BILLIONAIRE GIVES $1M TO MARIJUANA CAMPAIGN

George Soros, the billionaire financier and philanthropist, drew
attention to the California election campaign Tuesday by donating $1
million to a controversial proposal to legalize marijuana.

Proposition 19, on the ballot next Tuesday, would permit adults over
the age of 21 to grow and possess marijuana in California -- and allow
state and local government to tax it.

Soros, the hedge fund manager who famously "broke the Bank of England"
by betting against Sterling in the 1992 Black Wednesday currency
crisis, voiced his support for "Prop 19" Tuesday in an article in the
Wall Street Journal. "Our marijuana laws are clearly doing more harm
than good," he wrote. "The criminalization of marijuana did not
prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance
in the United States and many other countries. But it did result in
extensive costs and negative consequences."

Soros' fortune is valued at $14 billion.