Legalizing Marijuana to Be on Ballot for Californians

March 28, 2010— -- Richard Lee is a well-known businessman in Oakland, Calif. His business is marijuana -- and it is booming.

From his coffee house selling medical marijuana, to his trade school for marijuana growers, Oaksterdam University, Lee employs 58 people and pays hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in taxes.

But last week, Lee achieved what is arguably his biggest success yet, after California's secretary of state ruled that his campaign to make marijuana legal had gathered enough signatures to place the issue before voters this November.

"I've always thought since I grew up in the '70s that cannabis prohibition is unjust and hypocritical," Lee said.

The initiative would allow adults 21 or older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana for personal use. It also would allow the growing of up to 25 square feet of marijuana per residence.

If the ballot measure is approved, California would become the first state to allow the recreational use of pot. It is likely to be a fierce campaign.

Lee, a 47-year-old taciturn transplant from Texas, spent $1 million from his marijuana businesses -- all of them legal -- on the petition drive that got the referendum on the ballot.

And now he hopes to raise $20 million for the fall campaign. He's being advised by some well-known political strategists, most notably Chris Lehane, who worked in the White House under President Bill Clinton and was a top operative in Al Gore's 2000 presidential race

"We're starting radio commercials Monday in Los Angeles and the Bay Area and we have over 100,000 friends of Facebook," Lee said. "We're raising money from all over the United States on the Internet because people know this is a national issue and it starts in California."

But opponents are mobilizing, too.

Pastor Ron Allen of Sacramento is one of the leaders of a coalition of cops and clergy who say legalizing marijuana will lead to the use of harder drugs and only cause more problems for society.

For Allen, this is also a personal crusade. He was a crack cocaine addict for seven years, and he says it all started with marijuana.

Passage "would devastate California to the fullest extent. ... This is the worst thing that California could ever try to do," Allen said.