2012-10-25 Peter Lewis.A pot-loving billionaire joins the Giving Pledge

2012-10-25 Peter Lewis.A pot-loving billionaire joins the Giving Pledge


Peter Lewis, the 78-year old chairman of Progressive, is outspoken about his marijuana habit. He wants it legalized, and he's got a lot of money to fund that effort.
彼得·刘易斯，78 岁的 Progressive 公司主席，对他的吸食大麻习惯直言不讳。他希望大麻合法化，并且他有很多资金来支持这一努力。

FORTUNE -- In September, the number of signers of the Giving Pledge (founded by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates) grew by 11, to a new total of 92. That's impressive—92 billionaires each promising (some co-signing with their spouse) to give away at least half of their fortune to charity.
财富杂志——在九月份，加入“捐赠誓言”（由沃伦·巴菲特和比尔及梅琳达·盖茨创立）的签署者人数增加了 11 人，总数达到 92 人。这令人印象深刻——92 位亿万富翁每人承诺（有些与配偶共同签署）将至少一半的财富捐赠给慈善事业。

But forget about the raw numbers. The most interesting thing about the expanded list is one of its new members:  With the addition of Peter Benjamin Lewis, the 78-year-old chairman of Cleveland auto-insurer Progressive (PGR), this assembly of very rich and philanthropic souls got its most eccentric participant. Don't even think of proposing rivals: Nobody could touch Lewis.
但忘掉那些原始数字。扩展名单中最有趣的事情是其新成员之一：随着克利夫兰汽车保险公司 Progressive（PGR）78 岁的董事长彼得·本杰明·刘易斯的加入，这个由非常富有和慈善的人组成的集会迎来了最古怪的参与者。别想提出竞争对手：没有人能比得上刘易斯。

Partial proof of that comes with the fact that Lewis' Giving Pledge letter, posted on the campaign's website, calls for the legalization of marijuana. That's a first for the Giving Pledge, which normally mainstreams on education, health and the environment.
部分证据来自于刘易斯在该活动网站上发布的《捐赠誓言》信中呼吁大麻合法化。这是《捐赠誓言》的首次尝试，该誓言通常集中于教育、健康和环境。

But then this is the same Peter Lewis whose riotously uninhibited life Fortune described fully in a 1995 article called "Sex. Reefer? and Auto Insurance." While that title may offer a broad hint as to how Lewis faces the world, the subject gets absolutely pinned down by an anecdote in the article's second and third paragraphs, which we repeat.
但这正是彼得·刘易斯，他那放荡不羁的生活在 1995 年《财富》杂志的一篇名为《性、大麻和汽车保险》的文章中被详细描述。虽然这个标题可能对刘易斯如何面对世界提供了一个大致的暗示，但文章的第二和第三段中的一个轶事则完全揭示了这个主题，我们在此重述。

An investor admiring Progressive's financial success and just about ready to buy its stock pays a call on Lewis, suspecting him to be indispensable to the company. Getting immediately to his core concern, the investor says, "How's your health?"
一位投资者钦佩 Progressive 的财务成功，几乎准备购买其股票，他拜访了 Lewis，怀疑他对公司至关重要。直接切入核心问题，投资者问道：“你的健康状况如何？”

Lewis, then 61, answered in his amiable, straightforward way:  "Well, I really don't know because I don't believe in doctors. But No. 1, I feel fine. No. 2, I swim a mile every day. And No. 3, I'm single, so I get laid all the time."
刘易斯，当时 61 岁，用他和蔼、直率的方式回答：“嗯，我真的不知道，因为我不相信医生。但第一，我感觉很好。第二，我每天游一英里。第三，我是单身，所以我一直有性生活。”

This regimen—however ardently it was thereafter pursued—did not keep Lewis from having health problems. In 1998, he had to have part of his lower left leg amputated because of a congenital vascular problem. But that unhappy event becomes part of this story as well, because his pain management strategy in the wake of his operation was to rely on medical marijuana.
尽管此后他热切地遵循这一方案，但这并未阻止刘易斯出现健康问题。1998 年，由于先天性血管问题，他不得不截去左小腿的一部分。但这一不幸事件也成为这个故事的一部分，因为在手术后，他的疼痛管理策略是依靠医用大麻。

He has since forthrightly acknowledged both that fact and his long-time recreational use of marijuana besides. But that was a change: In 1995, when Fortune did its article, he was not yet ready for full disclosure.
自那以后，他坦率地承认了这一事实以及他长期以来的娱乐性大麻使用。但这是一种改变：1995 年，《财富》杂志撰写文章时，他还没有准备好完全披露。

We know that because Fortune heard rumors then of his marijuana use—"He is a functioning pothead," said a friend of his to this writer—and had to ask him straight out what the truth was. He was, after all, the CEO of an auto insurance company, for which various forms of addiction—like drugs—are certainly issues.
我们知道这一点是因为《财富》杂志当时听到了他使用大麻的传闻——“他是一个正常运作的瘾君子，”他的一个朋友对这位作者说——不得不直接问他真相是什么。毕竟，他是一家汽车保险公司的首席执行官，而各种形式的成瘾——比如毒品——肯定是个问题。

Here's what I said on the phone to Lewis, employing this particular question for the first time in my decades of reporting, "We have heard you are a user of marijuana? Is that correct?"
这是我在电话中对刘易斯说的话，这是我几十年来第一次使用这个特定问题进行报道：“我们听说你使用大麻？这是真的吗？”

Lewis answered, "I'm not going to comment." Later he called back to remind us that a "no comment" is not an affirmation.
刘易斯回答说：“我不予置评。”后来他回电提醒我们，“不予置评”并不等于肯定。

But, still, he could have said "no" when we asked--and he didn't. Even so, we put that question mark behind the word "reefer" in the headline.
但是，当我们询问时，他本可以说“不”——但他没有。即便如此，我们在标题中“reefer”这个词后面加上了问号。

We needn't have bothered, though it took several years to make that crystal-clear. In 2000, drug-sniffing dogs at Auckland, New Zealand's airport detected cannabis in Lewis' briefcase as he arrived in the country to watch the America's Cup regatta. He was arrested, but was released after pleading guilty and giving $53,000 to Odyssey House, a drug-rehabilitation center.
我们本不必费心，尽管花了好几年才弄得一清二楚。2000 年，纽西兰奥克兰机场的缉毒犬在刘易斯的公文包中发现了大麻，当时他刚抵达该国观看美洲杯帆船赛。他被逮捕，但在认罪并向奥德赛之家（一个戒毒康复中心）捐赠了 53,000 美元后被释放。

News stories about that event pretty much eliminated any reluctance Lewis had about publicly discussing this subject he once ducked. Today, he is not only outspoken about his use of marijuana but also zealous in working to see its sale legalized. His compatriots in that drive have sometimes included investor George Soros and University of Phoenix founder John Sperling (neither a member of the Giving Pledge).
关于那次事件的新闻报道几乎消除了刘易斯对公开讨论这个他曾经回避的话题的任何顾虑。如今，他不仅直言不讳地谈论自己使用大麻的经历，还热衷于推动其销售合法化。在这项运动中，他的同伴有时包括投资者乔治·索罗斯和凤凰城大学创始人约翰·斯珀林（两人都不是“捐赠誓言”的成员）。

But this year Lewis has been the biggest name by far in backing marijuana initiatives that will be voted on in two states. In Massachusetts—where Lewis has given $1.4 million to the cause—the proposal is simply to legalize the sale of medical marijuana. Washington's initiative, which Lewis has backed with $1.5 million, goes further, proposing to legalize the sale of marijuana to anyone 21 or older. The fate of both initiatives is uncertain.
但今年，刘易斯在支持将于两个州投票的大麻倡议中是迄今为止最大的名字。在马萨诸塞州——刘易斯为此捐赠了 140 万美元——提案只是为了合法化销售医用大麻。刘易斯以 150 万美元支持的华盛顿倡议则更进一步，提议将大麻销售合法化给任何 21 岁或以上的人。这两个倡议的命运尚不确定。

Meanwhile, Lewis' pledge letter on the Giving Pledge website stands out even before he gets to marijuana because of an assertion he makes that other people may feel is correct but don't often state: "Philanthropy," he says, "is an unnatural act that must be learned and practiced."
与此同时，刘易斯在“捐赠誓言”网站上的承诺信即使在他谈到大麻之前就已经引人注目，因为他做出了一项其他人可能觉得正确但不常说的断言：“慈善，”他说，“是一种不自然的行为，必须学习和实践。”

He moves on to specify—definitely staying in character here—that he likes giving to philanthropies that are "totally honest and open about their intentions."
他继续具体说明——这里绝对保持角色——他喜欢捐赠给那些“对其意图完全诚实和开放”的慈善机构。

And a bit later comes what we will dub, in this election season, the Weed Party platform: "If there is one area," says Lewis, "that is taboo for most philanthropists yet exemplifies disastrous public policy, it is our nation's outdated, ineffective marijuana laws. A majority of Americans are ready to change marijuana laws, yet we continue to arrest our young people for engaging in an activity that is utterly commonplace.  I have funded much of the movement to enact laws that give patients access to marijuana as relief for pain and nausea—and have made no secret of being one of those patients myself, using marijuana to help with pain following the amputation of my lower leg."
稍后，在这个选举季节，我们将其称为“杂草党”纲领：“如果有一个领域，”刘易斯说，“对大多数慈善家来说是禁忌的，但却是灾难性公共政策的典范，那就是我们国家过时且无效的大麻法律。大多数美国人已经准备好改变大麻法律，但我们仍然继续逮捕我们的年轻人，因为他们从事一种完全普遍的活动。我资助了许多运动，以制定法律，让患者可以使用大麻来缓解疼痛和恶心——并且毫不掩饰自己也是这些患者之一，在截去小腿后使用大麻来帮助缓解疼痛。”

Lewis signs off soon after that, in a soulful way that recalls the 1960s. "Take care of yourself. Stay well and happy. Joy, Love and Peace. Peter B. Lewis."
刘易斯在那之后不久就以一种让人想起 20 世纪 60 年代的深情方式结束了。“照顾好自己。保持健康和快乐。快乐、爱与和平。彼得·B·刘易斯。”

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