Michael Bloomber on Marijuana: Legalizing "Another Addictive Narcotic" is Perhaps "Stupidest Thing Anybody has Ever Done.

Speaking at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Tuesday, Bloomberg said on the subject, according to WBNG-TV:
"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."

The position from the billionaire politician would seem to be out of step with Democratic leaders in his state and liberal voters nationwide. Newly re-elected New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, for instance, said he would make legalization a priority in a December speech outlining the goals for his first 100 days of his new term.

Recent polls meanwhile have shown a comfortable majority of Americans support legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. A Gallup poll released in October found that 66 percent of Americans support legalizing the drug, including three-in-four Democrats.

"Like support for gay marriage—and in prior years, interracial marriage—support for marijuana legalization has generally only expanded, even if slowly, over the course of multiple decades—raising the question of where the ceiling in support might be," the Gallup poll noted. "As the percentage of Americans who favor legalizing pot has continued to grow, so has the number of states that have taken up legislation to allow residents to use the substance recreationally."

Biden, who is currently campaigning to become the Democratic nominee for the 2020 presidential election, shared his opinions in an interview with the New York Times. When asked about Silicon Valley’s expansion of power during his time in the Obama administration, Biden said: “And you may recall, the criticism I got for meeting with the leaders in Silicon Valley, when I was trying to work out an agreement dealing with them protecting intellectual property for artists in the United States of America. And at one point, one of the little creeps sitting around that table, who was a multi- — close to a billionaire — who told me he was an artist because he was able to come up with games to teach you how to kill people.”

“And then one of these righteous people said to me that, you know, 'We are the economic engine of America. We are the ones.' And fortunately I had done a little homework before I went and I said, you know, I find it fascinating,” Biden continued. “As I added up the seven outfits, everyone’s there but Microsoft. I said, you have fewer people on your payroll than all the losses that General Motors just faced in the last quarter, of employees. So don’t lecture me about how you’ve created all this employment.. The point is, there’s an arrogance about it, an overwhelming arrogance that we are, we are the ones. We can do what we want to do. I disagree.”

Biden has expressed his distaste for video games in the past. During 2013, while he was vice president, he proposed an additional tax on violent media, including violent games.

Despite numerous studies showing no link between violent video games and real-life violent crimes, we’ve seen several politicians suggesting extra taxes be added to the titles.