Beck's Blaze Gets Burned With Soros-inspired Drug War "Failure" Story

By Cliff Kincaid – June 3, 2011

It was a big story on Glenn Beck’s popular web site The Blaze: “New Report: ‘Global War on Drugs Has Failed’ and ‘Cannot be Won.’” The problem is that the report came from an organization funded in part by George Soros, the nemesis of Glenn Beck. One of Beck’s reporters posted a badly flawed Associated Press story about the report without exploring or even noting the Soros connection.

“The global war on drugs has failed and governments should explore legalizing marijuana and other controlled substances, according to a commission that includes former heads of state, a former U.N. secretary-general and a business mogul,” the story began.

The report in question came from the Global Commission on Drug Policy, funded by billionaire George Soros through his Open Society Foundation. Another financial supporter was Richard Branson, the billionaire founder and chairman of Virgin Group. The Soros link is mentioned on page 20 of the report.

However, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy was quick to respond, noting that drug use in America is half of what it was thirty years ago and that cocaine production in Colombia has dropped by almost two-thirds. The latter is because of U.S. support for a hard-line anti-communist government in Colombia that has militarily decimated communist terrorist narco-traffickers.

This White House response is evidence that the Obama Administration, which came into power determined to pursue a soft-on-drugs policy, has partly reversed course and is pushing back against a major item on the Soros agenda. 

Soros, labeled the 21st Century Lenin because of his global vision for transforming the world in his image, favors a system under which government and corporations would legalize, dispense and advertise hard drugs, much like tobacco or alcohol, and even supply addicts with needles and drug paraphernalia. As we pointed out in a report, “This campaign would be sold as an effort to reduce the harm associated with the criminal use of narcotics but it would undoubtedly increase the use of drugs and make more people, especially children, into drug addicts.”

The “harm reduction” ploy is in the report cited in the AP story.

In running the AP story about the Soros-funded commission and report, The Blaze fell for the latest ploy from the Soros-funded drug lobby, which wants people to believe that drugs ranging from marijuana to cocaine to heroin have to be legalized because the use of law enforcement against traffickers and users is a dead end.

In fact, law enforcement has worked, here and abroad, and some anti-drug activists believe a more aggressive policy is called for, especially in places like Mexico, where the deadly activities of drug cartels and gangs are spilling over the border.

This video from the Soros-funded DPA was featured on Glenn Beck's The Blaze. But Beck says that he is an opponent of Soros.

While the AP story included a few critical comments near the end, the Blaze went beyond this and even featured a video from Soros mouthpiece Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Soros-funded Drug Policy Alliance (DPA). He is listed on page 20 of the report as an adviser to the Global Commission on Drug Policy.  And his Drug Policy Alliance is listed as one of several “additional resources” for the commission.

Not surprisingly, the DPA featured a story about the report under the headline, “World Leaders Call for End to Drug War.” It features the same video that was on the Beck web site.

In short, Beck’s The Blaze got snookered by a Soros-funded group.  

Nadelmann is so notorious that he advises young people to be open about their marijuana smoking, saying, “Take the chance and come out of the closet about your drug use. The transformation in the way homosexuals are treated in the United States was due to the fact that they came out…Well, sixty or seventy million Americans have smoked marijuana. One day there should be a national tell-mom-and-dad-I-smoke-pot day! Or tell your kids! That type of thing can make a huge difference.”

As we noted in a 2004 report, “The Hidden Soros Agenda: Drugs, Money, the Media, and Political Power,” Soros’ long-time goal “has been to subvert the national anti-drug policy of the U.S. Government, to move away from the use of national and global law enforcement resources against the drug trade.  He calls this ‘harm reduction,’ meaning that criminal activity associated with the use of drugs will supposedly be reduced if the government takes over the drug trade and provides drugs and drug paraphernalia, including needles, to addicts. But law enforcement would still be required to keep drugs out of the hands of children.  If this is not the case, then Soros intends to allow substances such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin to be distributed to children.

“If Soros is able to capture the White House and implement his drug policy nationally, millions more people could be led to experiment with dangerous psychoactive substances and damage themselves, their families, and society.”

Blaze reporter Billy Hallowell told AIM that he merely posted the piece and that editor Scott Baker had been asked to look further into it in response to my email inquiry.

Fortunately, Fox News published a more balanced piece, under the headline, “White House Pushes Back on Report Declaring War on Drugs a Failure.” It began:

“The White House pushed back hard on a report set for release Thursday that will declare the global war on drugs a failure, saying the study is misguided and calls for policies that would only make the problem of drug addiction worse.”