Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Clark County Deputy District Attorney Gary Booker claims he never said drug cartels are funding Question 9, the ballot initiative that would amend the Constitution to legalize possession of up to three ounces of marijuana. But he did.
Booker is on tape using the word before the state Board of Health, referring to a speech made by state Sen. Joe Neal, the North Las Vegas Democrat who is running for governor.
Neal, in turn, read about the cartel allegation in an issue of Executive Intelligence Review, a publication put out by perennial presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche.
LaRouche, an ex-felon, claims that financier George Soros is connected to South American drug cartels. Then again, LaRouche also claims the Queen of England is connected to the global drug trade.
"LaRouche noted that Soros has been the main source of funding for the entire drug legalization drive -- in the United States and around the world," reads a Sept. 20 article in Executive Intelligence Review. "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 beachhead inside the United States, LaRouche demanded to know."
Neal says he called the Review's editors, who stood by their story. And he says he believes it, too, which is why he put it in his anti-Question 9 speech.
And Booker, who has something of a history of exaggerations when it comes to Question 9, stood by his story, too. He says he never claimed the cartel was behind Question 9.
But he did. (Booker didn't return a second phone call placed to inquire about the tape of the meeting.)
Defeating Question 9 has become something of a cause celebre in the law enforcement community. Metro Deputy Chief Bill Young, a candidate for sheriff, said passing Question 9 will lead to "nothing but a continuous 24-7 Grateful Dead concert here." Incumbent Sheriff Jerry Keller said it would lead to a "public safety nightmare." Stop DUI chief Sandy Heverly compared anti-Question 9 citizens to David fighting the giant Goliath.
Fair enough. They're cops and citizens, too, and they have the right to let the public know their views.
But to suggest, as the Executive Intelligence Review, Neal and Booker did, that drug cartels are behind Question 9, is ridiculous. Drug cartels are the biggest fans prohibition ever had, since prohibition makes the product scarce and therefore valuable. Legalize it, even by selling the drug at state-sponsored stores, and the bottom falls from the market. That means anyone who supports continued prohibition is on the side of the cartels.
"Gary Booker has a long history of making things up in this campaign," says Billy Rogers, the campaign manager for Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement. "When they make a claim, either they don't cite a source, or they cite a nutcase like Lyndon LaRouche."
Among the dueling charges: Booker says the law -- which will prohibit "dangerous driving" and repeal all contrary laws, should it be approved by voters twice -- will gut anti-drug driving laws currently on the books. The pro-Question 9 team counters that it has a legal opinion from lawyer JoNell Thomas that says otherwise.
Booker says that 3 ounces of marijuana -- chosen by Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement since that's what several other states allow medical marijuana users to possess -- could make more than 250 marijuana cigarettes. But Roger says four packs of cigarettes (at 20 per pack, or 80 total) weighs in at three ounces.
And Booker said that medical marijuana patients could get their stash from the state -- an early plan considered by the Legislature that was never adopted. This he now admits was a mistake. "I put my foot in my mouth," he says.
Rogers denies that Question 9 is the first step toward outright legalization of marijuana, or of drugs in general, although he does admit that younger people are more amenable to the idea. "It's inevitable that this (legalization of small amounts of marijuana) is going to happen," he says. "I don't ever think you're going to see outright legalization."
Let's hope he's wrong. Booker claims that 30 percent of the fatal crashes prosecuted by his office involve marijuana, either alone or in combination with other drugs. Assuming he's accurate, it's clear that prohibition isn't working. A legalized, regulated market that cuts the profits from cartels could hardly be worse. Of course, laws against the use by minors, driving under the influence or public intoxication would still apply, as they do now to liquor.
But cartels funding Question 9? No one should be able to say that with a straight face. Gary Booker says he didn't.
But he did.
Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist.
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV)
Author: Steve Sebelius, Political Columnist
Published: Tuesday, October 08, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact: letters@lvrj.com
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/
Why You Don't Want To
Take George Soros's Money
October 29, 2003
Recent reports that mega-speculator George Soros is putting millions of dollars into funding think-tanks for the Democratic Party (Center for American Progress, and America Coming Together are two notable recipients), in a not-so-veiled effort to buy up the party, should raise the question: Just how does George Soros make his money? Years of investigation by LaRouche's associates have answered that question in grisly detail: Soros's money comes from impoverishment of the poor countries against whose currencies he speculates, and from deadly mind-destroying, terrorism-funding drugs.
We provide below a brief dossier on the low-lights of Soros's history of theft and drug-promotion.* If, after reading this, you still want to take Soros's money, at least have the decency to put the truth on your website: "I support drug-pushing. I'm pushing cocaine."
SOROS THE SPECULATOR:
Hungarian-born George Soros has been involved in financial speculation since the late 1960s, at which time he established the Quantum Fund, N.V., which manages the money of leading British and Swiss financiers, including the British Royal Household. The Quantum Fund is a private investment body called a hedge fund, which is headquartered in one of the leading centers of money-laundering internationally, the Netherland Antilles.
1990: With the opening of the East Bloc, Soros moves into Poland and Russia, with "advice" for devastating economic "shock therapy," to be administered by his associate, economist Jeffrey Sachs. Sachs' major claim to fame was his "rescue" of the Bolivian economy, by shutting down industry, and building up the cocaine trade.
1992: In this year, Soros's speculation made big news, as he pulled off major attacks on the currencies of Great Britain and Italy, after which he bragged about earning more than $1 billion by hurting the currencies of these nations.
1993: U.S. Congressman Henry Gonzalez (D-Texas) called for an investigation of Soros's manipulation of foreign exchange markets, including the possibility that the same measures used against Great Britain would be used against the United States.
1995: The manager of Soros's Management Fund, through which he controls the Quantum Fund, took out an ad in the U.S. press, which urged the Congress (then controlled by Newt Gingrich), to proceed with its budget cuts, despite the possibility of a budget impasse (train wreck), because such austerity was absolutely required for the financial markets.
1995: The Italian courts, in response to a legal brief by associates of LaRouche in Italy, launched an investigation of Soros's role in the speculative attack on the lira in 1992. The suit was dismissed in 1999.
1997: Soros's hedge funds launch a speculative attack against the Thai baht, in a move widely credited with triggering the great Asian financial crisis of 1997, which destroyed the economies of Indonesia, and many other nations.
SOROS THE DRUG PUSHER
1992-1994: Soros creates the Open Society Institute, and through that, both the Drug Policy Foundation and the Lindesmith Center, funneling more than $15 million for their activities, which focus heavily on changing drug laws, toward legalization.
1996: Ballot initiatives in favor of "medical marijuana" in California and Arizona, funded lavishly by Soros's front groups, are passed. These were the front end of a campaign that encompassed up to 25 states.
1997: Soros's Drug Policy Foundation pours money into a campaign to legalize euthanasia in Australia.
Meanwhile, in Ibero-America, Soros becomes a leading finacier of the drive to legalize cocaine. He bankrolls a meeting on Oct. 8-9, 1997 in the Colombian city of Medellin, for the purpose of pushing drug legalization, at the same time that Human Rights Watch/Americas, another major beneficiary of his funds, attacked the national forces deployed against the drug cartels as "human rights violators." It should be noted that the pro-drug guerrillas in Colombia are known to be bloody-thirsty kidnappers, and murderers, who terrorize the nation.
In the United States, Soros worked with the pro-drug Mayor of Baltimore Kurt Schmoke, to promote "progressive" drug policies, including needle-exchange programs. Soros "donated" $25 million to spreading illegal drugs in the city.
1998: Another Soros-related group, the Andean Council of Coca Leaf Producers, begins to carry out an armed revolt in Bolivia, under the banner "Coca or Death." The Council was established by a European group called Coca 95, whose chief financier was Soros, and whose directors call for free trade in every narcotic on the face of the earth: cocaine, heroin, marijuana and synthetics.
Soros's Lindesmith Center in June of this year, issues an Open Letter to Kofi Annan calling for a "truly open" dialogue on illegal drugs -- claiming that clamping down on them is worse than drug abuse itself, and demanding that legalization be put on the table.
2000: Soros moves both through Human Rights Watch, and direct funding of the Toledo Presidential campaign, to topple the successful anti-drug government of Alberto Fujimori in Peru. EIR forecasts that the new Soros-backed government will move to put anti-drug fighters in prison, and bring back the murderous Sendero Luminoso -- which it has done.
2001: In June, the Wall Street Journal gives major coverage to the decision by Soros, along with billionaires Peter Lewis and John Sperling, to kick in at least $10 million for the 2002 elections, where they will target Florida, Ohio, and Michigan for decriminalization referenda.
Soros also funds a drive for decriminalization of marijuana in Canada.
2002: Soros funded a referendum on the Nevada ballot, which called for the legalization of marijuana use, and would {mandate} that the state begin growing and retail distribution of the drug to anyone over 21 years of age. The effort was 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's 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.
* - For documentation on Soros's drug and money operations, and much more, see EIR's Special Report "The true story of Soros the Golem," from April 1997, and the website www.larouchepub.com.
-30-