Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidates talk health care and marijuana

More than 1.5 million Floridians have already cast a ballot ahead of the August primary slated for next Tuesday.

Without a GOP challenger, the only question in the governor’s race is who will take on Ron DeSantis in the November general election.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Florida for five years at this point, but recent efforts for full legalization have failed to make the ballot.

Both Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist said if they’re elected governor, they’d support the legalization of recreational marijuana.

Fried said she’d sell legalization as a multi-pronged benefit, highlighting the economic boost to the state and the criminal justice reform angle.

“It’s also health care reform,” said Fried. “There are so many people — I don’t care if you’re talking to somebody young or you’re talking to somebody who’s older — who would want to use cannabis as an alternative to pharmaceutical drugs. Get people off of pharmaceutical drugs, which also reduces our health care costs. This is a win-win-win for our state.”

Crist said his motivation for legalization is personal after seeing his older sister die of cancer before medical marijuana became available.

“That’s number one: Being compassionate. Number two: We can regulate it, and make sure it’s not laced with something that can harm you forever. And number three: We can tax it. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry,” said Crist.

On health care, both candidates put expanding Medicaid at the top of the list.

Fried said her strategy would involve convincing GOP lawmakers of the cost benefits.

“(We want) to be working with our legislators, explaining to them not only are they helping their constituents, but you’re also going to be reducing the overall cost for the health care system in the state of Florida,” said Fried.

Crist argued the question of Medicaid expansion is one of morality.

“It’s going to provide health care to almost a million people in our state. That’s just the right thing to do. So many issues in this race ... have come down to not right-versus-left ideology, but right-versus-wrong. This is one of them,” said Crist.

Coming up Thursday night on Action News Jax, candidates will tell us how they plan to address the overturning of Roe v. Wade and what changes they would make to Florida’s election laws.

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