The Best Chance Yet for Legalizing Marijuana

Posted by Raymond on January 4, 2010

From Alternet:

Tax Cannabis 2010 faces hurdles as it prepares for its test on the California ballot next November.

It’s Dec. 14 and news that the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 has qualified for the California ballot next year has just exploded in time for the evening news cycle. I am sitting on a sofa in a nearly empty room at Oaksterdam University, filing an update to my scoop for AlterNet and waiting for a chance to speak more at length with Richard Lee, the man behind the measure.

For the better part of an afternoon I’ve observed — and waited for — Lee and his staff as they ably handle a flurry of calls from the media before disappearing into a campaign strategy meeting. It’s now dark out over downtown Oakland, as Oaksterdam students gather on the sidewalk after class.

The door opens and Lee parks his wheelchair, softly lands on the couch, and starts breaking up a bit of weed for a toke. After lucrative years in the advertising and marketing industry, he has reestablished himself as a pot entrepreneur and transformed a large sliver of downtown Oakland into Oaksterdam. As a major proponent of professionalizing the marijuana industry — Oaksterdam University is probably his biggest project in this effort — today is a big day for Lee. “It’s not a petition anymore, it’s an initiative,” he says with a grin, as he lights his joint.

While the campaign won’t submit the nearly 700,000 signatures it collected in two short months until February (and then must wait 90 days for official confirmation of their inclusion on the November ballot), the people behind Tax Cannabis are preparing to move onto the next stage. And they do so with a degree of fanfare. Last year brought an onslaught of positive coverage of marijuana by the mainstream media. Every outlet from Fortune to Newsweek, from Rachel Maddow to CBS Morning, has dedicated ink or airtime to the subject of cannabis reform, aiding in the normalization of the most commonly used, least toxic illicit substance in America.

[Read more at Alternet]