2013.

And it’s not just smoke shops where hemp products can be found. A spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services said that 9,543 businesses in the state are permitted to sell hemp for human consumption. Hemp products can also be found at gas stations and convenience stores, distributors say.

A 2023 analysis by Whitney Economics, which studies the global hemp and cannabis industries, said Florida’s hemp business generated more than $10 billion in sales last year and supported more than 100,000 jobs.

THC-infused hemp products come in many forms, including vapors, gummies, chocolates, sodas and a smokeable flower known as THCa that hemp entrepreneurs say is nearly indistinguishable from marijuana, though some marijuana smokers disagree.

Hemp sellers contend that the product they sell is federally legal cannabis.

They say a handful of large marijuana distributors pushing Amendment 3 tried to put them out of business last spring by backing a legislative bill that would have strictly limited THC levels and completely banned most forms of intoxicating hemp products.

Work agrees. “They don’t want hemp products in the stores or the gas stations,” he said.

No home grow, no opportunities for small businesses

Work says he opposes the amendment for several reasons, starting with who stands to benefit financially if supported by 60% or more voters on Nov. 5.

It won’t benefit him or his stores, he says.

He singles out a medical-cannabis company: “It’s run by Trulieve money.”

Trulieve is the leading provider of medical marijuana in Florida, with 159 retail locations in the state and 66 in eight other states. The company has contributed more than $75 million to convince voters to support the amendment.

Another reason Work has made his opposition known is that its language doesn’t allow marijuana smokers or retailers to grow their own plants and would preserve the vertical integration model currently in place for medical marijuana.

The amendment is written, he said, to benefit only companies that pay huge license fees and control every aspect of the cannabis operation, from cultivation and processing to distribution and retail.

“If I have recreational pot, why can’t I grow my own?” Work asks. “In a right to work state, you should be able to get into the industry.”

To support their claim that medical marijuana companies created the restrictions in the most recent hemp bill, hemp growers point to representatives of Trulieve and other large distributors who are registered on the bill’s webpage as lobbyists.

But Steve Vancore, a spokesman for Trulieve, said the company “took a clear neutral position” except for an amendment that the company registered to speak on “only as it directly impacted MMTCs” — medical marijuana treatment centers — “but we never lobbied either for or against the hemp bill but would have opposed the amendment, which was withdrawn prior to a committee meeting.”

He added, “We had absolutely nothing to do with the bill, we stayed away from it with intent and any claims to the opposite are not only completely untrue, those making this false claim have no evidence whatsoever to support that lie.”

Responding to the argument that Amendment 3 would reward a “monopoly” of large businesses, Morgan Hill, a spokeswoman for the pro-amendment Smart & Safe Florida initiative, said that 25 companies currently hold medical marijuana treatment center licenses.

Another 22 licenses are “pending approval” by the governor’s office, she said.

“So that’s 47 that could be current tomorrow if the administration wanted them to be,” she said. “I don’t know if that’s quite in line with the definition of monopoly.”

Arrests and jail for unauthorized possession?

Many voters who choose to support Amendment 3 believe it would end arrests and incarceration for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

But Hill acknowledges that the amendment carries over language from medical-marijuana laws that outlaws possession of any form of weed that’s not in packaging from approved sellers.

That opens the door to the arrest of anyone caught with marijuana not in approved packaging, amendment opponents say.

“That’s right,” Hill concurred. “I think the way that the amendment is worded, this helps to ensure that anyone who is buying marijuana is buying from a well-regulated seller. It makes sure that the product is tested for purity and safety. We know that when folks get access to marijuana on the illicit market, it’s not safe and it can be laced with dangerous substances. So this is a protective measure.”

What’s in the amendment now doesn’t prevent the Legislature from drafting laws that would address opponents’ concerns over home growing and arrests for possession of unauthorized weed, she said.

Hill said that the amendment writers purposely omitted details about how legalized marijuana would be implemented in Florida to ensure that the ballot question would contain a single subject, as required of constitutional amendments, to boost the prospect that the state Supreme Court wouldn’t reject it.

Karen Goldstein, director of the Florida chapter of NORML, or the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said recreational marijuana “should be sold in a store where regulations matter.”

“You can’t buy liquor from the guy down the street, can you? It’s the same thing,” she said. “You have to buy a product like marijuana from a store licensed to sell it. One of the main advantages of Amendment 3 is that it should help get it off the streets, get it away from your kids. Put it in stores where the people selling it are checking ID. Stop the guy down the street from selling it because his market is suddenly nonexistent.”

Last year, prosecutors filed 16,000 charges against people in Florida for possession of small amounts of marijuana, the Tampa Bay Times reported in July.

Another amendment opponent, Michael Thompson, owns Tampa-based Dank of Ganja, which distributes Belgian chocolate bars infused with Delta-9 THC to more than 500 Florida retail businesses.

While he says no one should be arrested for possessing marijuana, 16,000 arrests a year would “pale in comparison to the damage to economic liberty and freedom of the fair market” that the amendment, if it passes, would create.

He downplays the threat of arrest that marijuana users will continue to face if voters reject the amendment. If police were to suspect the presence of weed, Thompson says, “the best thing to say is, ‘Hey, this is hemp,’ and the burden of proof is on the state. Can they arrest me? Sure, But I’m handing it my lawyer on a silver platter. My charges are going to get dropped.” How much will that lawyer cost, he was asked. “Probably $2,500.”

Alex Petrick, owner of Tallahassee-based Florida Hemp Distributors, which just opened a retail store in Plantation, says the 2018 Farm Bill created opportunities for small businesspersons like himself to enter the cannabis business.

Amendment 3, if it passes, would open the door to a takeover of the medical-marijuana business by large pharmaceutical companies, Petrick said. “And that doesn’t give the American entrepreneur the ability to invest or to compete, unless you’re into hemp.”

Hemp entrepreneurs interviewed for this story praised Gov. Ron DeSantis for vetoing proposed restrictions on hemp in June after they were passed by the state Legislature. At the time, DeSantis said the bill would create too many regulations and hurt small businesses. He also said lawmakers should try again next year.

In August, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that the Republican Party of Florida received at least $1.7 million in donations and promises of $3.2 million more from hemp companies less than three weeks after the veto. Soliciting the donations from hemp company CEOs, distributors and smoke shop owners, organizers of the fundraising effort said hemp industry lobbyists promised to rally “serious funding” to stand by DeSantis in his opposition to Amendment 3.

Since the donations were solicited, numerous TV ads opposing the amendment have run, many echoing arguments made by the hemp distributors, such as the claim that the amendment campaign is bankrolled by a monopoly and that passage would keep home cultivation illegal.

Supporters say they just want legal access

Proponents of Amendment 3, like members of the Florida chapters of NORML, say they understand concerns voiced by hemp entrepreneurs.

But they support the amendment because it provides an opportunity for marijuana smokers to purchase the product without requiring expensive doctor appointments and medical-marijuana cards, and without having to fear being arrested.

“Smokers just want to be left alone,” said Chris Cano, executive director of the Suncoast chapter of NORML. “They don’t want to be arrested for smoking weed, I mean, that’s the whole thing. That’s why NORML was founded.”

Beyond Grateful J’s, most employees at seven other smoke shops located within a two-mile radius in Margate last week said they support Amendment 3 despite the fact it could hurt their store’s sales of THC-infused hemp products.

“I know we will lose business,” said Jay Salgado, who works at a store called Mr. Smoke Shop on State Road 7. He says he already cast his ballot for the amendment in early voting. “But I’m tired of paying for my medical card.”

Joseph Macuso, working at a store called Smart Vape & Smoke on West Atlantic Boulevard, said if the amendment is approved, marijuana users may no longer have to go to “sketchy neighborhoods to buy weed.”

Nick Scelta, working at a store called Cloud Up on State Road 7, said the amendment “definitely” should be approved. “I love weed, and I don’t like opiates,” he said.

THC-infused hemp products are OK in a pinch but there’s no comparison to actual marijuana, he said. Even THCa, though it is sold as flower, is not the same, he said.

“It will get you by but you have to drink a beer with it,” he said.

Goldstein, executive director of the state chapter of NORML, said, “I’m 77 and a half years old I’ve been smoking marijuana since 1964. There’s no way I’m going to smoke hemp.”

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com .