TALLAHASSEE– Within weeks of vetoing a bill that Florida hemp growers said would spell the death knell for their industry, Gov. Ron DeSantis received a major donation from a man who’d led the campaign against the legislation.
Apopka-based hemp grower and CBD dispensary owner Patrick O’Brien donated $100,000 to the governor’s Florida Freedom Fund on June 25, campaign records show. DeSantis vetoed the bill June 7 after weeks of dropping hints that he planned to do so.
“There was no quid pro quo associated with our donation.” O’Brien said in a texted response to a question from the Orlando Sentinel. “Our support for Governor DeSantis stems from a shared commitment to economic freedom and individual liberties, not from any promised actions in return.”
O’Brien is CEO of Chronic Guru, a five-acre hemp farm in Apopka with dispensaries in Sanford and Orlando and plans to expand into Tampa and North Carolina.
His check is the largest single donation so far to the governor’s political committee, which has raised $121,000 since it was registered in May, according to the latest campaign finance records that go through June 28.
Chaired by the governor’s chief of staff James Uthmeier, who also led chaired governor’s failed presidential campaign, the political action committee was set up to target the popular recreational marijuana and abortion protection amendments, which are both on Florida’s ballot in November.
A recent Fox News poll showed well over 60% of voters support the measures, the amount needed for passage.
Uthmeier did not respond to an email seeking comment on the donation.
DeSantis, who signed a bill last year banning abortions after six weeks except in the case of rape or incest, opposes the abortion amendment. It would make abortion constitutionally protected in Florida up to viability, or about 24 weeks.
DeSantis also has been outspoken in his opposition to the adult-use marijuana amendment, painting a dire picture of its consequences if it passes.
“The weed one doesn’t just decriminalize marijuana, it’s a license to have it anywhere you want,” DeSantis said during a news conference in April. “This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and towns. It will reduce our quality of life.”
At a more recent public appearance, DeSantis said if the amendment passes, people “will be able to bring 20 joints to an elementary school.”
But when it comes to hemp, DeSantis took the side of the hemp industry, which took off in Florida after legislation was approved that conformed state law with a 2018 federal farm bill that legalized hemp and took it off the Controlled Substances Act.
Hemp seeds and oils now are sold in a variety of products, including milk, oil and gummies, that are touted as pain relievers, sleep aids and anti-anxiety cures.
In his veto message, DeSantis said the hemp bill would have imposed “debilitating regulatory burdens” on those businesses and caused “dramatic disruption and harm to many small retail and manufacturing businesses.”
It would have banned two types of the psychoactive substance found in trace amounts in hemp and placed limits on the amount of another substance found in hemp.
O’Brien ran a grassroots campaign against the hemp bill, posting billboards across the state warning that SB 1698 would harm family farms, 10,000 small business owners and 100,000 jobs. His campaign also had thousands of people send emails, letters and phone calls to the governor’s office, urging a veto.
The governor’s office reported receiving 7,665 emails opposing the bill and 65 for it.
“Their collective efforts were crucial in defeating legislation that would have criminalized legal hemp business owners and their customers,” O’Brien said.
