Soros Out To Legalize
Marijuana in Nevada
by Scott Thompson
"British Golem" George Soros has been the primary piggybank behind a referendum in Nevada, which would legalize the possession of up to three ounces of marijuana by anyone over 21 years of age, for recreational use. As EIR was the first to report, an earlier round of referendums bankrolled by Soros and his cronies for "medical use of marijuana," in California and Arizona, was a foot in the door for full-scale legalization of all Schedule III drugs. Now, the referendum on Nevada's November ballot ("Question 9") calls on the state to grow, sell, and tax marijuana, at the same rate as cigarettes or alcohol.
On Sept. 8, Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche assailed Soros for the latest effort to legalize narcotics in the United States—the most far-reaching legalization scheme attempted in this country to date. LaRouche noted that Soros has been the main source of funding for the entire drug legalization drive—in the United States and around the world. How can the United States expect to press Colombia and Peru to crack down on the drug cartels, when the same cartels are now attempting to establish a beachhead inside the United States? LaRouche demanded to know. LaRouche also raised the question of Soros' ties to the Democratic Leadeship Council, of Al Gore, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), and financial swindler Michael Steinhardt. LaRouche recalled the November 1998 public fit by then-Vice President Gore in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, against that country's Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamed. The Gore tantrum was provoked by Mahathir's public attacks on Soros' speculative assault on the currency of his country and those of other Southeast Asian nations.
Who's Who Behind `Decrim'
Preliminary investigation by EIR confirms that the Nevada referendum is being run by a Washington, D.C.-based group, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), which receives significant funding from Soros through the Drug Policy Foundation (DPF). The DPF has received $15 million from Soros in recent years, and it recently merged with the Lindesmith Center, a major project of Soros' tax-exempt Open Society Institute (OSI) in New York City. The new entity, the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), is run by Soros employee, Dr. Ethan Nadelmann. Soros, who runs offshore hedge funds, has poured at least $25 million into various narcotics decriminalization and outright legalization efforts over the past five years, and he is said to have another $15 million lined up for this purpose. Already, some $375,000 was spent in Nevada on gathering 107,000 signatures to put the referendum on the ballot (at $2 per name) and on public relations efforts.
The MPP was launched by a former official of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), one of the oldest drug legalization fronts now in the Soros orbit. Rob Kampia, the un-NORML staffer, founded MPP after running as the Libertarian Party candidate for the U.S. Delegate to Congress from Washington, D.C. (During that year 2000 election campaign, the Libertarian Party's Presidential candidate, Harry Browne, travelled across the United States with bodyguards from Las Vegas casinos.) MPP staffer Billy Rogers went to Nevada, where he founded Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, that has been the front for Soros interests. An earlier Nevada ballot initiative, funded by Soros, together with Arizona Republican moneybags John Sperling and Ohio insurance magnate Peter Lewis, legalized "medical use of marijuana," and Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn signed that referendum into law.
The `Victimless Crime' Hoax
The OSI's Lindesmith Center takes its name from a British detective who argued that narcotics are a "victimless crime." This is a cruel hoax. This was given the lie with a car crash in Nevada shortly after the referendum was placed on the ballot. The driver, who had murdered several innocent people, was found to be "high" on marijuana. Moreover, these hypocrites argue that marijuana reduces the nausea caused by chemotherapy for cancer, improves the appetite for those suffering from HIV/AIDS, and improves sight for people suffering from glaucoma. But, the reality is that marijuana is known to reduce the effectiveness of the human immune system. So, Soros et al. are playing with the lives of people whose real medical needs are being compromised by marijuana use. Also, marijuana is a major cause of drug-related emergency room incidents, and abusers are 80 times more likely to use heroin and cocaine, the traffic in which drugs supports narco-terrorism.
At present, polls show that there is a 50-50 chance of Question 9 passing in the November elections.
Why Nevada?
Nevada became the "sin capital" of the United States in the 1920s, during Prohibition, when local leaders thumbed their noses at the Federal ban on alcohol, with one mayor openly promising to put "a barrel of whiskey with a dipper" on every street corner. And, Nevada has long been a haven for prostitution, with the sex trade legalized in 13 out of 17 counties. During the 1920s, "Murder, Inc.'s" Bugsy Siegel, a crony of emerging National Crime Syndicate boss Meyer Lansky, opened the Flamingo gambling casino in Las Vegas, which was the first legalized gambling joint in the United States. Also, in neighboring Arizona, as recent reports in EIR have shown, organized crime has gained a hold on the state's politics, through which the Ibero-American drug cartels frequently smuggle cocaine and heroin.
Soros, whose flagship $20 billion Quantum Fund N.V., run from Soros Fund Management in New York City and based in the offshore tax haven of the Netherlands Antilles, has made a fortune out of driving down national currencies around the world. As EIR documented in its April 1997 Special Report, "The True Story of Soros the Golem," Quantum Fund N.V.'s board includes: Richard Katz, who is also on the board of the London N.M. Rothschild and Sons merchant bank run by Sir Evelyn Rothschild; and Nils O. Taube, who is a partner in another London-based firm, St. James Place Capital, which is run by Lord Jacob Rothschild.
Soros is highly paid for doing the dirty work for those and other fondi, with an annual salary of more than $700 million—much of which he gives to "philanthropic enterprises" such as operations to force through the legalization of drugs.
