Florida
Why Florida could end up with the same issues as NY if it makes pot legal
When Floridians go to the polls this November, they’ll be deciding an important question: whether to let businesses sell marijuana, as they’re currently able to do in 24 other states, including New York.
Florida’s Amendment 3 commands some powerful supporters, including a recent endorsement by former President Donald Trump.
It’s a bellwether for marijuana legalization’s prospects nationwide.
But while backers have talked up the alleged injustice of marijuana prohibition, they’ve avoided discussing the real effect of the law: making it legal to profit off pot.
Amendment 3 would permit medical dispensaries and other, future license recipients to sell weed to any adult.
That’s reason enough for Floridians—and everyone else—to be skeptical of legalization.
A legal market would make big businesses happy, which is why they’ve spent so much pushing for one.
But Floridians shouldn’t trust their communities, or their kids, in the hands of profit-hungry drug companies.
To be sure, big business wants legal weed.
Florida is the second largest state (behind Texas) without a legal market.
For marijuana businesses, which have seen market values collapse amid struggles in other states, that’s an exciting prospect.
That’s why the Amendment’s main backer, the marijuana concern Trulieve, has poured $80 million into passing Amendment 3.
That’s nearly six times what opponents of the law have spent. But it’s a small fraction of what the billion-dollar business could make off of weed in Florida.
But can Floridians trust Trulieve?
This is the company that reached a six-figure settlement after one of its Massachusetts employees died from inhaling ground marijuana dust.
The state’s cannabis commission found that Trulieve failed to comply with workplace safety requirements; it no longer operates in the state.
This is the company that the CEO’s husband, J.T. Burnette, claimed in a secretly recorded conversation, got special help in cornering the Florida medical market.
Burnette, a Tallahassee businessman facing federal prison time for corruption, told an undercover federal agent that he had worked with a state legislator to keep potential competitors from securing medical licenses.
This is the company that wants to run the recreational market in Florida. Should Floridians let it?
The answer matters, because irresponsible marijuana legalization can create a massive mess.
The experience of other states shows as much.
Research from the Kansas City branch of the Federal Reserve, for example, finds that recreational legalization increases rates of addiction, chronic homelessness, and arrests by double-digit percentages.
It also makes life a little less pleasant. Stoned employees make workplaces a little worse, and marijuana-intoxicated accidents have risen steadily as states have legalized.
Dispensaries have been shown to lower nearby property values. And in many places, legalization produces the pervasive smell of pot smoke—a pollutant that Florida’s clean air laws don’t cover.
Legalization hurts kids, too.
It increases pediatric hospitalizations, as kids take a gummy meant for mom or dad and end up in the ER.
It increases the risk that teens will develop a “cannabis use disorder,” characterized by compulsive use in spite of negative consequences.
Some of those kids will go on to develop psychosis and schizophrenia.
New Yorkers know a thing or two about these problems.
Since legalization, it’s had to deal with a massive, sometimes-violent grey market, teens smoking in school, and the omnipresent smell of weed on city streets.
New York’s experience has been a warning to other states. It ought to be for Florida, too.
When Floridians go to the polls they need to remember what they’re really voting for.
They aren’t voting to keep their fellow citizens out of prison — nobody’s there for pot anyway.
They are voting to let powerful companies sell an addictive, harmful substance at a profit.
Floridians of good conscience can differ over whether they should smoke weed — it’s none of my business if you do.
But even those who like marijuana should be wary of mixing greed and weed. That’s a recipe for a disaster.
Charles Fain Lehman is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal.
Florida
GALLERY: Barrett-Jackson ‘Super Saturday’ takes over South Florida Fairgrounds
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — The engines are revving for one final day of high-stakes bidding and family fun at the South Florida Fairgrounds.
Barrett-Jackson’s Palm Beach auction reaches its grand finale today with an action-packed “Super Saturday” lineup, promising to close out the weekend with a full slate of collector car sales, live entertainment, and fan attractions.
“Super Saturday,” presented by Seminole Casino Coconut Creek, officially kicks off at 8 a.m. when gates, food courts, and the exhibitor marketplace open to the public.
What to expect
- 8:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.: The Fantasy Bid presented by Dodge begins early, running in tandem with the automobilia auction in the arena.
- 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.: Thrill-seekers can catch Dodge thrill rides on the Barrett-Jackson Performance Track.
- 10:00 a.m.: New amenities open to the public, including the Stella Artois, Staging Lanes, and Food Court patios, which offer shaded seating and auction views.
- 10:45 a.m.: The national anthem will be performed in the auction arena, signaling the start of the main collector car auction at 11 a.m.
- Afternoon Entertainment: DJ sets run from noon to 5 p.m. across the various patios, and a detailing clinic by Adam’s Polishes is scheduled for 2 p.m. near the South Showcase.
For those unable to attend, the whole event will be livestreamed throughout the day on the Barrett-Jackson website and the HISTORY channel from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Today’s finale comes on the heels of a high-energy Friday that saw significant sales and notable celebrity interest.
Star power was evident throughout the day, particularly with vehicles tied to the Busch family. A 1957 Ford Thunderbird Convertible owned by Samantha Busch and a 1969 Oldsmobile 442 Custom Coupe were among the day’s heavy hitters, each fetching $159,500. Kyle Busch’s 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air Custom Coupe also drew a strong bid, selling for $143,000.
Other Friday highlights included:
- 1968 Ford Mustang Eleanor Replica: $137,500
- 2004 Dodge Viper SRT-10 Mamba Edition: $132,000
- 1972 Chevrolet K5 Blazer Custom SUV: $126,500
- 1957 Ford Thunderbird Custom Convertible: $121,000
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT
With a festival-style atmosphere and high-profile sales driving momentum, organizers expect a busy crowd for the final push at the auction block today.
Florida
Bodycam captures life-saving rescue of choking baby by Florida deputies
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) — A quiet Monday turned into a frantic race against time when a deputy stepped in to save a choking 1-year-old’s life.
According to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a call about a 1-year-old baby choking. Upon arrival, the responding deputy performed life-saving procedures to help the child breathe again.
See also: Two arrested after 6-year-old arrives at Florida school with bruises, deputies say
Body camera video shows a deputy holding the baby, flipping it over on its stomach, and beginning to pat the baby’s back.
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT
When the baby begins to cry, the deputy is heard saying, “he’s good.”
Florida
Son of 2nd patient who died after seeing Florida surgeon describes family’s heartbreak: ‘It’s just not right’
Weyman Dorsett knew something went wrong with his mom’s surgery as he watched an ICU doctor review her medical charts.
“I’ll never forget and it’ll never leave my mind, the look on that doctor’s face as he was reading through the files,” Dorsett, 53, said. “… He was just shaking his head, like: ‘what in the living hell is going on?’”
His mother, 70-year-old Dorothy Dorsett, was in recovery after a surgeon removed a tumor from her digestive tract. But she was hardly eating and had an abnormally fast heartbeat, according to a lawsuit Dorsett later filed. She was moved to the ICU nearly a week after the surgery.
“She just started really spiraling, pain,” Dorsett said. “She was not my mom.”
She died days later, on Aug. 4, 2023.
About a year later, another patient, William Bryan, 70, died after the same surgeon operated on him.
The surgeon, Thomas Shaknovsky was arrested this week, accused of accidentally removing Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen, prosecutors said. Shaknovsky operated on both Dorothy Dorsett and Bryan at Ascension Sacred Heart Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach.
Shaknovsky and his lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment. However, he has denied wrongdoing in Dorothy Dorsett’s case in court filings of his own, arguing that some of the allegations were inaccurate and that descriptions of Dorsett’s care were incomplete. The lawsuit remains ongoing.
Do you have a story to share? Email reporter matthew.lavietes@nbcuni.com or reach us at our tip line.
The hospital did not immediately return a request for comment. Earlier this week, Macdonald Walker, a spokesperson for Ascension Sacred Heart, said in a statement that Shaknovsky “was never a Sacred Heart Emerald Coast employee and has not practiced at any of our facilities since August 2024.”
Weyman Dorsett filed a lawsuit against Shaknovsky and Ascension Sacred Heart last year, accusing the doctor and hospital of negligence. He spoke out for the first time since his mother died in an interview with NBC News on Thursday.
“I’ve got two boys, a wife, now a grandbaby, and you know, I’m trying to be there for them, but, man, I’ve struggled mentally in dealing with it,” he said. “It’s just not right.”
On July 24, 2023, Dorothy Dorsett was admitted to the hospital after suffering abdominal pain, Weyman Dorsett, said. At the time, he said his mom was “in great health.”
“She was going non-stop. She lived on her own, drove everywhere, she went all over,” he said. “Prior to the surgery, she flew to my oldest son’s wedding in Bentonville, Arkansas, with a broken leg from a car wreck.”
At the hospital, his mom was diagnosed with gastrointestinal bleeding and acute blood loss anemia, according to the civil complaint.
The next day, the Dorsett family met Shaknovsky, whom Weyman Dorsett described as “odd.” He said the doctor prayed by his mom’s bedside before the surgery.
“It was way over the top,” Weyman Dorsett said. “It was very insincere to me.”
He said his mother thought Shaknovsky was “very weird.”
That day, Shaknovsky performed a colonoscopy and found a tumor in Dorothy Dorsett’s digestive tract, which he removed on July 27, 2023, according to the complaint.
During the surgery following the colonoscopy, Shaknovsky did not perform a routine test, which would have ensured there were no leaks in a newly joined intestine, according to the complaint.
Shaknovsky told the family that the surgery “went great,” Weyman Dorsett said, but his mother’s condition immediately started to deteriorate.
He said that his mom was moved to the ICU on Aug. 2, 2023.
Weyman Dorsett left that night, but his mother called him to come back to the hospital at midnight, saying she was going to die.
“My mom looked at me and just said, ‘It is what it is. I’ve lived a good life,’” he said. “And I had to sit there and watch her die.”
On Aug. 3, 2023, a doctor on call, Dr. Chun W. Chen, documented Dorothy Dorsett’s condition, according to the complaint, noting that he saw “more air than I would expect postsurgical” and mentioning concern “for bowel perforation specifically around the chain sutures in the pelvis.”
Chen added in the report that pockets of air had formed around Dorothy’s pelvis, according to the complaint.
“Although this may be postsurgical, cannot exclude bowel perforation,” he wrote.
Chen said in a brief phone call that he didn’t remember the patient and declined to comment further.
That evening, Shaknovsky documented in a daily progress note the air and fluid collection in Dorothy’s pelvis, according to the complaint.
Shaknovsky did not advise surgical intervention due to Dorothy’s declining organ function and risks associated with anesthesia, the complaint says.
Dorothy Dorsett was pronounced dead at 5:29 a.m. on August 4, 2023, according to the complaint. She passed away surrounded by family, the complaint says.
“Until you go through it yourself, and to be there with my mom and watch her suffer, and to be there when she takes her last breath has been devastating,” Weyman Dorsett said. “I suffer every day. It’s a haunting memory that I can’t erase out of my mind.”
Allegations of another botched surgery
On Aug. 21, 2024, prosecutors allege that Shaknovsky accidentally removed William Bryan’s liver instead of his spleen during what was scheduled to be a laparoscopic splenectomy.
Shaknovsky, who had been licensed to practice medicine in several states, had his Florida license suspended about a month after Bryan’s death. Later that year, he voluntarily surrendered his license to practice in Alabama. New York then suspended his license in 2025.
Bryan’s widow, Beverly Bryan, filed a civil lawsuit against Shaknovsky in 2025, accusing the surgeon of causing her husband’s death.
After the suit was filed, Weyman Dorsett learned that the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration completed an investigation into his mom’s death in September 2024, after Bryan’s botched surgery and more than a year after Dorothy’s death.
The investigation found that Shaknovsky and other hospital physicians “failed to appropriately use diagnostic testing and delayed in ordering imaging to timely treat sepsis” in Dorothy Dorsett’s case, according to a copy of the report.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration did not return a request for comment.
Shaknovsky was indicted by a grand jury on a charge of second-degree manslaughter in the death of Bryan, according to officials.
“It’s bittersweet,” Weyman Dorsett said. “You know, nothing’s going to bring back Mr. Bryan, or my mom and all the other people that are still out there that have been butchered and suffered.”
Dorothy Dorsett grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where she and her husband, Weyman Dorsett II, her high school sweetheart, raised their two children: Weyman Dorsett III and his sister.
“She just was everything you would think the American dream mom would be,” he said. “She led by example, best cook in the world. She was our rock.”
She and her husband moved back and forth from Alabama to Miramar Beach, Florida, about 30 miles west of Panama City. She moved to Miramar Beach permanently following the death of Weyman Dorsett II in 2021.
Weyman Dorsett III described his mother’s passing as a “big piece missing.”
-
Montana3 minutes ago
Montana Lottery Powerball, Lotto America results for April 18, 2026
-
Nebraska9 minutes agoGallery: Huskers Run-Rule No. 12 USC to Take Series
-
Nevada15 minutes agoIN RESPONSE: Cortez Masto lands bill would keep the proceeds in Nevada
-
New Hampshire21 minutes agoNew Hampshire grapples with nuclear waste storage – Valley News
-
New Jersey27 minutes agoNearby shooting interrupts 13-year-old’s birthday party in Paterson; 1 killed, 3 injured
-
New Mexico33 minutes agoCalm and warmer conditions move into New Mexico
-
North Carolina39 minutes agoMemorial service held for former Miss North Carolina Carrie Everett
-
North Dakota45 minutes ago
Richard D. Langowski Obituary April 16, 2026 – Tollefson Funeral Home