In a speech on Tuesday at the US Naval Academy, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg stated that “In 2017, 72,000 Americans OD’d on drugs. In 2018, more people than that have OD’d on drugs, and today, incidentally, we are trying to legalize another addictive narcotic (marijuana), which is perhaps the stupidest thing anybody has ever done.”
Today, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) president and founder, Dr. Kevin Sabet, released the following statement:
“Mayor Bloomberg is right – marijuana legalization makes no sense in the context of the opiate epidemic we are experiencing. Just like Big Pharma, Big Pot is making their product more addictive and harmful, and marketing for profits. It is important that our nation’s leaders bring light to the fact that marijuana legalization will accomplish nothing more than dumping fuel on the fire that is the addiction epidemic in our country.
“Data published in the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions show us that marijuana users are 2.7 times more likely to go on to abuse opioids. Moreover, marijuana use has been proven to lower pain thresholds, necessitating higher doses of pain medication, further increasing the risk of dependence.
“Americans deserve solutions to the addiction epidemic that are driven by science and evidence, not ideology or anecdotal evidence. Mayor Bloomberg could not be more spot on in his condemnation of the rush to legalize and commercialize today’s highly potent marijuana.”
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