Multibillionaire investor George Soros backs Proposition 19 [Updated]

George Soros, the multibillionaire investor who helped bankroll three initiatives to change drug laws in California, endorsed the marijuana legalization initiative Monday and plans to make a major financial contribution to the campaign.

Soros, who invested $3 million in the medical marijuana initiative and two other measures, made his announcement in an opinion piece published online by the Wall Street Journal. "Proposition 19 already is a winner no matter what happens on election day. The mere fact of its being on the ballot has elevated and legitimized public discourse about marijuana and marijuana policy in ways I could not have imagined a year ago," Soros wrote.  The article is scheduled to appear in Tuesday’s print edition.

Soros, who runs a hedge fund and founded the Open Society Foundations, has not yet donated to the campaign. But Michael Vachon, an advisor to Soros, said that "he plans to make a significant contribution."

       Related: L.A. Sheriff will enforce pot laws even if Prop. 19 passes.

The initiative was the brainchild of Richard Lee, an Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur who has spent at least $1.5 million to draft the measure, collect signatures to qualify it for the ballot and pay for a campaign. The wealthy donors who have helped to pay for past efforts to change California’s drug laws had largely stayed out of the campaign until the last few weeks.

Peter B. Lewis, a retired insurance company executive, recently donated $209,005 to the campaign, and George Zimmer, the founder and CEO of Men’s Wearhouse, recently gave $50,000. Both businessmen
supported past initiatives to change the state’s drug laws.

In his opinion piece, Soros said that the nation’s marijuana laws "are clearly doing more harm than good" at a cost of billions of dollars a year "to enforce this unenforceable prohibition."

Soros wrote that regulating and taxing marijuana would reduce the crime and violence linked to criminal drug gangs and violations of civil liberties "that occur when large numbers of otherwise law-abiding citizens are subject to arrest." He also noted that minorities are arrested at higher rates for marijuana crimes, creating arrest records that may follow them through life.

Although he endorsed Proposition 19, noting that it would allow recreational use and small-scale cultivation, Soros also suggested "its deficiencies can be corrected on the basis of experience." Besides allowing adults 21 and older to grow and possess marijuana, the initiative would allow cities and counties to authorize commercial cultivation, sales and taxation.

"Just as the process of repealing national alcohol prohibition began with individual states repealing their own prohibition laws, so individual states must now take the initiative with respect to repealing marijuana prohibition laws," Soros wrote.

[Updated: He donate $1 million to help pass Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure, which he endorsed Monday as "a major step forward."

The donation makes Soros, who is the chairman of a hedge fund and who founded the Open Society Foundations, the largest donor to the campaign after Richard Lee, an Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur, who has spent at least $1.5 million on the measure.]

-- John Hoeffel

Photo: AP

Comments

[Ken]

Uh-oh... Looks like "Spooky Dude" Soros wants to help the stoners. With some of the things he says, I'm certain he partakes in it himself...

[Systems Analyst]

Of course Soros wants to legalize pot. That way he can have more blind and brain dead morons doing his bidding ...

[jason burnstein]

So this wealthy foreigner George Soros wants to legalize marijuana, a gateway drug to the heavy drugs like heroin and cocaine. Nice move George. You come to our country and buy a change in our legal system to benefit the minorities who are the most arrested for possession of drugs. Wake up George....it's the minorities who abuse drugs the most dummy. I hope you don't get hit with the car one of these stoned minorities are driving.

[group watcher]

I'm pretty sure the liberal author of this article won't post what I wrote, will you... we'll see if you're a sheep too.

[Ornley Gumfudgen]

I honestly can't thank of any better reason fer votin against Prop 19 cus Sorus is fer it.

Note: Big time dope dealers don't use th drugs they deal now do they? Just th ignorant masses wantin ta escape reality an people like Sorus who are happy ta give th people what they want, as long as th people are givin em back what THEY want, namely more money.

[Tony Guerra]

If this creep Soros is for something, there has got to be something in it for him money wise. He doesn't do anything unless he can profit from it. As they say follow the money. Like in Al Gore and global warming, or whatever the latest term they are using.

[BIll]

His funding of the left and demoncrats is a good indicaiton that he is smoking to much of it.

[Ross Jones]

Of course he would want to further dumb down America so they'll keep electing liberals. What better way than to fry everyone's neurons with weed?

[ONTIME]

Yes Indeed, Ol' George is working his money magic and showing you just how much he cares, the more you listen to Soros the more problems you can have and he is paying for it. His magic money and the magic weed will cure all your problems and you can remain in a blissful hippie like state the rest of your manipilated life.....Someone guess at how much he is going to pay the Uncredentialed for helping to set him up in business here in the country.

[Cpl Justin P. Bunce]

I am a combat wounded Marine. My Injuries are some of the most severe on record, through family and prayers I am alive despite numerous flat-lines and I am in a continuously perverse state of profound pain in which members of the medical community have suggested marijuana is a viable opyion for some measure of relief. Though because of archaic law it is exceedingly difficult to aquire such substance!

[F. Thomas Cain]

George Soros is a despicable human being that prospers on the suffering of others. Just ask Britons or Indonesians where he single handedly tried to destroy their currencies and made billions in the process. He loves large government programs because he knows they all of them have to be run through the investment community and that he came make billions more as a result of programs like Obamacare, Cap & Trade and the like. if he is behind legalize weed, somewhere he is positioned to make money!

[Excalibur]

........so, how much does Soros stand to make on the deal.....??

[roxanne]

Soros is not an American citizen. He should stay out of our affairs. Let him return to wherever he is from. He is a horrible old man who wants to dictate to the world. If he was worth anything, he would donate all his money to education and housing for the poor.

[nona]

Why doesn't anyone realize Soros is an unhealthy destroyer of America? With this proposition, do we Californians want to endure second hand smoke from marijuana smokers? Are we ready for stoned drivers on the road? More passive people? Marijuana kills brain cells!

[Frank]

Legal Weed?
Bad idea. California will become a pot head dominated wasteland and a vacation/holiday destination point for pot heads from all over.
More DUIs.
More problems with the teen and early 20s population. Kids will tell their parents "Its legal. I am not breaking any laws and if weren't OK/safe to me to use it, it wouldn't be legal.
Availability to younger kids will increase, as HS seniors will make buys and pass it down.
And then the pot heads will have the weed with them everywhere.
As for Soros, has he ever supported legislation and politics that were for the good of the country and not where its an advantage to him.
You want these people on the roads, in your stores, in your schools?

[Mike H]

I wonder how George has got it set up to make money on this one?

A chain of corner shops? Is he going go grow or just sell?

Soros does nothing without a plan to make a lot of money

[mburn16]

Does Soros want to explain how we are going to legalize weed without drawing millions of new people into the drug culture?

Does Soros want to explain how we are going to legalize weed without eventually having to legalize other drugs?

Does Soros want to explain how we will keep children off drugs when the adults around them are legally lighting up?

Does Soros want to explain how we will continue to be a strong economy and a strong country if millions of new people prefer getting high to being productive members of society?

Maybe there is a subset of the population that can "responsibly" smoke weed (although pumping your body full of chemicals to achieve an altered state, without the observation and guidance of a doctor is about as irresponsible as you can get - and yes that includes people who routinely get drunk)...but anyone who thinks that is the majority is fooling themselves.

[Doug Herman]

There is something strange about 75 year old rich businessman putting up $3 million to legalize weed - usually, you are passionate about something you are using or going to make money off of - he doesn't fit the profile of a pot-head or a dealer.

[WeMadeAmistake]

Whatever this communist (Soros) says, just do the opposite. He is a felon who almost broke the Bank of England.

[Sean Patriot]

Just a way to get the stupid kids to turn to the left.

[Nick Garzilli]

Only thing I agree with Soros on.

Still evil.

[Debbie]

SOROS IS A MENACE TO THE WORLD.....

[Jimi]

Works for me. I can see Freedom from my house. Anything to lessen the brutal overregulation of our lives is a plus. With freedom comes responsibility, just as it was in 1786.

[Shane]

This country may now finally start to see some of the profits from America's #1 Cash Crop. It is about time.

[Dingle]

What all of you Drudge idiots don't realize is that legal or not, it's already being consumed on a mass scale. It's a $100 fine if you're caught with weed. You can buy it anywhere from dispensaries and parks from pretty much anyone. It's already happening. Do we have weed DUI's?? Are we more passive? Are people showing up high to work? Your arguments are all asinine. Grow up and realize that the majority of people already smoke pot and the government should try and profit from it instead of all the weed growers.