Soros gift of $15m to oppose US drug laws

FROM BRONWEN MADDOX IN WASHINGTON

GEORGE SOROS, the billionaire financier, is giving $15 million (£9
million) to oppose America's "war on drugs" in a move that has brought
him into headon conflict with conservative politicians.

Mr Soros, who has smoked marijuana, says he does not back legalisation
of the drug. But in an interview in this week's Time magazine, he
adds: "I do want to weaken the drug laws. They are unnecessarily
severe."

Mr Soros shot to fame on Black Wednesday, September 16, 1992, the day
sterling was forced from the European exchangerate mechanism. He made
$1 billion, a fifth of his estimated fortune, betting against the
currency that week, earning himself the tag "The Man who Broke the
Bank of England".

In the past two years he has committed more than $15 million to groups
seeking to reform drug laws. He gave $1 million last year to back new
Californian and Arizonan laws to legalise the medical use of marijuana
and has just pledged $1 million to a San Francisco needle exchange
programme and $5 million a year for five years to Baltimore, a city
where 85 per cent of crime is drugrelated.