By Joe Klare
To those on the outside looking in, it may seem like marijuana legalization is inevitable, a foregone conclusion. Nothing can stop the train of freedom as it rolls down the tracks to Weedtown! But if you look down the tracks a little way, you can see an obstruction: it’s a big pile of money, blocking the track, between us and Weedtown!
Next to that big pile of money is casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a sad, decrepit little man who is shoveling money onto the pile. See, Sheldon Adelson doesn’t approve of legal marijuana, even for medical purposes. He sunk Florida medical marijuana in 2014, almost single-handedly. He recently bought the biggest newspaper in Nevada and made them change their editorial stance on legalization. He has been a longtime contributor to the GOP and conservative causes. And now Adelson has recently given another $1 million to defeat medical marijuana in Florida…again.
Of course, this begs the questions: what the f#%k is this guy’s problem? What makes a man donate so much money to the effort of keeping sick people from having the choice of cannabis as medicine? Their are a few options to consider when seeking an answer to those questions:
- Defeating legalization helps Adelson’s businesses. But most of his businesses are casinos and it’s not like the Las Vegas Review-Journal changing its stance on legalization is going to cause a surge in readership, so we can probably dismiss this one.
- Adelson really believes that cannabis leads to harder drugs and legalizing it in any way will lead to the destruction of the youth of America and therefore cause the destruction of the future of the United States. Despite the fact that the “Gateway Theory” has been thoroughly debunked, this would not be an uncommon opinion among people who grew up in the “reefer madness” era that preceded the late 1960s. He simply may not know any better and have no interest in gaining new knowledge on the subject.
- Adelson is old and jaded and just doesn’t care about sick people. He’s an evil little man who likes to cause suffering because of some wrong he was done in the past or because he has some sort of complex that causes him to never be happy, no matter how much he accomplishes, and he likes to spread that suffering.
There are other possibilities, but these are the more plausible ones. So, which is it? This is mere speculation of course, but I’m going to go with a lot of #2 with some of #3 mixed in.
In the end, of course, the reason doesn’t matter; the result is the same. Adelson fuels anti-legalization forces with cash, which keeps sick people from being able to legally obtain medical cannabis. And if you’ve ever spent money at The Venetian, Sands Macao, The Palazzo, The Venetian Macao, Sands Expo and Convention Center, The Plaza Macao/Four Seasons Macao, Sands Bethlehem, Sands Cotai Central, Marina Bay Sands, The Parisian Macao or ever bought an edition or subscription of the Israel Hayom or the Las Vegas Review-Journal, then you’ve helped him do it.
Only one thing can slow the momentum of marijuana legalization: money. The Grim Reefer has a lot of it and it seems that he plans on putting that money to use.