Sheldon Adelson, the politically influential billionaire and Donald Trump supporter, is bankrolling the fight against marijuana legalization measures on several state ballots this year. Meanwhile, Adelson the philanthropist gave money to research that supports the medical use of marijuana.
The casino magnate has donated $2 million to Protect Nevada’s Children PAC, $1 million to Safe and Healthy Massachusetts, and $500,000 to Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, to oppose ballot measures that would legalize recreational use in those states, and $1.5 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, which opposes a measure to legalize medical use there.
But several studies conducted by researchers at the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Center for the Biology of Addictive Diseases at Tel Aviv University have highlighted cannabis’ potential to treat certain degenerative diseases.
A 2013 study conducted by researchers from the center found that two parts of cannabis, THC and CBD, could help regulate inflammation in patients with autoimmune diseases, particularly multiple sclerosis. A 2011 study had similar findings.
“It has become a ‘political plant and subject,’ and it even affects getting funds sometimes for research on it,” Ewa Kozela, co-author of the studies, told The Intercept in an email.
“I did my Ph.D. on morphine which is the main active chemical of opium, extract of poppy plant,” she added. “Now morphine is one of the most potent pain killers used in medicine although its use is (and should be) strictly controlled. I wish cannabis the same future.”
A 2004 study at the Miriam & Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse in Tel Aviv — coauthored by Miriam herself — found no adverse effects of cannabis use on methadone maintenance treatment for painkiller and heroin addicts. By contrast, a 2008 study, also coauthored by Miriam, reported that “cannabis abuse” on admission at their Las Vegas clinic led to people abandoning the methadone treatment earlier.
The Adelsons were both involved in drug addiction issues before they met each other in 1988. Miriam was already respected in her career as an internist with a specialty in drug addiction. Sheldon was involved in drug addiction advocacy. His two sons suffered from drug addiction; the younger, Mitchell, died of an overdose in 2005 at age 48.
In 1993, the couple opened the Miriam & Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse, Treatment & Research in Tel Aviv. In 2000, they opened a clinic with the same name in Las Vegas. The clinics treat painkiller and opiate addiction.
“What is true is that when we met, on a blind date, we had a subject in common to talk about — but forget it, the subject is very painful for him,” Miriam told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2008.
Despite the findings from research he sponsored, Sheldon Adelson spent $5.5 million opposing a medical marijuana measure in Florida in 2014.
Kozela said that Adelson’s politics have not affected her research. “My impression is that all this time we were just given trust and all the freedom required to carry on with our interests and curiosity. But again, as you see, it gets political all the way, everyone interprets it the way he wants to see it,” she said.
Adelson did not reply to The Intercept’s request for comment.
“Pro marijuana folks have awoken a sleeping giant in Sheldon and Miriam Adelson,” Andy Abboud, vice president of Adelson’s casino company, Las Vegas Sands, told the Associated Press in 2014.
Ben Pollara, campaign manager for Florida medical marijuana group United for Care, told The Intercept he can’t understand Adelson’s intentions. “Certainly the folks who have an incentive to oppose this kind of stuff are people with interest in the rehab-industrial complex, because marijuana prohibition feeds a lot of clientele into those businesses,” Pollara added, referring to people who are court ordered to attend a rehabilitation program.
The pharmaceutical industry has been opposed to marijuana legalization as well.
As my colleague Lee Fang reported, Insys Therapeutics Inc., which donated $500,000 against the legalization of marijuana in Arizona, is developing synthetic THC. The alcohol industry is also spending against legalization.
“We’ve definitely seen a more active opposition from the pharma industry,” Amanda Reiman, manager of marijuana law and policy at the Drug Policy Alliance, told The Guardian,adding that medical marijuana patients are frequently substituting marijuana for pharmaceuticals.
“I wish [Adelson] would find a better use of his time and money than opposing marijuana reform initiatives,” Pollara said. He added: “Marijuana has never taken a single life from an overdose, and you can’t say that about basically anything in your medicine cabinet.”
Correction: November 3, 2016
An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized Amanda Reiman’s statement about marijuana being used as a substitute for pharmaceuticals. It has been corrected.
To put all drugs in one class and say you are against them is naïve, ignorant, or a smoke screen. A billionaire who capitalizes on addictions is spending his money fighting against marijuana, lumping it into “drugs” which is way too broad a category; like food. Well Gummy Bears are food but are they in the same class as Kale? A man who makes millions off people who are gambling, drinking, over indulging in food, sex and drugs in “Sin City” is not the person who’s opinion over the legalization of marijuana I would respect. But money does buy many things in this world. He may have spent a fortune to stop the “pot movement” but his own state of Nevada did not stand behind him!!!!!!
isn’t it interesting when pot is gaining near universal acceptance as a recreational drug that capitalist pigs like adleson want to control supply and distribution. soon the down trodden will rise up against the billionaire class and take back our freedom. meanwhile this asshole buys politicians for millions to ensure that they send billions to isreal.
Adelson should stop trying to stop any thing to do with cannabis if he is really against addiction. I think this is a smoke screen for greed on his part. He knows that cannabis is no more addictive than coffee. But legalization in any manor will hurt his addiction industry. These rehabs are a scam. They are to collect as much money as they can from each inmate. Term used advisedly I was one of those on a locked ward.
There is no better way to monopolize everything to do with marijuana than to support cannabis research while opposing its legalization. It snatches the plant and all its beneficial properties from the hands of undeserving Jack and Jill Mainstreet; hits them hard in the pocket and ensures that there will only be one pathway to therapeutic benefit. Through Pharma…
the parable of the water fountain
those who are willing to kill your freedom….
want you to be willing to be….
a horse to be broken?
I wonder if the Adelsons will be opening a gambling rehabilitation center soon? A very addictive and life-destroying habit from what I’ve seen.
Simple explanation. Adelson blocks marijuana where he makes his money to keep cash flowing. He supports research in foreign country where his religion is based. loyalty based on religion ok. loyalty to his home non existent.
Cannabis is the real thing. It really helps people in so many different ways, and as the national outlook on cannabis changes, I can only hope that more people will have access to good quality, affordable CBD. As it is right now, many companies source the hemp to extract CBD from abroad, and that cost is passed on to the consumer. If the US were to change its restrictions regarding hemp and marijuana agriculture, companies like http://www.deltacbd.com/shop/shop-CBD-E-Liquid-Concentrate would be able to pass those savings on to consumers while still providing a high quality, effective product.
It would also be refreshing to see HEMP legalized for agricultural purposes in the United States. 50,000 different products and counting.
It makes no sense to allow the U.S. to “import” hemp products but not allow American farmers to grow hemp:
http://www.voteindustrialhemp.com/
it is legal
everywhere it grows
on God’s planet
perhaps you have been robbed
by the thieves who want you to pay for what God made for free
are you a thief’s willing victim?
It is an emotional reaction and result of convenient-mindedness under grief to scapegoat a “thing” when it is an object of addiction in a loved one’s life. Addiction hurts those around it by cutting them off, and hurts the person addicted just as much because they are already cut off within. However, when society seeks to punish the “thing” rather than have a greater understanding of addiction, all kinds of societal dysfunction can result in addition because the “thing” (especially a natural plant) will continue to exist and be a source of further dysfunction. In one example, 80% of heroin addicts used prescription opioids prior to their addiction, while at the same time nearly 50% of teens believe “legal” drugs are safer than “illegal” drugs. In 2014 alone, the USA saw over 27,000 prescription opioid and drug overdose deaths, with ZERO overdose deaths reported from marijuana. America is misleading its population on a grand scale out of blaming a “thing”, which has drastic repercussion on others’ lives, liberties and properties, which are foundational (e.g., as in the 5th amendment) to our Constitution. I encourage reading or watching: “Everything You Think You Know About Addition is Wrong” by Johan Hari.
Many prominent researchers support the use of cannabinoids in the treatment of various medical conditions. Yet many of those same researchers do support their decriminalization and/or recreational use. In the case of the Adelsons, their Tel Aviv research is funded, in part, by tax deductible contributions made by them to an American based foundation created and managed by them:
Friends of the Adelson Drug Clinic, Inc.
3355 Las Vegas Blvd. S.
Las Vegas, NV United States 89109-8941
Type of Grantmaker: Independent foundation
Additional Descriptor: Celebrity: Business
Financial Data: (yr. ended 2012-12-31)
Assets: $81,066
Total giving: $390,000
EIN:880339835
BRIDGE Number: 4581104931
Background:
Founded by Dr. Miriam Adelson and Sheldon G. Adelson. Mr. Adelson is the Chair. of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns and operates properties in Las Vegas, including the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino
Purpose and Activities:
Support only for Dr. Miriam & Sheldon G. Adelson Clinic for Drug Abuse, Treatment, & Research, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Israel.
Fields of Interest:
Subjects: Health
International Interests: Israel
Financial Data: Year ended 2012-12-31:
Assets: $81,066 (market value);
Gifts received: $410,000;
Expenditures: $390,457;
Total giving: $390,000;
Qualifying distributions: $390,457;
Giving activities include:
$390,000 for 2 grants (high: $300,000; low: $90,000)
For the love of me, I can’t see why big pharma would block the legalization of marijuana. This herb has been around for decades. Is it any less addictive or harmful than the drugs that big pharma sells to John Public. In the first place, it’s natural and not processed. Big Pharma wants to be the only drug dealer on the block exploiting the benefits of forward and backward integration. It’s all about the money. Adelson has already calculated how much his contemporaries stand to lose who own the prison apparatus system. the judges, the police men whose sole job function is to make drug arrests, etc.
Two factors: money and control. Legalization of marijuana would wipe out the market for dozens of other pain killers, eating into their sales and profits. Control: Just about anyone can grow their own, just about anywhere. It grows literally like a weed. So: if they put it on the market with their usual markups, people will just grow their own or turn to non-pharma sources. Hell, I would NEVER buy it from those bastards.
Sheldon Adelson is piece of absolute human filth, he made a fortune of gambling addicts, ruined online poker in America and now he tries to destroy the medical cannabis industry, just an awful self serving greedy human being of the worst kind.
This is obviously a better policy than most politicians backed until recently. I mean, I think it was the 1990s before NIDA even started to admit that cannabinoids had a *receptor* in the brain, rather than just making people high by magic. They had all the research bottled up with a monopoly on legal marijuana and a mandate to use it ONLY to show that marijuana is bad … by whatever means necessary, including smothering monkeys to death in bogus tests.
If this guy is still anti-recreational marijuana, he is a fool in good company – I don’t take any of the ballot measures next week for granted, and most states don’t even have one! But at least now, thanks to some scientists who wouldn’t take no for an answer, people realize that cannabinoids are serious science, a major part of the human body’s internal regulatory system that can be used to treat a wide range of conditions – things as uncommon and miserable as Crohn’s disease, or as common as obesity, nausea, and pain. That science is still in its infancy, and it takes a while to come up with tricks like an anti-marijuana to suppress the munchies that doesn’t make people want to commit suicide as a side effect, but it’s on the way.
Predatory Wallstreet Thieves Want The Entire Market.
Wallstreet is in the business of robbing and dominating America.
If this is not obvious to you, then you live under the rock and need to get out from under it.
Each and every individual American needs to have the freedom to GROW YOUR OWN. Resale of marijuana is another matter but should be left to local jurisdictions without corruption and without limit.
Lady “H” very likely promised her thieving backers that they could have that market. ALSO THE TOBACCO THIEVES WANT IT.
America is for Americans. Do not subjugate self destiny as the lady from Hell would subjugate America to the thieves who want the TPP. America must not be their insect colony.
Millenials shouldn’t be this affected by the Vaudeville Generation.
interesting frazology
;-)
Money. Profit. They’re probably looking for a way to produce a synthetic version so someone can patent it. As an FDA registered pharmaceutical it could make billions for whoever gets in there first, be illegal without a prescription so more money for doctors and probably something thrown in for medical insurance companies too and the long chain of people on the way to product, not to mention Government kick-backs and privatizing thrown in and by then it will also cost a fortune. And there goes that humble plant!
The USA is suppose to be the home of the free. Govt has zero business in my business! Here me Mr. Trump?
Come on, you are a parody account. Nobody is suppose to be this inept.
where me, mr trump? here me, mr trump.
chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, recently discovered in NFL players could have been prevented if those players smoked/injested marijuana.
You don’t believe NFL players (at least some significant subset) haven’t been smoking cannabis since, well, at least the 70s if not late 60s?
Quick Google search would show quite the opposite. Same for NBA, MLB, NHL, NCAA athletes and quite obviously, statistically, for probably more than 50% of all Americans from each and every walk of life, economic circumstances and belief system.
Human beings like being in altered states of being. Always have always will. And, which, IMHO, is quite fine in moderation so long as doing so doesn’t physically or emotionally harm others.
If you want to sit around and smoke pot all day, more power to you. Just don’t ask me to pay for it, and if you work with me don’t put my physical health in jeopardy by not being able to work alongside me safely. The rest of the consequences of your usage is on you, so what do I care has always been my philosophy.
“If you work with me don’t put my physical health in jeopardy by not being able to work alongside me safely.”
I completely agree with that but we all decide to step out of our houses into the random unsafe world to interact with humans in the buildings they built, in the cars they built, using the machines they built. We put our health and safety at risk everywhere we go even in our own homes. When an incident happens and a person is injured by another who later tested positive for marijuana. That doesn’t make marijuana the cause. Remember the injured person decided to leave their house and put him/herself in a potentially injurious situation. I’ve seen a kid with my own eyes walk into a classroom and start behaving like he had a very severe case of ADHD. Couldn’t focus, couldn’t stay in his seat, irritated the hell out of everybody. He hurt himself and others many times in class, unintentionally. Out of the class he was fine? After a long investigation, much longer than I have ever known to take place, the problem was identified. He was allergic to a mold in the ventilation system.
Since marijuana has been a schedule one drug the research to know how much marijuana intake and for how long will provide protection to the brain, hasn’t happened. The Federal Government who has decided that marijuana is detrimental to Americans has a patent on marijuanas ability to protect the brain. That’s outrageous! We don’t know if those NFL players who had CTE used marijuana and if they did we don’t know to what extent.
You Are an idiot.
Maybe if you smoked some weed,you might not be.Try it.
Altered state?Jesus.
That’s alcohols realm.
Your physical health is jeopardized by weed smokers?
Weed has absolutely no effect on motor skills,is a miracle drug,and makes one feel good,although if one is an engineer,or pilot,or someone responsible for others safety,weed use should be curtailed for that reason,but personal private use should be legal.
In 50 years of weed smoking,my only traffic issue was I once waited for a stop sign to turn green.Good shite that.
And of course the Adelsons are money conscious,its their reason for existence.
And methadone clinics do frown on weed usage,and yes it does encourage leaving such programs.
There are more bad legal drugs out there than illegal,like heroin,today.All from big pharma.Addiction sells.
@ Phil & Dahoit
Look fellas you’re reading way to much into my casual comment. I’m well aware that the risk of cannabis smokers causing an accident near me is low/remote. But having smoked a literal ton of weed between 19-39 years of age, and worked alongside folks who had done the same, I’ve seen mistakes and accidents happen that I’d certainly attribute to that individual’s actually getting high 5 minutes before the mistake or accident occurred. But I’ve also seen a lot worse and more frequently accidents and mistakes due to alcohol.
Here’s bottom line–I’ve used it in the past, will use it in the future, have zero problem with its legalization and have long advocated for it. I think it is a whole lot less risky for everyone involved than alcohol, and regardless of whether it is legal or not people will still use it in roughly the same numbers they do regardless, so prohibition and criminalization is idiotic in the extreme.
I’m not particularly concerned with the risk that using cannabis presents to those around the user (including to me), and my point was–be responsible, as in limit your driving and operating heavy equipment when you are super baked. That’s it.
And unlike alcohol, cannabis should be extensively medically researched for the many beneficial chemical properties that it may/does possess.
That’s it. Sheesh.
Quite frankly, I’m in favor of legalizing just about every drug, treating drug use as the medical/social problem it is, and criminalizing only that physical harm which the user actually causes to others regardless of the fact they were using at the time the harm was caused–just like everyone else in society. And again, weed is so far down that list of “causes of harm to others” that I don’t know what else to say.
Wasn’t trying to be argumentative. Some of my opinion with some facts to spice it up and…. I pissed you off? Hmmmmmm…
I could have gone scientific and used statistics and the molecular structure of THC etc because I know your intelligence is above normal but I kept my response basic.
Feeling a little sensitive today?
Adelson is just another drug dealer operating under the color of the law to protect his turf.
Another of my favorite watermelon-smashing Gallagher lines from 30 years ago is, ” I don’t experiment with drugs. I’m into full-scale research.”
The conclusion from Amanda Reiman though, manager of marijuana law and policy at the Drug Policy Alliance, seems to be presented backwards. Medical marijuana patients would not be frequently ‘substituting pharmaceuticals for marijuana’ – but instead substituting marijuana for pharmaceuticals, especially painkillers or antispasmodics.
I love this article, Naomi, and hope in a very short time society more widely vilifies such greed-driven idiots as Adelson.
I think Amanda Reiman was misquoted in this article. Her remark from the linked Guardian article reads, ‘“Research conducted by myself and others shows that medical cannabis patients are substituting cannabis for pharmaceuticals at a very high rate, and for alcohol at a pretty high rate as well.”’
That was my point when suggesting to Naomi the Reiman conclusion was being presented (here) backwards. I think I’ll try sending her an email.
Confused as to why this is surprising? He isn’t anti marijuana. He is anti not being in control of it to make the most profit off it.
Your confusion is in thinking that the news is supposed to be your personal surprise party, Eugene.
Perpetuation of cannabis prohibition won’t work forever. If California passes this year the writing is on the wall.
California’s proposal for legalization let’s to a monopoly. This is not a bill favored by us in the industry. This is not the bill that Oregon, Colorado or Washington passed.
This is a bill that take a way do much from medical patients, takes away from the small business’s that would open, take away from the farmers and puts everything in the hand of a select few that will take all the profits.
You mean because it taxes sales to medical patients? Then change it after it passes which is permitted under the text of the bill.
All bills have glitches, as do Oregon, Colorado and Washington’s.
How so, it specifically permits a 5 year window for small growers, producers and retailers to get entrenched before big ag/corp can get involved if I understand it correctly, and after that 5 year window doesn’t permit big ag/corp to vertically integrate their cannabis business.
Again, fix it if it isn’t perfect.
See above, as I believe you are mistaken. NORML, CRMR and many others support it even if it has slight flaws.
And as an Oregonian almost any imperfect bill that legalizes and decriminalizes is infinitely better than the status quo. So sorry CA Prop 64 isn’t perfect in your eyes, but nothing is in this world.
Am hearing this in the state of Maine also……medical people not wanting the what the legislation is saying…..maybe it is not a good referendum as written…
wallstreet thieves have become quite good at pushing their own referendums.
Prop 64 has more obstacles to the “Big Marijuana” boogeyman you’re trying to scare people with than any of the legislation passed in the four legal states; and by “us in the industry”, of course you mean the “select few” who *currently* have a de facto “monopoly” and “take all the profits” on the weed biz in California, thanks to prohibition. In many ways, Prop 64 is better than the other states’, for example specifically allowing for adult use businesses, like dab bars, and guaranteeing the right of personal cultivation.
As for patients, instead of merely an “affirmative defense”, *maybe*, *after* you’ve already been busted, jailed, etc until you get to court, personal cultivation, possession, use, and sharing between adults is *completely legal*. Additionally, CPS will no longer be able to violate parental rights on the grounds they are cannabis patients; and there are greater privacy protections for patients electing to register with the state for their SB420 card, the price of which is now capped at $100, half for Medicare/MediCal, and zero for the indigent; counties can charge whatever they want now–Humboldt Co. charges $191 … !
Quit collaborating with Kevin Sabet (https://goo.gl/RGgqnN), cops, corporate prisons, rehab, and right-wing plutocrat vampires like Adelson to prolong the crime against humanity of cannabis prohibition just so you and your cronies can continue selling overpriced, unregulated, untested, and untaxed weed without competition from legitimate businesses, while thousands of people, disproportionally black and brown–which you’re *not*, right, Eugene?–are arrested every year for felony and misdemeanor weed charges in California (https://goo.gl/xIkupV). YES ON 64
Prop 64 has more obstacles to the “Big Marijuana” boogeyman you’re trying to scare people with than any of the legislation already passed in the four legal states; and by “us in the industry”, of course you mean the “select few” who *currently* have a de facto “monopoly” and “take all the profits” on the weed biz in California, thanks to prohibition. In many ways, Prop 64 is better than the other states’, for example specifically allowing for adult use businesses, like dab bars, and guaranteeing the right of personal cultivation.
As for patients, whereas now a medical recommendation is merely an “affirmative defense”, *maybe*, *after* you’ve already been busted, jailed, etc and end up in court, under 64 personal cultivation, possession, use, and sharing for patients and *all* adults is *completely legal*. Additionally, CPS will no longer be able to violate parent rights on the grounds they are cannabis patients; and there are greater privacy protections for patients electing to register with the state for their SB420 card, the price of which will be capped at $100, half for Medicare/MediCal, and zero for the indigent; counties can charge whatever they want now–Humboldt Co. charges $191 … !
Quit collaborating with Kevin Sabet, cops, corporate prisons, rehab, and right-wing plutocrat vampires like Adelson to prolong the crime against humanity of cannabis prohibition just so you and your cronies can continue selling overpriced, unregulated, untested, and untaxed weed without competition from legitimate businesses, while thousands of people, disproportionally black and brown–which you’re *not*, right, Eugene?–are arrested every year for felony and misdemeanor weed charges in California. YES ON 64
Prop 64 has more obstacles to the “Big Marijuana” boogeyman you’re trying to scare people with than any of the legislation passed in the four legal states; and by “us in the industry”, of course you mean the “select few” who *currently* have a de facto “monopoly” and “take all the profits” on the weed biz in California, thanks to prohibition. In many ways, Prop 64 is better than other states’ initiatives, for example specifically allowing for adult use businesses, like dab bars, and guaranteeing the right of personal cultivation.
As for patients, instead of merely an “affirmative defense”, *maybe*, *after* you’ve already been busted, jailed, etc, and end up in court, under 64 personal cultivation, possession, use, and sharing for patients and *all* adults is *completely legal*. Additionally, CPS will no longer be able to violate the rights of parents on the grounds they are cannabis patients; and there are greater privacy protections for patients electing to register with the state for their SB420 card, the price of which will be capped at $100, half for Medicare/MediCal, and zero for the indigent; counties can charge whatever they want now–Humboldt Co. charges $191 … !
Quit collaborating with Kevin Sabet, cops, corporate prisons, rehab, and right-wing plutocrat vampires like Adelson to prolong the crime against humanity of cannabis prohibition just so you and your cronies can continue selling overpriced, unregulated, untested, and untaxed weed without competition from legitimate businesses, while thousands of people, disproportionally black and brown–which you’re *not*, right, Eugene?–are arrested every year for felony and misdemeanor weed charges in California. YES ON 64