However, if anyone needed to see this principle reinforced, we have Michael Bloomberg. The new, maybe, sort-of late entrant for the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination holds a dubious distinction.
Michael Bloomberg has said the stupidest things about cannabis.
Before we get to the evidence, let’s review the context. Bloomberg’s competition as the Ultimate Anti-Cannabis Idiot in the United States (home of “the War on Drugs”) is fierce.
This is a country that officially equates cannabis with heroin at the federal level as a “Schedule 1” narcotic. This means that not only is cannabis (supposedly) dangerous, it also (supposedly) has “no known medicinal uses”.
Back in the real world, 10’s of millions of Americans have used cannabis therapeutically to treat hundreds of medical conditions. Thousands of licensed physicians are openly prescribing cannabis as a safe and effective medicine for their patients.
Meanwhile, 10’s of millions of additional Americans safely and enjoyably use cannabis as a recreational drug. No one has ever died from a cannabis overdose.
Yet at the political level, we still have U.S. politicians and bureaucrats mouthing anti-cannabis propaganda from the 1980’s that has long since been debunked by legitimate science.
In other words, the United States is the Land of Anti-Cannabis Idiots. And in this Land, Michael Bloomberg reigns supreme.
How did he do it?
Simple. It’s the arrogance of billionaires.
As we see on a daily basis with Trump, these egomaniacs consider their own opinions to be far more substantial than those of ‘mere mortals’ (people with less money). They engage in extreme generalizations – hyperbole as enormous as their inflated self-opinions.
This is how Michael Bloomberg has achieved his status as the Ultimate Anti-Cannabis Idiot.
Michael Bloomberg, June 3, 2013:
While the majority of the public and medical community may be in support of marijuana according to recent surveys, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg adamantly opposed marijuana on Friday, calling the campaign for legalization "wrong-headed."
"Medical, my... come on. There's no medical," Bloomberg said on WOR radio according to CBS New York. "This is one of the great hoaxes of all time." [emphasis mine]
"Medical, my... come on. There's no medical," Bloomberg said on WOR radio according to CBS New York. "This is one of the great hoaxes of all time." [emphasis mine]
Admittedly, this Bloomberg idiocy came relatively early in the game for medicinal cannabis. After all, people in California had only been safely and successfully legally using medicinal cannabis for 17 years at that point.
Still this quote places Bloomberg as the Ultimate Anti-Cannabis Idiot not only for its sheer stupidity, but also for the unbelievable hypocrisy.
Is medicinal cannabis “one of the great hoaxes of all time”? No, mountains of empirical evidence prove that Bloomberg’s statement is 100% false. The same evidence can be used to support a different conclusion.
What was (and is) “one of the great hoaxes of all time”? The criminalization of cannabis.
Michael Bloomberg, 2001:
During Bloomberg’s first run for New York City mayor in 2001, an enterprising local reporter casually asked if he’d ever had occasion to partake of some marijuana. In a flippant (read: honest) reply, Bloomberg indicated that not only had he consumed an undisclosed amount of cannabis in the course of his life, he found it to be a rather pleasurable experience.
“You bet I did,” he said. “And I enjoyed it.”
“You bet I did,” he said. “And I enjoyed it.”
This is even earlier in Mayor Mike’s political career. Some may think it an odd quote to cite for the Ultimate Anti-Cannabis Idiot. Bloomberg tried cannabis, and he liked it.
But think about it.
Bloomberg has then spent his entire political career persecuting (and prosecuting) other people for something he did himself – and openly admitted.
Bloomberg personifies the U.S.’s two-tier caste society. There is one set of “laws” for the Rich, like himself - basically no laws at all. Then there is a separate set of laws for the Little People, rigidly enforced and prosecuted.
Bloomberg used cannabis. He liked cannabis. He never suffered any criminal penalties or harm from using this “illegal narcotic”.
If one of the Little People admitted to cannabis use when applying for a job, 90% of American employers would immediately disqualify them from consideration. But Michael Bloomberg admitted smoking (and enjoying) cannabis and was elected Mayor of New York.
Bloomberg sees nothing wrong (or even hypocritical) in keeping cannabis illegal and prosecuting the Little People for doing something that Bloomberg himself did and liked.
He saw nothing wrong with his “stop and frisk” law, which allowed New York police to harass-and-arrest the Little People (primarily visible minorities) – often for cannabis-related infractions. Meanwhile, Rich People (like Bloomberg himself) remain completely immune to such harassment, intimidation, arrests, and persecution.
Why does this quote make Michael Bloomberg an Ultimate Anti-Cannabis Idiot? Because while all very-rich Americans think this way, Bloomberg is the only one to advertise his double-standard so brazenly.
The best is saved for last. Michael the Mouth’s crowning glory that establishes him as the Ultimate Anti-Cannabis Idiot.
Michael Bloomberg, January 23, 2019:
"We have a different kind of problem in America, for example. Last year, in 2017, 72,000 Americans [overdosed] on drugs. In 2018, more people than that are OD-ing on drugs, have OD'd on drugs. And today, incidentally, we are trying to legalize another addictive narcotic, which is perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done. We've got to fight that, and that's another thing that Bloomberg Philanthropies will work on it in public health." [emphasis mine]
This is 2019, so Michael Bloomberg can no longer feign ignorance to even partially excuse the incredibly stupid things he says about cannabis.
But according to Mikey, legalizing cannabis is “perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done”. This may also qualify as the most ridiculous hyperbole to ever be spouted from human lips (subject to competition from Trump himself). The stupidest thing...ever?
After 6 years of full legalization, Colorado has now established that there are nothing but positive benefits from legalizing cannabis.
In other words, most of what the 7.7 billion people on this planet do every day is far more stupid than legalizing cannabis.
We could spend the rest of our lives listing “things” that are more stupid than legalizing cannabis. Among them are everything that Michael Bloomberg has ever said about cannabis.
Consider this.
Michael Bloomberg:
In 2018, more people than that are OD-ing on drugs, have OD'd on drugs.
Yes, more people did die from drug overdoses in 2018 – from the opioids produced by Big Pharma. Cannabis is not part of that problem (no one has ever died from a cannabis overdose). But legalized cannabis is the best hope for a solution.
Cannabis and The Opioid Crisis: Get the Real Facts
Cannabis As A CURE For Opioid Addiction: Major News
Legal Marijuana Dramatically Reduces U.S. Opioid Deaths: Two New Studies
Cannabis As A CURE For Opioid Addiction: Major News
Legal Marijuana Dramatically Reduces U.S. Opioid Deaths: Two New Studies
Stupidity can kill.
If Americans were (somehow) foolish enough to elect the Ultimate Anti-Cannabis Idiot to be their next president, cannabis will remain illegal in the United States – for most of the Little People.
Ten’s of thousands of Americans will continue to die unnecessarily each year.
Hundreds of thousands of Americans will continue to be needlessly prosecuted for cannabis “offenses” each year. But not Michael Bloomberg.