5Jan/100
The Best Chance Yet for Legalizing Marijuana, 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.