Blame George Soros for the pot stench ruining America’s cities and addicting her citizens by Rachel Ehrenfeld
A major part of billionaire activist and philanthropist George Soros’s legacy will be the decriminalization of drug use in America.
In the early 1990s, at the height of the crack epidemic, it was Soros who funded “harm reduction” clinics to distribute drug pipes as part of “safe smoking kits.” Similar “safe user kits” were made available to addicts in 2022 via the Biden administration’s crusade to enable illicit drug consumption throughout America.
In 1994, shortly after Soros established his Open Society Institute in Manhattan, the mega pollical philanthropist decided to test the American criminal justice system and undermine the public’s resolve to maintain long-held attitudes and moral values. The savvy speculator selectively targeted criminal laws that governed the use of illicit drugs. At the time, using illegal substances was deemed unacceptable by 90% of Americans. But the crafty Soros anticipated that Americans’ attitudes would change once marijuana was legalized, and many would be willing to use drugs. He was right.
In three decades, Soros had managed to flip Americans’ views completely. A Pew Research Center survey in November 2022 found that 88% of the U.S. population supported the legalization of marijuana. His stunningly successful propaganda claimed that the enforcement of laws prohibiting the abuse of dangerous drugs caused “more harm than the drugs themselves.” In 1995, he acknowledged that “Some drugs are addictive,’ but falsely proclaimed “others, like marijuana, are not.”
Using illegal substances was once deemed unacceptable by 90% of Americans. But Soros anticipated that Americans’ attitudes would change once marijuana was legalized, and many would be willing to use drugs. He was right.
In 2021, a National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) survey found that more than 52.5 million Americans used marijuana, with higher potency of its mind-altering compound THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). Millions more joined during COVID pandemic lockdowns, as the illicit drug businesses suffered no supply shortages.
As the number of addicts soared, at least 16.3 million Americans were diagnosed with “cannabis use disorder.” And many studies link chronic marijuana use with a higher risk of lung cancer, heart attacks, and other diseases, especially among an aging population. To date, there is no medication to treat marijuana addiction.
Advancing Soros’s agenda obviously necessitated changes in federal and state statutes. Instead of lobbying Congress to relax existing laws, Soros invested millions of dollars in developing pro-drug organizations, purportedly promoting “more effective approaches to the nation’s drug problem.”
Soros and a few other billionaires shrewdly targeted California and Arizona, which had a rich history of drug abuse and a sizable number of drug users. So much money was dumped into this offensive that Joseph Califano, Jr., the Clinton Administration’s drug czar, furiously dubbed Soros the “Daddy Warbucks of drug legalization.”
As if turning the U.S. into a drug haven was not enough, Soros had to be giddy when discovering that New York City had been crowned the global capital of marijuana use.
The Center for Advancing Health (CFAH) “World Drug Report, 2022” named New York City as the world’s top consumer of marijuana. The CFAH drew statistics from the 2022 World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to show that New Yorkers consumed 62.3 metric tons of marijuana valued at nearly $8 billion. At an average cost of $12.50 per gram, regular users were spending at least $300 every day.
However, in contrast to Soros’s propaganda that legalizing drugs would eliminate markets for illegal substances–thus curbing drug-related crime–today’s black and gray markets have become the primary beneficiaries of exploding demand for marijuana, mostly purchased from bourgeoning illicit shops, depriving states billions of dollars in tax revenues.
Moreover, the growing consumption of marijuana is contributing to skyrocketing healthcare costs. The drug often contains toxic chemicals–E. coli, methamphetamines, and other narcotics, including deadly fentanyl—sickening many consumers and increasing overdosing. While Soros and his pro-legalization movement pooh-poohed NIDA’s 2014 warning that “More than half of new illicit drug users begin with marijuana,” the rising number of drug addicts throughout the country has increased homelessness, health hazards, and crime that, together with the nauseating stench that dominates small and big city streets are driving away tourists, businesses, and residents.
A major side effect of THC, the active chemical component in cannabis, not only affects the human mind. It also causes obesity. THC increases the level of hunger-regulating hormones, acting as an excellent appetite stimulant. While this helps strengthens critically ill patients, it causes regular users to overeat and rapidly gain weight. According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey, between 2017 and 2020 (prior to COVID lockdowns), at least 42% of Americans were obese. Various restrictions imposed by the grossly mishandled COVID epidemic contributed to higher levels of obesity across the U.S. population. Americans who also added marijuana to their diet saw their weight increase even more–and hastened their own morbidity.
Today, cannabis is legal in 37 states and Washington D.C., and there is growing pressure on Congress to legalize this mind-altering, dangerous drug because it would generate billions of dollars in revenues nationwide.
The success of Soros’s efforts to make the once unthinkable acceptable and legal probably exceeded his wildest expectations. He may be slightly disappointed since he only managed to legalize marijuana, not all drugs. But knowing that his son and heir Alexander, continues to wage a robust all drugs-legalization campaign is reason enough to sit back and celebrate with an extra bong.
*Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the American Center for Democracy, is the author of “The Soros Agenda.”
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