Sheldon Adelson Rallies Against Marijuana Legalization

Sheldon Adelson may have built his multi-billion dollar Las Vegas Sands empire through gambling, but one of the country’s wealthiest businessman remains staunchly opposed to gambling online, and has contributed millions of dollars trying to rollback its legalisation in the USA. However, the Republican Party contributor also has another pet hate which he has rallied against over the years, namely the legalization of adult-use medical marijuana.
In 2014, for instance, the deep-pocket donor gave the Drug-Free Florida group more than $5.5 million to help it defeat the 2014 medical marijuana initiative, and this year has contributed a further $1.5 million to the group. Furthermore, Adelson hs just given $1 million to help counter marijuana legalization in Massachusetts,
as well as $2 million to oppose a marijuana initiative in his home state of Nevada.
Apparently, one of Sheldon Adelson’s main motivations for seeking a prohibition on marijuana involves a personal tragedy in 2005 in which his son, Mitchell, died aged 48 following a cocaine and heroin induced drug overdose. Since then, Adelson has viewed marijuana as a “gateway drug” that could lead to more serious drug abuse problems, even though the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine refutes the claim, and states that there is no conclusive evidence to support a link between the two.
While one can easily sympathize with a parent’s sense of loss, no matter what the circumstances, ultimately a country’s decision to treat millions of its citizens as criminals should be based upon sound scientific research, and not just on the tragic experience of those people who were unable to control their compulsive addiction behavior. Commenting on the issue, Ben Pollara, Campaign Manager for United For Care, previously stated:
“Sheldon Adelson has put in millions of dollars to stop the legalization of medical marijuana in several states with the most being in Florida.. It’s extremely peculiar because his medical research center actually produced a study which indicated that marijuana has the potential to treat Multiple Sclerosis. Also, he leans socially liberal on many other issues.”