DENVER–An online beef erupted between Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Wednesday evening on X (previously Twitter) over legalized marijuana and Colorado’s poor road conditions.
In a thread of posts, the Florida governor said Colorado’s declining marijuana taxes have not helped alleviate anything for the state, rather the recent decrease in marijuana sales is due to a surge in the black market caused by high taxes on legal weed.
The claims led Governor Polis to jump in the conversation, defending his record.
The battle at the keyboard started from a post made by Florida’s Voice, highlighting a survey saying a majority of Floridians want the right to vote on marijuana legalization themselves, “not have lawmakers block the ballot.”
While Floridians have already voted no on marijuana legalization in 2024, a new measure is creeping its way onto the 2026 ballot. DeSantis and his administration have made efforts to stop the measure before it goes to the ballot.
Some X users commented, “didn’t we already vote no on this,” and “It’s bogus they’re making it ‘better’ while still baking in the corporate benefit through licensure,” among other critiques. One user makes the claim that taxing legalized marijuana would allow the state to eliminate property taxes.
DeSantis then brings Colorado into the conversation,
“Well that has not been the case in Colorado,” he posted, going on to say the tax revenue of marijuana sales have fallen, due to an inflation of black-market activity.
In enters Polis, claiming Colorado has collected $3 billion in marijuana revenue that has been used to pave roads, build recreation centers and schools. “All while successfully cracking down on the underground market. Oh, and we didn’t use $50M in taxpayer dollars to block access to freedom. But you do you,” Polis said in his final jab at the Florida governor.
This in turn led to a deluge of X users slamming Polis’ claims as well as Colorado road conditions:
“And yet the roads are a disaster and your budget is too. Maybe sit this one out, Jared.”
“You collected the money, but it was never used to pave roads, rec centers and so much more. Our roads are abysmal. Where did the money go Polis?”
“I haven’t seen a penny’s worth of improvement from all the marijuana tax revenues. Colorado has been in a state of steady decline and decay.”
DeSantis gets the final word responding to Polis with a screenshot of a Denver Post article written in March titled “Colorado backslides to 43rd in national road coalition rankings.”
“$3 billion over more than a decade is chump change. I’ve cut more than $7 billion in taxes in half that time. But even then, seems like CO roads leave a lot to be desired,” DeSantis adds.
DeSantis’ claims are not misguided, as previously reported by Complete Colorado, Colorado received a C- for overall infrastructure in the 2025 Infrastructure report, with a D+ on road quality.
