American billionaire and philanthropist George Soros has given a USD 1 M donation for a campaign, supporting legalization of marijuana in California, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The donation was made a week before California residents vote on a measure that would allow anyone over 21 to grow and posses small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

Soros has been a long time supporter of loosening the laws on marijuana. In 1996, he backed California for becoming the first US state to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

"Our marijuana laws are clearly doing more harm than good. The criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many other countries. But it did result in extensive costs and negative consequences," Soros said, as cited by the Wall Street Journal.

He has explained that law enforcement agencies spend billions of dollars trying to enforce "this unenforceable" prohibition. He added that the roughly 750,000 arrests every year for marijuana possession represent 40% of all drugs arrests.

According to the billionaire, legalizing marijuana would save taxpayers billions of dollars and would also reduce crime, violence and corruption.

"Police could focus on serious crimes instead," Soros said.

He pointed out that as many parents, he was concerned about the troubles young people could get themselves in over marijuana and other drugs use.

"The best solution, however, is honest and effective drug education. I'd much rather invest in effective education than ineffective arrest and incarceration," he said.