subject: Green for Green: Why the World's Billionaires Support Prop 19 [print this page] Green for Green: Why the World's Billionaires Support Prop 19
When Proposition 19 was first introduced, most people had little faith it would ever make it to the ballot. In general, the chronically stoned do not have an excellent track record for enacting things into law or even completing tasks that require significantly less of an attention commitment.
People, even those vehemently opposed to the legalization of marijuana in California, were not sweating it. That was before the bill began to attract the attention of individuals far outside the archetypal stoner they envisioned to be behind the bill. People like Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and multi-billionaire hedge funder George Soros (both on the Forbes 400 richest person list). Google software engineers pledged money and so did the C.E.O. of Men's Warehouse, but why have billionaires chosen this as the issue to take a stance on.
True, Moskovitz and fellow Facebook co-founder Sean Parker are some of the youngest self-made millionaires and billionaires in history, but is their age really the reason that they are coming out in support of this seemingly radical bill? The short answer is no.
The long answer is explained by Dustin Moskovitz in an article for Forbes in which he says,"More than any other initiative out there, Prop 19 will stabilize our national security and bolster our state economy. It will alleviate unnecessary overcrowding of non-violent offenders in our state jails, which in turn will help California residents."
George Soros, the billionaire credited with breaking the bank of England has also taken a stand on the issue, donating $ 1 million toward Prop 19 and writing an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal. In the piece, the octogenarian says nothing about personal preference or use of marijuana. Instead, like any financially minded investor Soros stresses the fiscal benefits of legalizing the drug.
"Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs," he wrote "while providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually."
Soros went on to state his belief that the only group benefitting from current U.S. drug policy is Mexican drug cartels, a status quo he believes needs to be altered in favor of the U.S. economy.
Progressive Car insurance head Peter Lewis, also a billionaire, has also donated a tremendous amount of time and resources to the cause. Lewis has not been outspoken about the potential economic benefits of marijuana but is a known user of the drug as a pain killer since part of his leg was amputated in 1998.
Close to ten Google employees have also donated thousands of dollars in support of the initiative, but unlike Moskovitz, they have remained mum on the reasoning behind it. Google as a corporation though appears to endorse Prop 19 insofar as their decision to display of the "Just Say Now" ads that sport a pot leaf in their search results.
Though this issue has been broached only in broader terms of the fiscal benefits of Prop 19, advertising from marijuana distributors, developers and other sectors of the field would serve as a new account for an industry that has been hard hit by the recession.
This is the same hope many of these billionaires have for Prop 19. While some like Lewis, support the drug for its medicinal uses many others look at it as a viable solution not for pain but to another big problem, the budget. Right now there is not enough tax revenue in California, the legalization of marijuana is a sensible solution to this. From a purely business standpoint, the angle all of these individuals have demonstrated a specialty in, the legalization of marijuana is an excellent and rewarding initiative.
Certainly, as any members of the opposition would be happy to wax philosophical on, there are other factors that need to be considered, but for some of the world's wealthiest people, it just seems like the next sensible business move.
