TALLAHASSEE – If you’ve pumped gas in Florida during the last year, you’ve seen her face. But she’s probably one of the least known politicians in the state.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the only Democrat to hold statewide elected office in Tallahassee since 2011, is forging a different path at the head of her department than her GOP predecessors.
Since taking office in January, she’s overhauled the division for checking concealed weapons permits, pushed for new rules to restore rights to ex-felons, and tussled with fellow Cabinet members to bring more oversight to Cabinet agency hires.
But it’s hemp and medical marijuana where Fried has placed much of her focus.
A former medical marijuana lobbyist from Broward County, Fried is hyping hemp as the crop of the future for Florida farmers beset by citrus greening, hurricanes and trade wars in recent years.
“I’m anticipating us being the gold standard for the entire country,” Fried said. “We are going to be known for hemp here in the state of Florida.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill earlier this year to set up rules and regulations for the cultivation of hemp, a form of non-euphoric cannabis used in a variety of products ranging from clothing to paper, construction materials, and cosmetic products.
Fried’s department is developing those rules, which require federal approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She said the rules should be finished by the end of the year, and Florida farmers should be able to start planting sometime in 2020.
Whether hemp is the panacea for Florida farmers’ woes remains to be seen.
Nearly every state in the country has passed laws allowing for the cultivation of hemp – only Idaho, South Dakota and Mississippi do not, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures – and many of them have a head start on Florida.
But Fried says that will help Florida, as it learns from the mistakes of early states. She cited overproduction and lack of standards for hemp in Oregon as an example.
“We are learning from other states, and don’t feel that we are being hindered by the fact that we don’t have seeds in the ground yet,” Fried said. “We will have it in ample time to make sure that we are the leaders of the hemp industry.”
Although medical marijuana advocacy was a large part of her platform during last year’s campaign, Fried’s office plays only a small role in regulating edible forms of cannabis under the state’s current laws. But that hasn’t stopped her from setting up a task force to develop recommendations for new state rules, and she sees a larger role for her department if one of the two proposed ballot measures legalizing recreational marijuana is approved by voters next year.
“At that point it’s just an agricultural crop and there’s nobody better suited than the Department of Agriculture to help with the cultivation and the regulations of an agriculture crop than us,” Fried said.
Fried’s agency is also in charge of reviewing and issuing concealed carry weapons permits, an issue that gained attention during the high-profile governor’s race last year when inspector general reports showed her predecessor, Adam Putnam, a GOP gubernatorial candidate at the time, failed to properly inspect applications.
“When we came in to the program we inherited a mess,” Fried said. “The morale of that division was low,”
Since taking office she brought in new management and added staffers, but gaps remain in reporting that could allow otherwise ineligible applicants – those with mental illness or a criminal history – to obtain gun permits.
Politico reported Wednesday that county clerks missed deadlines for entering in data for more than 3,000 people deemed by courts to be mentally unfit over an 18 month period beginning in July 2017.
And Fried came out in support for a bill Wednesday that would allow her department to retain the fingerprints of concealed weapons permit applicants, something it isn’t currently allowed to do. Fried says it’s necessary to discover felonies committed by applicants in other states. The bill, HB 809, would also reduce the license renewal time from seven years to five years, require a firearms training course for license renewal and cut the renewal fee from $45 to $40.
“While (Fried) has made great progress, legislative action is required to bring further improvements to the accountability and safety of the program,” said Rep. Javier Fernández, D-South Miami, the bill’s sponsor. “Right now, the potential disqualifying information of crimes committed out of state is a dangerous blind spot that this legislation will fix with a fingerprint retention system, helping keep weapons out of the wrong hands.”
As the lone Democrat on the Cabinet, which consists of DeSantis, Fried, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, she has pushed for new rules to clear a backlog of more than 10,000 ex-felons seeking the restoration of civil rights.
Voters approved Amendment 4 last year granting voting rights to those who’ve completed their sentence, although legal battles continue to linger over a law that requires felons to pay fines and fees before voting.
Fried sent letters to Cabinet members in September calling for new rules similar to those in place during Gov. Charlie Crist’s term, which generally allowed those convicted of non-violent crimes to have their rights restored.
Fried said she’s received no official response. DeSantis told reporters last month that he favors “a streamlined process where you can restore the right to be on a jury and restore the right to serve in office” after their sentence is complete.
“I’m comfortable doing that. But it would be for nonviolent (felons). I’m not comfortable to do a blanket (restoration) for violent felons,” DeSantis added.
Although Fried’s status as the highest-ranking Democrat in Florida could make her endorsement during the presidential preference primary next year a highly-sought commodity in a crowded field, she’s opting not to make one – at least so far, preferring to put her efforts behind Democratic get-out-the-vote causes.
“At this juncture I’m not,” she said of a possible endorsement. “I’m listening to the voters of our state, and feel that my best efforts can be used helping the ground game and making sure that we as a state are ready for 2020.”
grohrer@orlandosentinel.com or (850) 222-5564
