Pubdate: Sun, 01 Jul 2001 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2001 San Francisco Chronicle Contact: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388 TREATING DRUG OFFENDERS - HUGE COFFERS FUND EFFORT TO REPLICATE PROP 36 IN OTHER STATES California's new drug treatment initiative may soon go nationwide, propelled by a flood of campaign spending. A trio of megamillionaires -- George Soros, the financier whose wealth is estimated at $5 billion, John Sperling, worth around $550 million and Peter Lewis, worth $1.1 billion -- are spending their own money to replicate Proposition 36, the state law that mandates treatment rather than jail terms for nonviolent narcotics offenders. The three have spent $20 million in recent years on promoting a string of successful state initiatives, including $3 million in last year's campaign for Proposition 36, which goes into effect today. They are planning to spend millions more to repeat that success in Florida, Michigan and Ohio. "We're going to rub this in the noses of Congress and the administration," said Sperling, founder of the for-profit University of Phoenix. "The American people realize that the drug war is a failure, that it's a disaster and something has to be done about it," he said. "We're going to keep going to the initiative process until the politicians start listening." Soros is well known for putting hundreds of millions of dollars into his Open Society Institute, which has helped Eastern Europe transition from communism to democracy. Lewis is chairman of Progressive Insurance Inc. of Cleveland and is a major patron of the arts. Opponents call them rich carpetbaggers. "They're buying public policy for their own personal agenda," said Calvina Fay, executive director of Drug-Free America Foundation, a Florida group that played a behind-the-scenes role in the fight last year against Proposition 36. "It's dangerous for our democracy when very wealthy men from out of state can put measures on the ballot, run very misleading ads and succeed in getting the laws changed," she said. The crusade by the unlikely trio began in 1996, when they were brought together by Ethan Nadelmann, a former Princeton University professor who had become the drug liberalization movement's chief strategist. The three businessmen quickly decided to back California's Proposition 215, to legalize medical use of marijuana, and Arizona's Proposition 200, a sentencing-reform measure that later served as model for Proposition 36. The two campaigns won by a wide margin, and success soon begat more success. Since then, the three men have financed 15 victorious campaigns in 10 states and the District of Columbia. Most of the initiatives have focused on three issues: sentencing reform, such as Proposition 36; allowing medical use of marijuana; and ending police powers to confiscate property from drug defendants before conviction. A big part of the troika's success is the fact that they have vastly outspent their opposition. Last year, for example, they provided $3 million of the $3.5 million spent by proponents of Proposition 36, while opponents - -- backed by dozens of state elected officials -- only spent $340,000. The measure received 61 percent of the vote in November. In the coming weeks, the three are expected to give final approval to a proposal by their advisers to finance Proposition 36-style initiatives in Florida, Michigan and Ohio, at a cost of as much as $3 million per state. In each case, polling shows the initiatives with more than 20-point leads, said Bill Zimmerman, the Santa Monica consultant who has managed many of the past campaigns. The hottest battle will be in Florida, where Gov. Jeb Bush is expected to face a tough re-election race against potential Democratic nominee Janet Reno, the attorney general in the Clinton administration. Bush opposes the sentencing initiative, and Reno would be under great pressure to oppose it too. Bush's drug policy director, James McDonough, has already started campaigning against the measure, calling it "a hoax on the citizens of Florida. " "This outright chicanery offers voters an illusion of treatment while concealing its true purpose -- the normalization of drug abuse in Florida," he said. McDonough said the campaign will be led by Fay's organization, Drug-Free America Foundation, which is linked to several major Republican donors. Fay made it clear that liberalization will be described as a Trojan horse for out-and-out legalization. Nonsense, Nadelmann says. He points out that like Proposition 36, the initiatives slated for Florida, Ohio and Michigan would maintain current criminal penalties for selling or manufacturing narcotics and would strengthen treatment programs to help get addicts off drugs. He admits, however, that "the vast majority" of the drug reform movement quietly supports legalization of drugs in a system that would tax and regulate them in much the same way as alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs. That position is not advocated by Soros, Lewis and Sperling, he said. Soros and Sperling have admitted smoking marijuana in the past, although they say they have not done so in recent years. Lewis was arrested in New Zealand last year for alleged possession of marijuana and hashish; he was released without conviction after making a donation to a local drug rehabilitation center. Through representatives, Soros and Lewis declined to be interviewed by The Chronicle. Sperling says his sympathy for medical use of marijuana comes partly from his experience in the late 1970s, when he smoked it after he was given radioactive implants to treat his prostate cancer. "Nothing stopped the burning sensation like marijuana," he said. "I think people ought to be able to use marijuana to help them over rough spots, like I did." - --------------------------------- George Soros Age: 70 Business: President and chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, a private investment firm. Other: Founder of the Soros Foundations, a consortium of pro- democracy institutes to which he gives hundreds of millions of dollars per year. Peter Lewis Age: 67 Business: CEO and chairman of Progressive Insurance Inc. in Cleveland, the nation's fifth-largest auto insurer. Other: Longtime philanthropist. Donations include: $50 million to the Guggenheim Museum in New York (of which he is chairman of the board); $55 million to Princeton University (of which he is a trustee). John Sperling Age: 80 Business: CEO and chairman of Apollo Group Inc., parent company of the University of Phoenix and Western International University. - ---------------------------- A growing movement to liberalize drug policy Measures funded by George Soros, Peter Lewis and John Sperling are marked with an asterisk(x). Alaska (x) 1998 - Medical marijuana Arizona (x) 1996 - Prop. 200, drug treatment instead of jail time; medical marijuana. Both upheld in 1998 initiatives. California (x) 1996 - Medical marijuana (x) 2000 - Prop. 36, drug treatment instead of jail time. Nevada 1998, 2000 - Medical use of marijuana (x) 2001 - Partial decriminalization of marijuana Colorado (x) 2000 - Medical marijuana Washington (x) 1998 - Medical marijuana Hawaii 1999 - Industrial hemp 2000 - Medical marijuana Louisiana (x) 2001 - End of mandatory minimum sentences for drug possession; reduction of other penalties for drug crimes. Minnesota 1999 - Industrial hemp Maine (x) 1999 - Medical marijuana Michigan 1998 - Reduction of penalties for drug crimes. North Dakota 1999 - Industrial hemp Utah (x) 2000 - Asset forfeiture reform Washington D.C. (x) 1998 - Medical marijuana Oregon (x) 1998 - Medical marijuana (x) 1998 - Defeated measure to recriminalize marijuana possession (x) 2000 - Asset forfeiture reform Chronicle Graphic - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens