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Florida’s $4 Million Opioid Settlement Fund Allocation Sparks Controversy Over Anti-Drug Campaign

Florida’s Department of Children and Families has allocated nearly $4 million from the state’s opioid settlement fund to a marketing agency in Tallahassee to launch an educational campaign targeting families and youth about the dangers of marijuana, opioid, and drug use. The campaign, which includes two recent ads, aims to highlight the potential mental health risks of marijuana use in teenagers, including links to schizophrenia. One of the ads claims that modern marijuana is engineered by corporations to rewire the human mind.

While the ads do not explicitly mention Amendment 3, which seeks to legalize recreational marijuana for adults over 21, supporters of the amendment argue that the campaign is a deliberate attempt by the administration to sway voters ahead of the November election.

The use of opioid settlement funds for this campaign has raised questions among Amendment 3 supporters, who believe that the money should be used to address the opioid epidemic rather than funding political ads. The controversy has sparked scrutiny over the allocation of public funds and the potential impact on the upcoming election.