Why Is Sheldon Adelson Trying to Defeat Medical Marijuana?

[RainDog]

http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/why-sheldon-adelson-opposing-medical-marijuana

Nice article for those of you in the Sunshine state - and beyond. The author thinks it's strange, but offers some possible insight.

...Stranger still when you realize Adelson's own medical research organization, the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation, produced a study in December showing that medical marijuana has the potential to help those suffering from multiple sclerosis.

My take on what's going on with Adelson can be summed up in two words: Mel Sembler.

Sembler, the GOP fundraiser, St. Petersburg anti-drug crusader, ambassador to Italy who couldn't speak a word of Italian -- and, oh, yes, the founder of drug-rehab-program-from-hell STRAIGHT Inc. -- is one of Adelson's oldest friends.

I've written a couple of times about STRAIGHT Inc. and its prisoner-of-war-style torture, unrelenting cover-ups and subsequent suicides. But Sembler has always defended the program, the tactics and the need to deal harshly with teens using -- even suspected of using -- drugs. My guess is, it was Sembler who went to work hustling money out of Adelson to oppose Amendment 2, and Adelson capitulated.

This proponent of casino gambling wants to oppose "sin" when possible - i.e. non-casino gambling, et al. Harry Reid still vouches for Adelson. Talk about strange. Even stranger when the guy you vouch for aligns with someone whose drug treatment program relies upon torture for "success."

What the drug warriors fear is that showing the least compassion for those with medical illnesses will open the way for Florida to become a haven for marijuana. As if it isn't already! LOL.

Why do these cranky old guys align, so often, with failed public policy - that's what I have to wonder. Why would any Floridian not want to completely legalize marijuana and receive tax revenues from the sale of the same. If anyone thinks people living in Florida, or people in Florida on vacation are not already using marijuana recreationally - well, that just indicates how out-of-touch they are.

Personally, I think anyone who treats marijuana users like prisoners of war should be the ones who are locked up. But I'm not going to try to influence law to make that happen.

[Turbineguy]

1. Because as everybody knows....

"Dope will get you through periods of no money better than money well get you though periods of no dope!"

And Adelson exists by insuring you have neither because your money is in his pocket.

[mikeysnot]

7. Love that quote...

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Shelly sells a lot of alcohol last time I checked

His casinos are virtual alcoholic wonderlands, centered around liquor sales and gambling.

[HooptieWagon]

3. Sembler is a possible connection.

And Adelson's motivation is probably to get a casino permitted in a quid pro quo arrangement.

[iscooterliberally]

4. Thanks for the thread RainDog!

I just moved back to Florida after living in Massachusetts for two years. I got to vote for MMJ in Mass along with Elizabeth Warren. Now that I'm back in FL, I'll be sure to vote for MMJ here too. I'll vote against Rick Scott again. Hopefully enough Floridians will join me. As for me, I think the controlled substances act should be done away with. The DEA should not even exist. This whole prohibitionist experiment has been an end run around our 4th amendment rights.

[RainDog]

5. Welcome back

I'm not in Florida but I lived there for a while - in Coconut Grove, Miami. I lived next door to some steel drum playing Rastafarians who were building an ark in the backyard for the coming flood.... I hear it's changed quite a bit since I was there. lol.

I ENTIRELY agree with you that the War on Drugs has been harmful to Americans - far harmful than any drug use, for the majority of the population, and, as you note, has made a joke of the 4th amendment.

But it's certainly offered a lot of authoritarians a lot of jobs...

[iscooterliberally]

6. I used to stay in Coconut Grove in the mid-late 90s.

I lived in a 'band-house' when I played at the old Sloppy Joe's that used to be there. It was really an apartment in a duplex that the club rented for out of town bands. Coconut Grove is a cool place. South Florida is always changing, and pretty rapidly too. There were times when I would go away for two weeks and than get disoriented on my return because there would be new buildings. I wish the northern part of the state was more like SF politically. We'd probably be like CO or WA by now. I think we will get there eventually. We just have to get those authoritarians new jobs somehow.

[RainDog]

8. LOL. Was it on Bayshore Drive?

Yeah. Florida is an extreme version of most states - very liberal, for the most part, in larger cities and very conservative and talibornagain in rural areas.

Sloppy Joe's - a Florida institution!

I miss the seafood.

I probably wouldn't recognize a lot of Coconut Grove anymore. I left, my boss called and asked me to come back to work for him because, he said, I was one of the few people he could trust, and a couple of weeks later I heard he had been shot by some rogue cops who were on the take. He had a club in the Grove and I took care of his money. Glad I moved... I used to come in to work and find the chef pulling a gun out of the safe. I was much younger then... lol.

[iscooterliberally]

9. No, not Bayshore, but close.

I think there are only two Sloppy Joe's left. Definitely the one in Key West. The other is, or was in Ft Lauderdale on the beach. There used to be 4 or 5 of them. We played them all. I loved Key West, but the band house was a disgusting dump. It did have a nice pool though. That's funny how your boss called you back. My boss in Miami did the same thing. That's why I came back down. That and I didn't find a good enough job in Boston. I went up there because my wife had a promotion/transfer that she really wanted to go after. She didn't like the job after we got up there, so we came back after it all played out. Sorry to hear about your boss getting shot. We used to carry guns in our gig bags because there was a gang robbing clubs at closing up in PB county. We played up there a lot too. We would get paid in cash, and had no insurance if we got robbed. Luckily they never came after us. I don't carry cash or guns anymore thankfully. I was a lot younger then too!

[RainDog]

10. I'm ready to go west, young man

when I lived in Miami, someone tried to break into my place, I was mugged, I used to get late night buzzers asking for the guy who used to live in my apt (ifyouknowwhatimean), my boss got shot by crooked cops because he wasn't paying them enough to "look the other way", at one time there were snipers on top of the buildings as I made my way to work (oh, and I got mugged when streets were closed because the head of FP&L was being held hostage in his home or some such...)

I live in a quiet college town now. It was a great place to raise kids. But it's a blue speck in a solid red state full of god botherers... sort of like much of the south.

[iscooterliberally]

11. I can see why you left!

That's quite a lot of bad experiences right there. I have always been able to live in some of the rougher neighborhoods because I had some big doggies to hang out with. I live in a quite area about an hour north of The Grove now, but I still have my fur kids with me. They are all rescues, and refugees from other homes. I first moved down here in the early seventies when I was in middle school, so I'll probably stay until I die, or sea levels rise and chase me out. I should probably build and ark like the Rastafarians!

[RainDog]

12. I didn't live in a rough neighborhood...

I lived on Bayshore Drive, just a block or so from the Coconut Grove bank and the swanky dank Mayfair. In fact, I think the Rastafarians were living in what had formerly been Bayshore Recording Studios.. not sure. But they tuned their steel drums all the time, and I would leave the door to the balcony in the apt. open to hear them, and I used to watch them building their ark all the time.

I miss going to the beach. I used to go into work early, early in the morning, get off early in the afternoon, and go sleep on Cape Florida... until I was harassed by some guys there.

...life is sometimes different for women.

[iscooterliberally]

13. I can understand that.

I meant that I lived in rough neighborhoods, not you. Bayshore is really nice. I was once in Bayshore Recording Studio back in the early 80s. My best friend was the original guitar player for Miami Sound Machine back then, and he was recording there. Yes life is very different for women. I sometimes worry about my wife and sisters and nieces. I always make sure my wife has a good reliable car to drive. She has been followed by crazy guys too. Stay safe out there!

[WovenGems]

14. He isn't

Adelson couldn't care less about medical MJ. Idiot Scott is different issue. And it for his benefit that Adelson is doing this.