Florida Dems Pro-Weed’s Cannabis Holdings to Go up in Smoke after Public Scrutiny

Democratic Florida governor candidate Nikki Fried said Wednesday that she was “processing liquidating” her marijuana company holdings following a Daily Caller News Foundation report on the subject.

Fried made the claim in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel Wednesday. Fried owns roughly $183,000 in Trulieve, the second largest public cannabis company by market cap, her 2022 financial disclosure shows, and reported a roughly $130,000 stake in Harvest Health and Recreation, a pot dispensary company Trulieve now owns, on her 2021 disclosure. According to the Orlando Sentinel,

Fried stated that there is no conflict. “I made it very clear to the people of the state in 2018 that I came from the industry. That is what got me into my activism, my desire to not only expand the medical marijuana program, but also get to legalization.”

Harvest Health and Recreation has 14 Florida locations and Trulieve has 118, the DCNF reported Wednesday. Fried got into hot water with the Florida Ethics Commission in December 2021 for not reporting her prior lobbying income.

Fried was a medical marijuana lobbyist prior to her appointment as Florida’s agriculture commissioner in 2018. (RELATED: Florida Dem Governor Candidate Vowing To Legalize Pot Owns Huge Stake In Dispensary Chain, Filings Show)

“If you elect me governor, I will legalize marijuana in Florida,” Fried tweeted in 2021.

“As governor, I’ll legalize weed,” she also said in April 2022.

If you choose me to be your governor, we will legalize pot in Florida. #SomethingNew

— Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) August 21, 2021

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis previously stated to the DCNF that Fried’s cannabis holdings had “nothing do with freedom and democracy but instead it’s all personal gain

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