Mayor Michael Bloomberg blasted medical marijuana advocates like local State Senator Diane Savino, declaring that the whole issue is a manufactured pretense for legalizing the drug. The Huffington Post is reporting that Bloomberg is adamantly opposed to Savino’s efforts to make medical marijuana legal statewide.
On John Gambling’s radio show, Bloomberg let loose a stream opinions on medical marijuana and marijuana in general.
“There is no medical. This is one of the great hoaxes of all time,” Bloomberg said. The mayor, who has already gone on record admitting that he smoked marijuana in his youth, cited the increased strength of present day weed as a factor for being an opponent on the issue, albeit in a folksy manner.
“The bottom line is, I’m told marijuana is much stronger today than it was 20, 30 years ago,” Bloomberg said.
What are we supposed to take from these statements? That it was okay for Bloomberg to enjoy marijuana in his youth, unpunished, but it is not okay for someone to enjoy it now just because somebody told him that the drug is much stronger today? Also, if that person is suffering from a terminal disease, they shouldn’t have access to it either?
Bloomberg also expressed concerns that if marijuana is legalized, drug dealers will just switch to selling harder drugs.
“[D]rug dealers have families to feed. If they can’t sell marijuana, they’ll sell something else. And the something else will be something worse. The push to legalize this is wrongheaded,” Bloomberg added.
First of all, more dangerous drugs have always been available to those seeking them. Drug dealers won’t be able to magically increase the market for cocaine or heroin, for instance, just because marijuana would be available legally. Who knows – maybe they’ll sell Bloomberg Terminals.
An actual expert on the issue, Dr. Sunil Aggarwal, associate member of the New York Academy of Medicine and vice-chair of NY Physicians for Compassionate Care, trashed Bloomberg’s off-the-cuff comments on the serious issue.
“Mayor Bloomberg’s statement that medical marijuana is a hoax is tantamount to saying that the moon landing was faked,” the Huff Post reported Aggarwal saying. “Marijuana, given in oral and inhaled forms, has been shown in large, gold-standard, double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled trials conducted at major medical centers to relieve pain and muscle spasm, and stimulate appetite and weight gain in patients with wasting syndromes.”
State Senator Diane Savino, who is co-sponsoring a bill that seeks to make medical marijuana legal, countered also Bloomberg’s freewheeling comments by focusing on those who might be helped by the measure.
“We’re talking about people with terminal illnesses, seizure disorders. We’re not talking about recreational use,” Savino said.