subject: Multi-billionaire Hedge fund Founder Donates $1 Mil to Prop 19 [print this page] Multi-billionaire Hedge fund Founder Donates $1 Mil to Prop 19
Multibillionaire hedge fund founder George Soros pledged $1 million toward efforts to pass California's legalized marijuana measure Proposition 19 today, celebrating its presence on the ballot as "a major step forward."
Despite the strident public discussion of Proposition 19, funds allocated toward the marijuana legalization initiative on either side have been markedly low until this point. As of mid-October, donations in support of the legalized marijuana bill hovered just above the 2 million mark while resistance efforts stood at $210,000.
Soros' donation is currently the second largest after the bills founder, millionaire medical marijuana entrepreneur Richard Lee, who has dedicated $1.5 million of his own capital to help make legalized marijuana a reality in California.
Soros, like Lee and most Prop 19 proponents, takes issue with current inconsistencies in U.S. drug policy and enforcement. In an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal published Monday, Soros explains his Pro-Prop 19 position. The 80-year-old investor sights unjust racial inequity in marijuana related arrests and his perception that public funds are being misused in the war against drugs as key motivators for his financial support.
Soros believes Proposition 19 would eliminate these problems in California as well as help reposition Marijuana profits currently driving Mexican drug cartels inside U.S. borders.
While Soros does not extrapolate thoroughly on the topics of financial and investment opportunities as could be expected of an investor, nor does he dismiss the enormous revenue potential of legalized marijuana.
"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."
Whether or not Proposition 19 passes on Nov. 2; however, Soros considers its presence on the ballot a victory in itself writing , "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."
