Florida could join two dozen states allowing recreational marijuana use next week, after a nine-figure campaign funded by the state’s largest medical marijuana operator in the face of intense opposition from Gov. Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis did everything he could to prevent the initiative, which appears as Amendment 3 on Tuesday’s ballot, from reaching the 60 percent voter approval needed for constitutional amendments in Florida.

The proposal would effectively decriminalize possession of up to 3 ounces of marijuana by adults ages 21 and older.

Trulieve, a Quincy-based company whose medical marijuana sales dwarf those of its competitors in 24 states, lost nearly $143 million from the initiative, more than 95 percent of the roughly $150 million raised by the committee. Smart & Safe Florida policy sponsoring the measure.

The proposal would give Trulieve and other medical marijuana companies in the state the ability to begin selling euphoria-inducing cannabis products to anyone in Florida, including tourists 21 or older. With 156 retail locations statewide, Trulieve sells more than a third of all medical marijuana products – including smokable marijuana – in Florida.

DeSantis has targeted contributions from Trulieve, which is publicly traded on the Canadian stock market, as he tours the state and appears on national television to fight the proposed amendment. The governor says adoption of the proposal would solidify the company’s “monopoly” in Florida’s cannabis market.

“I don’t think a single company has ever invested this much money on a single ballot measure in all of American history. And so the only way they can justify that is that this amendment is going to guarantee them a massive profit stream,” DeSantis said at a rally-style event this week.

Without identifying him by name, DeSantis repeatedly calls out Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers, who has built the company into one of the nation’s largest cannabis sellers in less than a decade.

Trulieve was one of Florida’s first licensed operators, after voters approved a 2016 constitutional amendment allowing medical marijuana. The company also operates in Arizona, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The governor has enlisted numerous state agency heads, including leaders from the Department of Juvenile Justice, the Department of Children and Families, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Department of Road Safety and Motor Vehicles and the Ministry of Health, to join his crusade. against the pot proposal and mobilized various public resources to campaign against this measure.

State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, for example, recently issued guidelines warning about the dangers of marijuana and advising health care providers to regularly screen patients ages 12 and older. The highway safety agency has issued public service announcements warning against driving under the influence of marijuana.

DeSantis also leveraged state resources to oppose another ballot proposition, Amendment 4, to enshrine the right to abortion in the state Constitution.

Rivers, who jokingly calls herself a “recovering lawyer,” has in the past toned down her public criticism of DeSantis and his administration, which regulates his affairs.

But she called the governor’s criticisms “hogwash” and predicted they could backfire on voters, who she said “see through” his attacks.

“As more and more Floridians understand that we have a state government that is spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to run election campaigns and to propagandize a citizen voting initiative, I think the people are not happy about it,” Rivers said. told the News Service of Florida in a telephone interview Thursday. “I think this just further reinforces why Amendment 3 is going to pass.”

DeSantis also focused on what could be a weakness in the proposal for people who might otherwise support marijuana decriminalization: The measure does not include allowing people to grow their own marijuana.

“They provide that you basically have an unlimited right to possess and smoke marijuana, but only if you buy it from them. They don’t give you the right to grow your own product in your backyard,” DeSantis said at an event Tuesday. “So they’re forcing companies to join this big marijuana cartel.”

But supporters of the pot bill argue that including a provision that would have allowed people to grow marijuana would not have passed the Florida Supreme Court because the proposed constitutional amendments must only have a single subject.

Rivers said home cultivation “is something that Trulieve, as an organization, has supported since our inception.” She said two bipartisan lawmakers — Sen. Joe Gruters, a Republican from Sarasota, and Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat from Miami Gardens — have pledged to sponsor a bill next year that would allow people to grow their own grass.

Gruters, a former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, is not the only prominent Republican to part ways with DeSantis on the pot front.

Former President Donald Trump, a Florida resident who is leading Tuesday’s poll as the GOP presidential candidate, endorsed Amendment 3 on his Truth Social site.

As part of a bipartisan blitz this week, Smart & Safe Florida released an ad featuring Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, who hopes to defeat Trump in the race for the White House.

“We need to legalize it,” Harris said.

Trump has said he intends to vote for the measure.

“This must be done in a very concerted and legal manner. The way they’re doing it in Florida, it’s going to be very good,” Trump said in the ad.