Billionaire casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson is continuing his fight against a proposal in Florida to legalize medical marijuana.
The 83-year-old casino boss, who is the chairman and chief executive officer of America’s largest casino company, Las Vegas Sands Corporation, recently donated $1 million to the political committee that is trying to see that the Florida Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative, also known as Amendment 2, never sees the light of day, according to campaign finance records that were filed on Friday, as reported by CBS Local. Two years ago, Adelson, who has been referred to as the “GOP godfather” by Forbes, made a donation of $5.5 million to help foil a similar amendment.
Amendment 2, if successful, would allow medical marijuana to be provided to patients for treatment of diseases such as cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV, and AIDS.
In 2014, United for Care successfully placed a similar initiative on the November 4, 2014 ballot, however, the 57.6 percent of Floridian voters who supported the ballot question fell just shy of the 60 percent required by the state for approval of constitutional amendments.
Adelson uses money from his vast fortune made from the Paradise, Nevada-based company to make huge donations to the Republican Party. Seventy-year-old Israeli-born Miriam Ochshorn is the second wife of the man who this year ranked number 22 on Forbes billionaire list. She is an accomplished medical doctor who in 1993 founded a substance abuse center and research clinic at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center.