A $10 million payment tied to a Florida Medicaid settlement moved through the Hope Florida Foundation, into two anti-drug nonprofits, and then into a political committee fighting marijuana legalization. Public filings also show a major funding surge at SAM Action during the same period. The full picture remains incomplete, but the overlap, timing, and money trail raise serious questions.
Two months before Florida voters decided the fate of marijuana legalization, $10 million tied to a Medicaid overbilling settlement quietly resurfaced in a campaign to keep cannabis illegal.
The money, drawn from a $67 million settlement with the state’s largest Medicaid contractor, moved through a charity founded by First Lady Casey DeSantis and then to two nonprofits with close ties to Governor Ron DeSantis’s political orbit. Within days, $8.5 million landed in political committees fighting Amendment 3, the marijuana legalization ballot measure, according to state campaign finance records and documents obtained by the Associated Press.
The amendment failed to reach the required 60% supermajority in November 2024, though 56% of Florida voters supported it.
One of those nonprofits, Save Our Society From Drugs, a little-known St. Petersburg organization with less than $50,000 in assets, received $5 million and transferred 95% of it to a political committee within days.
Recent reporting has exposed how the DeSantis administration steered millions tied to the settlement into the political fight over marijuana. But an examination of tax filings, corporate records and financial disclosures suggests the public record may tell a broader story about prohibition networks, financial overlap and unanswered questions around who funded the anti-legalization push during a critical election year.
What appears at first glance to be a Florida campaign finance scandal looks more complicated when placed next to national prohibition groups. Save Our Society From Drugs is closely affiliated with Smart Approaches to Marijuana, the nation’s leading anti-legalization lobbying organization, whose 501( …
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Author: Rolando García / High Times
