Pubdate: Fri, 04 Aug 2006
Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA)
Copyright: 2006 Santa Cruz Sentinel
Contact: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/news/edit/form.htm
Website: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/394
Author: Shanna McCord, Sentinel Staff Writer
Cited: Santa Cruz Lowest Law Enforcement Priority Policy Ordinance 
http://www.drugsense.org/caip#scruz
Cited: California NORML http://www.canorml.org
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?168 (Lewis, Peter)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/soros.htm (Soros, George)

CLEVELAND BILLIONAIRE BACKS S.C. MARIJUANA MEASURE

A pot-smoking billionaire in Cleveland has bankrolled nearly all the 
$32,000 raised for the ballot measure to make marijuana crimes the 
lowest priority for Santa Cruz police.

Mega-donor Peter Benjamin Lewis, 71, chairman of the Cleveland-based 
Progressive Insurance Corp., is known in political circles as a 
leftist who gives millions to liberal causes and anti-war movements 
- -- in the same league as his friend, financier George Soros. The two 
are the country's biggest contributors to liberal candidates and 
causes such as marijuana legalization, gay rights and the environment.

Highest on Lewis' list of political priorities is the effort to 
decriminalizing marijuana.

Disclosure forms filed this week by Santa Cruz Citizens for Sensible 
Marijuana Policy with the county Elections Department report Lewis 
contributing $32,000 to the Santa Cruz ballot measure.

Roughly $1,200 of the Santa Cruz marijuana campaign has come from the 
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws of San Francisco.

None has come from local donors, according to the financial disclosure forms.

"Most of our money may come through another channel, but we are a 
grassroots organization," said proponent Andrea Tischler. "It costs a 
lot of money to run a campaign and we don't think that will matter to 
the voters if the money comes from someplace else."

The measure would force police officers to focus on crimes other than 
adult marijuana sales or use on private property, and would not allow 
officers to participate in regional marijuana busts.

Some, including City Attorney John Barisone, question the measure's legality.

Lewis strongly favors taxing and regulating the use and sale of the 
drug. He was a chief backer in California's 1996 passage of 
Proposition 215, the measure that made medical-marijuana use legal.

A bulk of the Ohio man's marijuana-related contributions -- 
seven-figure yearly donations -- goes to the Marijuana Policy Project 
in Washington, D.C.

The nonprofit, established in 1995, doles out Lewis' money to 
"grassroots organizations" working around the country to pass local 
legislation to legalize marijuana, spokesman Bruce Mirken said.

Lewis' money went through the Policy Project before reaching Santa 
Cruz, where it paid for the $20,000 petition drive earlier this year 
that yielded almost twice the required 3,400 signatures of registered 
city voters to qualify the initiative for the Nov. 7 ballot.

"Peter Lewis is our largest individual donor," Mirken said Thursday. 
"He has been involved in supporting marijuana-law reform for a number 
of years. The grants program he funds has been in the neighborhood of 
$2 million."

Ranked as one of the world's richest people by Forbes magazine, Lewis 
was arrested for possession of marijuana in January 2000 while 
traveling in New Zealand.

He admitted to three charges of importing drugs and freely 
acknowledged to being a regular pot smoker, according to various 
media reports, including an article in the Capital Research Center in 
Washington, D.C.

Lewis has also been the biggest donor to the Solomon R. Guggenheim 
Museum in New York, giving $77 million to the arts institution since 1993.

The Princeton graduate gave a gift of $60 million to the Ivy League 
university for the construction of a library in his name, and has 
given more than $60 million to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

A spokeswoman for Progressive Insurance on Thursday said Lewis was 
out of the country and unavailable for comment. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake