… Another prostitution bust in Old Town … four men arrested …

on the cover  / By Hank Sims

General Lee

Can Oaksterdam weed magnate Richard Lee push legalization over the top?

One day last month, Richard Lee was able to snatch a few minutes of freedom from the chaos of his daily life at his Oaksterdam University, the centerpiece of Oakland’s marijuana district. In the previous 15 minutes he had checked the enrollment figures for a growing workshop he was scheduled to teach that weekend, made a snap decision about some future students who said they were promised reduced tuition and had his photo taken for High Times magazine, constantly consulting with his assistant while rolling around the aisles on two floors of his flagship business.

Finally he came to rest in an upstairs conference room with windows looking out over Broadway, and there he sparked up a joint. A lanky, clean-cut Texan with nerdy wireframe glasses, technically 47 years of age, Lee has gotten around on a wheelchair since he suffered a spinal cord injury 20 years ago. It seems to have slowed him down not at all. Between puffs, he spoke in the drawl of his native state about his most ambitious political brainchild — the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010,” also known as Proposition 19, which, if voters approve it in November, would end marijuana prohibition in the state of California.

Lee mused about the vocal opposition his initiative has received to date, which has come in two forms. Naturally the religious right, and associated hardcore law & order types, stand opposed to legalization. More surprisingly, though, some big-name figures in the medical marijuana movement, such as San Francisco’s Dennis Peron, stand against the measure on the grounds that government would have a role in regulating the marijuana trade. Lee couldn’t help but marvel at these erstwhile allies.

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