Source: Skagit Valley Herald Section: Front page article. Pubdate: Tuesday, Oct. 7, 1997. Contact: email: Skagit Valley Herald, 1000 E. College Way, Mount Vernon, WA 98273 Website: http://www.newswest.com/svherald/ Comment: LTE's 200 words Max. Mount Vernon, WA Medicinal druguse measure gets boost Billionaire donates $335,000 to effort for Initiative 685 (Washington State) By Hunter T. George, Associated Press Writer OLYMPIA(WA)An international financier dubbed the "Daddy Warbucks of drug legalization" has contributed $335,000 to the campaign for a ballot initiative aimed at rewriting Washington's (state) drug policies. The contribution to Initiative 685 from New York billionaire George Soros, who has pledged to give $15 million over the next five years to groups opposing America's war on drugs, coincided with the campaign's first venture onto the airwaves. Initiative 685 would legalize possession of marijuana, heroin and other similar drugs by seriously and terminally ill patients who have received written recommendations from at least two doctors. It also would change sentencing policies to require treatment rather than prison time for nonviolent drug crimes, a change that could result in the early release of 300 felons serving time for drug possession. And, it would require that anyone convicted of a violent crime while under the influence of drugs serve a full prison sentence. Dr. Rob Killian, the initiative's chief sponsor, said Soros' money will help pay for new radio and television ads designed to convince voters that the war is over and the other side won. "Initiative 685 is about putting medicine and compassion before politics," Killian says in a new radio ad. "The politics of the socalled war on drugs must not get in the way of relieving human suffering." The ads don't mention the potential use of drugs besides marijuana, such as heroin, and they don't mention that felons may be released from prison. Soros' contribution yesterday puts Killian's campaign coffers over the $1 million mark. Nearly every penny has come from three outofstate sources: Soros, Cleveland insurance executive Peter Lewis and Phoenix businessman John Sperling. Critics, led by Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, say Washington's ballot is being used as a pawn by three wealthy men whose only interest is in liberalizing national drug policies. Opponents have reported raising about $50,000 so far, including $10,000 apiece from Boeing and Microsoft. "We don't have a sugar daddy," Betty Sembler, a Floridabased antidrug activist and Vice president of DARE America Worldwide, said yesterday. Soros is a currency trader who was criticized last month by the prime minister of Malaysia, who blamed Soros for Southeast Asia's terrible stock losses this summer. Joseph Califano, a former federal health secretary, has called Soros the "daddy Warbucks" of drug legalization. But Soros has said he does not support legalizing drugs. He says they are practically impossible to outlaw, so he believes it would be smarter to reduce the harm that drug users cause themselves. He says he has spent more than $90 million in recent years to promote less severe drug laws, needle exchange programs for addicts and research to reduce the number of people in jail. Soros, whose philanthropy has supported democratic movements in Eastern Europe and Asia, also helped fund ballot initiatives last year that let California and Arizona voters approve the medicinal use of marijuana.