Soros Spends $80 Million Pushing Pot Legalization
Friday, 04 Apr 2014 01:03 PM
By Melissa Clyne
Billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros has funneled at least $80
million over the last 20 years to advocacy groups trying to legalize marijuana,
The Washington Times reports.
Through donations to the nonprofit
Drug Policy Alliance and others,
Soros, 83, may be the cannabis crusade’s biggest supporter, along with the late
Progressive Insurance Co. chairman, Peter B. Lewis, who reportedly
contributed $40 million to the cause, according to the Times.
Soros also contributes to the ACLU and the Marijuana Policy Project,
both of which fund legalization efforts. In 2013, the latter ranked Soros ninth
on its list of most influential marijuana users, between No. 8 John Kerry and No. 10 Bill Maher, a proud pot smoker who once
said he never made a secret he had tried pot, “about 50,000 times.”
"He said he had tried
marijuana, enjoyed it, 'but it did not become a habit and I have not tasted it
in many years,'” the MPP quotes Soros as saying.
His funding helped legalize
recreational pot use in Colorado and Washington state and organizations
benefitting from his contributions are working to get the issue on Florida’s
ballot as well as similar legislation passed in Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, according to the Times.
In a 2010 Wall Street Journal op-ed piece,
Soros spelled out his reasons for supporting legal pot.
“Like many parents and
grandparents, I am worried about young people getting into trouble with
marijuana and other drugs,” he wrote.
“The best solution, however, is
honest and effective drug education. One survey after another indicates that
teenagers have better access than most adults to marijuana—and often other
drugs as well—and find it easier to buy marijuana than alcohol. Legalizing
marijuana may make it easier for adults to buy marijuana, but it can hardly
make it any more accessible to young people. I'd much rather invest in
effective education than ineffective arrest and incarceration."
He also cited the billions in
taxpayer dollars spent on criminalizing marijuana -- 40 percent of all drug
arrests are marijuana related, according to Soros -- the root of which he said
was to punish Mexican immigrants who purportedly "smoked the killer
weed."
A majority of both Republicans and
Democrats – 67 percent and 71 percent, respectively – say the federal
enforcement of marijuana laws is not worth the cost, though 59 percent of
Democrats favor legal pot compared with just 37 percent of Republicans, according
to a 2013 Pew Research Center
poll. The same poll indicated that for the first time ever, a majority of
Americans, 52 percent, favor legalizing marijuana, an 11-point gain from a 2010
survey.
Peter B. Lewis
Peter
B. Lewis was the chairman for the Progressive
Corporation, a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, a director at the Center for American Progress, a contributor
for the American Bridge 21st Century,
a supporter for the America Coming
Together, a contributor for MoveOn.org,
and a donor for Media Matters.
Note: Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, the Center for American Progress, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a co-chair, national finance council at Ready for Hillary, a director at the Drug Policy Alliance, was a supporter
for the Center for American Progress,
a contributor for the American Bridge
21st Century, a supporter for the America
Coming Together, a contributor for MoveOn.org,
a contributor for Priorities USA Action,
and the chairman for the Foundation to
Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress,
Media Matters, the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and the American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
J. Steve Mostyn is
a national finance council member at Ready
for Hillary, and was a contributor for Priorities
USA Action.
Bill
Maher was a contributor for Priorities
USA Action.
William A. Burton
is a senior fellow at the Center for
American Progress, a co-founder for Priorities
USA Action, and was the deputy press secretary for the Barack Obama administration.
Buffy
Wicks was a senior fellow at the Center
for American Progress, and is an executive director for Priorities USA Action.
Maria Echaveste
is a senior fellow at the Center for
American Progress, and a board member for Priorities USA Action.
Lawrence
K. Fish is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and was a contributor for Priorities USA Action.
Haim
Saban was a contributor for Priorities
USA Action, a funder for the Bill,
Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, is a friend of Shimon Peres, a benefactor for the Saban Center for Middle East Policy, and
a trustee at the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
Shimon
Peres is a friend of Haim Saban,
and the president of Israel.
Saban
Center for Middle East Policy is a policy center for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Cameron F. Kerry
is a fellow for the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and John
F. Kerry’s brother.
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and married to John F. Kerry.
John
F. Kerry is Cameron F. Kerry’s
brother, married to Teresa Heinz Kerry,
and the secretary at the U.S. Department
of State for the Barack Obama
administration.
Martin S. Indyk
is the Middle East peace envoy for the U.S. Department of State, a founding
director for the Saban Center for Middle
East Policy, was the assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of State, and the VP & director of the Foreign
Policy Program for the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
Saban
Center for Middle East Policy is a policy center for the Brookings Institution (think tank).
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