LaRouche Slams Soros IN New Dope Legalization Drive

Sept. 8--Democratic Party Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche today assailed mega-speculator George Soros for the latest effort to legalize narcotics in the United States. A referendum on the November ballot in Nevada would have voters legalize marijuana use, and would mandate that the state begin growing and retail distribution of the drug to anyone over 21 years of age.

This is the most far-reaching legalization scheme attempted in the United States to date, and LaRouche noted that George Soros has been the primary 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 major beachhead inside the United States, LaRouche demanded to know? LaRouche also raised the question of Soros' ties to the Democratic Leadership Council, of Al Gore, Joe Lieberman, 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. The Gore fit was provoked by Mahathir's public attacks on Soros's speculative assault on his country and other Southeast Asian nations.

Preliminary investigations by associates of LaRouche have confirmed that the Nevada referendum is being run by a Washington, D.C. based group, the Marijuana Policy Project, which receives direct funding from Soros, through the Drug Policy Foundation, which has received more than $15 million from Soros in recent years. The Drug Policy Foundation recently merged with the Lindesmith Center, a project of Soros' Open Society Institute tax exempt foundation. The new, unified entity, the Drug Policy Alliance, is run by Soros employee Dr. Ethan Nadelman. Soros has poured at least $25 million into various dope legalization schemes over the past five years, and has vowed to substantially increase his bankrolling of the dope lobby efforts.

The Marijuana Policy Project was launched by a former official of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Legislation (NORML), the oldest of the drug legalization fronts now under the Soros umbrella. Rob Kampia, the ex-NORML staffer was also the Libertarian Party candidate for the U.S. Delegate seat in Washington, D.C. held by Eleanor Holmes-Norton. The Presidential candidate on that Libertarian Party slate, Harry Browne, traveled the United States, during his 1996 and 2000 campaigns, accompanied by bodyguards from the Las Vegas casinos, according to eyewitness accounts.

MPP created a local front group, Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, headed by MPP official Billy Rogers. The group paid out at least $375,000 to get the pot legalization referendum on the November Nevada ballot. A previous Nevada ballot initiative, legalizing the use of marijuana as a prescription medicine, was financed by Soros, along with Arizona Republican Party moneybags John Sperling and Ohio insurance magnate Peter Lewis. The current Republican Governor of Nevada signed that referendum into law.

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