Why the billionaire philosopher king of libertarian politics wants citizens united on federal cannabis legalization.
Billionaires
Depending on whom you ask, Charles Koch is a titan of industry, a dark-money political bogeyman or the Marcus Aurelius of the libertarian movement. But soon Koch might be best known as the billionaire who persuaded Republican and Democratic congressional holdouts to vote to legalize cannabis at the federal level. And it's not because he's a pothead.
The only time the 85-year-old chief executive of Koch Industries has consumed marijuana, he says, was by accident in the 1980s. He was helicopter-skiing in British Columbia, and après-ski, he and his friends enjoyed a few gin and tonics at dinner. For dessert, the chef brought out a plate of brownies. Koch ate one and after a while felt a little "loopy." He doesn't know who infused the sweets with pot, but he says he has known many successful friends--doctors, lawyers and other professionals--who have smoked marijuana.
Although Koch isn't big on consuming it himself, he's going public now with a long-held belief: Cannabis should be legal nationwide. So he's putting his name, and nearly $25 million of his $45 billion fortune, to influence criminal-justice reform and legalization. Brian Hooks, Koch's right-hand man, says that a good barometer to gauge what Koch and his network are eventually willing to spend is what they've already put toward these issues--some $70 million over the last two years.
"It should be the individual's choice," Koch says from his office in Koch Industries' sprawling granite compound in Wichita, Kansas. "[Prohibition] is counterproductive. It ruins people's lives, creates conflict in society and is anti-progress. The whole thing never made sense to me."
Nationally, marijuana has been outlawed in America since 1937--but the times, they've been a-changin'. To date, 37 states have legalized medical use, 18 now permit adult use, and some 70% of Americans now believe cannabis should be fully legal. Regardless of state laws, though, federal prohibition creates many problems: Cannabis companies are taxed at a punitive rate, have difficulty accessing the banking system and can't easily tap the public markets. Those are big handicaps for an industry that generated more than $17.5 billion in legal sales last year, a figure expected to balloon to $100 billion by 2030.
In July, Senators Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker and Ron Wyden, all Democrats from states that have legalized recreational use, introduced their long-awaited federal legalization bill. It remains a long shot, though. At least 10 Republican senators--and all 50 Senate Democrats--would need to vote yes, and Schumer admits he doesn't yet have the numbers. There's also the possibility of a veto: President Biden does not support legalization.
Sitting at his desk in front of an oil painting of his late father, Fred, who founded Koch Industries as an oil-and-gas company in 1940, Koch explains that as a staunch libertarian, he sees cannabis prohibition as a basic infringement on personal freedom, as well as destructive public policy that adds to America's mass-incarceration problem. The U.S. should have learned from the "nightmare" of alcohol prohibition a century ago, he says.
"By criminalizing [cannabis], it has huge negative manifestations, not only for the individuals who get trapped in that system, but for society," he says. "We want a society that empowers people to realize their potential and contribute, but with these laws you block out millions of people."
More than anything, Koch sees marijuana legalization as the beginning of the end of the federal war on drugs. Here, the modern philosopher king looks to a 19th-century French economist for wisdom. "For a law to be respected," Koch says, paraphrasing Frédéric Bastiat, "it must be respectable."
Koch and Weed
The billionaire has a question for anti-legalization politicians: "If you don't like marijuana, or don't like people doing that, and you have all these laws, how's that working out for you?"
High Finance
These eight billionaires have been on the frontlines of the cannabis revolution, whether by starting their own weed companies, agitating for legalization or lighting up on a livestream.
1. Jeff Bezos - Net worth: $208.3 billion
In June, before Bezos stepped down as Amazon's CEO, the company announced it would begin lobbying politicians to pass federal cannabis legalization.
2. Elon Musk - $161.3 billion
In 2018, Tesla's CEO famously smoked a blunt on Joe Rogan's podcast and tweeted that he was "considering taking Tesla private at $420," dog-whistling the marijuana holiday.
3. Bill Gates - $130.3 billion
In 2014, Microsoft's cofounder revealed that he had voted to legalize weed in his home state of Washington.
4. Dustin Moskovitz - $25 billion
The Facebook cofounder has supported legalization since 2010, when he donated $70,000 to an unsuccessful ballot initiative in California.
5. Beau Wrigley - $3.3 billion
The heir to the chewing gum fortune is the CEO of Parallel, a pot company that is going public via SPAC at a $1.8 billion valuation.
6. Sean Parker - $2.7 billion
The Napster cofounder and first president of Facebook donated millions to Proposition 64, a 2016 California ballot initiative that legalized recreational use in the Golden State.
7. Boris Jordan - $2.1 billion
The chairman of Curaleaf, one of the world's largest cannabis companies, became the first person to make a billion-dollar fortune from pot in 2019.
8. Jay-Z - $1.4 billion
The hip-hop mogul's high-end marijuana brand, Monogram, sells $50 premium hand-rolled joints.
Koch: Guerin Blask for Forbes; Getty Images
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