Sean Parker, billionaire philanthropist and former President of Facebook, has doubled his donation to the California Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA).
Campaign finance records show that Parker, who first put $500,000 toward AUMA earlier this year, has donated another half a million dollars in support of the bill.
If approved by voters, AUMA would legalize small amounts of cannabis in California for personal possession and use by adults 21 and older. Currently, the proposal’s supporters are collecting signatures to get it on the November ballot, and Parker just gave them a big boost.
Backers have given some $2.25 million in support of the proposal. Besides Parker’s million, money has been flowing in from WeedMaps and the Drug Policy Alliance, each of which gave $500,000, as well as $250,000 from Progressive Auto Insurance chairman Peter Lewis’s political action committee.
Parker has yet to say what his reasons are for putting $1 million behind the campaign, but AUMA’s backers aren’t complaining. AUMA now has more money on hand than did Proposition 19, the previous attempt to legalize cannabis in California. George Soros donated $1 million to Prop. 19 the week before it was voted on, but besides Soros, the only real funder behind the campaign was Oaksterdam University founder Richard Lee, who spent $1.9 million on it. In contrast, Oregon’s Measure 91 had almost $7 million behind it, or $5 per vote.
Although Parker’s reticence has only fueled the mistrust of some in the cannabis industry regarding AUMA, Anthony Johnson, the chief petitioner of Oregon’s Measure 91, says Californians should still get behind it.
“If it’s better than prohibition, you should support it,” he said.
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