After burning opioid money on marijuana ads, a state agency wants more cash

Florida in Five: Five stories to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Photo credit: Cindy Shebley

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Welcome to another installment of Florida in Five: Five* stories you need to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent millions of dollars in taxpayer money this fall on thinly disguised campaign ads against ballot measures that would have legalized marijuana and overturned the state’s near-total abortion ban.

Now, his administration is asking for even more money for marketing.

Specifically, DeSantis’ Department of Children & Families is asking Florida lawmakers for $28.4 million from the state’s share of a nationwide legal settlement with the opioid industry for the agency to spend on “prevention and media campaigns.”

An except from a 2025-26 budget request submitted by the Florida Department of Children & Families.

That would be a nearly 60 percent increase over the current budget, in which the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature gave the DeSantis administration $18 million in opioid-settlement funds to spend on marketing programs.

Representatives for the Department of Children & Families declined to answer when asked why the agency is asking for such a big increase to its opioid marketing budget, which has been used in the past to fund anti-drug programs aimed specifically at school kids and campaigns that promote the proper use, storage and disposal of prescription painkillers.

But it might be because DeSantis seems to have burned a bunch of this year’s opioid-marketing money on his publicly funded ad campaigns against the marijuana and abortion ballot measures.

DeSantis and his aides have repeatedly refused to answer basic questions about that unprecedented campaign, in which the state spent an an estimated $20 million on “public service announcements” warning about the risks of marijuana and defending Florida’s abortion laws just as voters were deciding the fates of Amendment 3 and Amendment 4. The two initiatives — the only citizen-led measures that made the 2024 ballot — both won a majority of the vote but fell short of the 60 percent supermajority required to pass a constitutional amendment in Florida.

Florida’s Republican governor hasn’t said, for instance, how much taxpayer money he put into the ads. Nor has DeSantis said what public programs he pulled the money from.

But purchasing records show that the Department of Children & Families was one of four state agencies that signed near-simultaneous contracts with the same advertising agency just before the agencies began jointly sponsoring marijuana and abortion ads. And payment and invoice records show that DCF funded most of its portion with opioid-settlement money — money that is, by law, supposed to be spent combatting the opioid epidemic.

And now DCF wants even more opioid marketing money.

This is a big moment for members of the Florida Legislature.

Lawmakers are about to begin writing the next state budget. That gives them the leverage to make Ron DeSantis answer the kinds of questions he has ignored so far — to make the governor publicly explain how he used, and potentially abused, taxpayer resources this fall.

A good place to start would be getting to the bottom of whether DeSantis cannibalized any opioid abatement programs to pay for his election propaganda.

But it shouldn’t stop there.

Lawmakers should also demand a detailed accounting of how DeSantis funded the entire advertising effort against Amendments 3 and 4. Vendor records suggest, for instance, that DeSantis may have also commandeered some or all of $1 million that lawmakers gave the Agency for Health Care Administration to help Floridians comparison shop for healthcare, and nearly $500,000 lawmakers gave the Department of Health to build a website for new and expecting parents.

And they should insist on a full explanation of how and why the Florida Pregnancy Care Network — a nonprofit funded entirely by Florida taxpayers — put close to 20 percent of its budget into a quickly crafted ad campaign produced by a mysterious vendor that added to the DeSantis’ administration’s anti-abortion electioneering.

Florida lawmakers have lots of levers they could pull here. They could, for instance, publicly interrogate DeSantis’ aides when the governor sends them before budget committees asking for more money. They could order audits of the administration’s spending, too.

Tallahassee is full of politicians who claim to be fiscal conservatives and careful stewards of taxpayer money.

Here’s their chance to prove it.

*To paraphrase Barbossa, five is more what you’d call a guideline than an actual rule.

Florida’s Shakespearean fool

Patronis: Yes, Florida Republicans draw districts to help GOP (Florida Phoenix)

See also: Do Florida lawmakers serve citizens or lobbyists and legislative bosses? (Florida Trident)

The Heritage Foundation-ification of Florida continues

DeSantis appoints conservative think tank members to a university board (Associated Press)

See also: DeSantis nominee for UWF board says women shouldn’t delay motherhood for higher ed, career (Associated Press)

See also: State to study return on investment of Women/Gender Studies programs (Florida Phoenix)

See also: The Porn Dude? Searches for Pornhub Alternatives Boom After Florida Ban (Miami New Times)

Watch the revolving door spin

A ‘Business-Friendly’ Lawyer’s Rise From Lobbyist to Attorney General Pick (New York Times) ($)

See also: Developers push controversial Miami ordinance that would make it easier to cut down trees (WLRN)

See also: Florida sues Miramar company to recover $5.8 million COVID overpayment. CEO at the time is now in Congress. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)

Hard questions ahead

People are flocking to Florida. Will there be enough water for them? (Grist)

Turdnado and the Gerbil King

Lawsuit says furry blue online animated character helped sway the Manatee County election (Sarasota Herald-Tribune) ($)

Perspectives

You got conned. Home insurance costs still rising in Florida (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

What if everyone qualified for welfare benefits? (Vox)

Why Hulk Hogan was booed & modern politics in Pro Wrestling (The MCIMAPS Report)