Proposition 19 campaign gets $1 million donation from George Soros

George Soros, the multibillionaire investor, will 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.

It provides a huge lift to the Yes on 19 campaign, which had raised about $2.4 million by mid-October, as it launched cable television advertising Tuesday in the Los Angeles area.

Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, one of the nation’s main advocates for reforming drug laws, confirmed the planned contribution on Tuesday.

"There’s no way to know what this means in terms of George Soros’ future commitments," he said, "but I for one hope that he will end up making the same commitment to broader marijuana law reform as he has since the mid-1990s to medical marijuana."

Soros has donated about $3 million to help pass three California initiatives, including the state’s 1996 measure to allow the use of marijuana for medical reasons.

Proposition 19, which would allow adults 21 and older to grow and possess marijuana, was Lee’s brainchild, and he has been the principal donor and spokesman for the cause. The wealthy donors who had bankrolled past efforts to change California’s drug laws were not involved in the campaign at the beginning and had largely stayed on the sidelines until the last few weeks.

Peter B. Lewis, a retired insurance company executive, recently donated $209,005, and George Zimmer, the founder and CEO of Men’s Wearhouse, donated $50,000. Zimmer had earlier donated $20,500. Both businessmen have supported past initiatives to soften the state’s drug laws, including the medical marijuana initiative.

Soros announced his support for the initiative, which would also allow cities and counties to authorize commercial cultivation and sales, in an opinion piece that was published online Monday evening by the Wall Street Journal. He called for marijuana to be regulated and taxed.

"Proposition 19 already is a winner no matter what happens on Election Day," he wrote. "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."

-- John Hoeffel

Photo: Joshua Roberts / Bloomberg

Comments

[Kathyo]

George for president!!

[Melroser]

George Soros is acting like a typical limousine liberal. He will pump enormous amounts of money to get his pet projects enacted, and all of us "little people" will have to live with the problems they create. So he will go on living in his penthouse apartment and getting driven around in his limousine, while we have to deal with marijuana stores on every corner, stoners in every neighborhood, and impaired drivers on every block. Gee, thanks George - you really are a visionary! Did you even bother to read Prop 19, which one leading pro-marijuana expert refers to as "gibberish"? This sort of out-of-state money-pumping is just one more reason to vote No on Prop 19.

[Dai Jones]

I am a non-user, but having seen first hand the damage that prohibition causes, I only wish that I was allowed (as a non-resident of California) to contribute to this campaign.

World-wide we are waiting for this to pass, as only when Uncle Sam moves in the right direction will the rest of the world be able to follow. California will only be the start, as the other states will quickly follow. Times are changing as the free access to unbiased information offered by the internet highlights the racism, money, lies and deceit that has kept this modern day prohibition experiment alive.

[Fredric L. Rice]

It would be interesting and informative to find out exactly how much better the quality of life will be once the failed "war on drugs" prohibition is entirely eliminated.

Idiots who smoke dope or snort coke or do other idiot things should be allowed to do so provided they don't harm others, and while some 50,000 people die of alcohol-related vehicle crashes on the nation's highways every year, legalization won't add to the carnage, dopers who drive will drive while doped regardless of whether pot is legal or not (after all, dopers are idiots to begin with.)

[Ray]

Where are they going to have the coffee shops located?

[malcolm kyle]

William F. Buckley was for legalized regulation of all drugs.

Here is a short excerpt from a statement he gave In 1995, to the New York Bar Association:

"I HAVE spared you, even as I spared myself, an arithmetical consummation of my inquiry, but the data here cited instruct us that the cost of the drug war is many times more painful, in all its manifestations, than would be the licensing of drugs combined with intensive education of non-users and intensive education designed to warn those who experiment with drugs. We have seen a substantial reduction in the use of tobacco over the last thirty years, and this is not because tobacco became illegal but because a sentient community began, in substantial numbers, to apprehend the high cost of tobacco to human health, even as, we can assume, a growing number of Americans desist from practicing unsafe sex and using polluted needles in this age of AIDS. If 80 million Americans can experiment with drugs and resist addiction using information publicly available, we can reasonably hope that approximately the same number would resist the temptation to purchase such drugs even if they were available at a federal drugstore at the mere cost of production."

William F. Buckley - Why Drugs Should Be Legal:

[Billy]

Where has he been? Isn't this a little late?!?

[Chris Martin]

Do not be afraid to speak out! VOTE YES ON 19!! It is time to put the power back in hands of honest citizens and take this business out of back alleys. Vote yes on 19 because drug dealers dont ask for ID and they dont care and they will not stop selling to your children because it makes them money. Bring everything into the light when you go to vote..YES ON 19

[b]

I am all for prop 19 but eff this guy. He was a Nazi and took homes away from jews during WWII. Thats why he is sooo rich and a favorite among fascist banking elites.

[commonman13]

I would like to understand his motivation behind this large donation. DOes he really believe that this is a legitimate issue affecting the people of california or does it improve the quality of life in california somehow? i am all for legalizing it for medicinal purposes if there is enough evidence. All I know is that money is corrupting lot of the issues that need to be discussed openly without tit-for-tat ads on internet and TV.

[mark feigin]

pot is for people who don't have better ways to deal with their mental issues.

[Danny]

You rock George. I wish I could match your contribution.

[Aaron]

Right now I want to kiss this wrinkly old man's face!!

Thank you George Soros!!

And on a side note, if I ever need a nice suit I'M GOING TO THE MEN'S WAREHOUSE, (because the owner also donated some good casholla).

Can't wait to see how this all turns out next week!!

[david sirias]

Huffington Post just reported that the Mexican Government itself is lobbying against Prop 19! I mean if that is not enough to convince you that Prop 19 is good for CA, then nothing will. Mexico is corrupt to the core and wants its narco state intact (profits for the cartels; power for the corrupted politicians) People, this is a national security issue. Yes on 19!

[David]

Outstanding. Proposition 19 needs to pass. It's time to de-criminalize marijuana, and time for the government to step even further out of our lives. Sell it, tax it, punish people who drive under its influence, and diminish its surrounding black market and crime. The parallels to alcohol prohibition are undeniable to anybody with a brain, notwithstanding any recently-published and ludicrous studies that claim otherwise.

[Disgusted]

Soros seems to think this is his world and we are mere players. Does this man even live in this State? Didn't he just give a VERY large amount to NPR radio and then they fired Juan Williams, who by the way is one of the best reporters. He listens to both sides and is able to "discuss" issues rather than preach them.

[Disgusted]

Someone please tell me how Soros made his billions!

[David Karnowski]

I am so glad to see that the internal strife within the cannabis legalization community has been mostly overcome. I did believe at one point early this past Summer that the proposition would collapse on itself. Certain greedy and evil-rooted sectors of the marijuana industry are actually attempting to defeat this history-making proposition in en effort to ensure their unjust profits.

I think that common sense will prevail in this election.

[Gilman]

oh, is that the same Soros who was a big supporter of Obama....and then bought IndyMac for a fraction of it's value and set out to foreclose on thousands of Southern California homeowners. You know the one who failed to act in good faith with any of the IndyMac loanholders and instead put families out into the street.

Yeah, he is all about doing what is right for society......I mean for himself. I was on the fence with this issue but his support makes it easy for me, I am now opposed.

[Jeremy McWatters]

I am an advocate for the legalization of marijuana, and can't help but wonder.....
Last night as I was checking my email, i recieved an alert from the Yes on 19 campaign, informing me about the new McNamara Ad. After checking out the ad, and promptly going to the website to donate money to the ads' lifespan.
I saw this article this morning, and figured cool they achieved their goals, only to see that the website is still at 20k for donations and in need of 80k more. Doesn't this donation of a million dollars form George Soros more then cover the cost for the ad?

I understand more donations can be a blessing, but with the polls closing in just over a week, how much more could be needed?

Jeremy

[dave]

Prohibition didnt work; why is this any different? If you legalize it you will have the same issues as alcohol; no more, no less. People arent allowed to be under the influence of alcohol at work and they won't with pot, so that argument isnt legit.

[al walden]

The War On Drugs was run by drugs long ago and has resulted in the murders, rapes and incarcerations of millions of people, many of them innocent. The War On Drugs has destroyed more lives than drugs themselves could ever do.

[Ross]

It is ironic that next to your article is the link for violent crimes reported in L.A. for the last six months, 18,017.
I agree we are not addressing the drug situation in our country correctly. But making (marji) legal and still having FED law against selling/possession illegal will not work. Prop 19 will not pass and the people know there are only bad consequences if you try to legalize it. It's not going to stop the violence.

[1Swami]

Atta boy George, you deserve the first hit off the bong.

[anon]

Chris Martin wrote:
"Vote yes on 19 because drug dealers dont ask for ID and they dont care and they will not stop selling to your children because it makes them money."

Prop 19 only legalizes pot for adults 21 and older.

So, will drug dealers stop selling pot to people under 21 because of Prop 19?

That would be very nice of them.