California Drafting 2012 Ballot for Medical Marijuana

Advocates of medical marijuana in California said yesterday – Tuesday 25 October 2011 – that a 2012 ballot initiative is being drafted calling for state-wide regulation of the mushrooming medical marijuana business.

Included in the ballot-drafting team are those responsible for last years unsuccessful Proposition 19. Chancellor of the cannabis business school, Oaksterdam University, so central to Proposition 19, Dale Sky Jones, believes recent actions by federal enforcement agencies highlight the need for medical marijuana trade regulation.

Framework for the potential directive is still under consideration but there has been some discussion around the introduction of a Colorado-type system, with its state inspections and licensing of cannabis cultivators and providers.

Jones, who is chair of the Coalition for Cannabis Reform Policy is confident that the 47% of the electorate who supported Prop 19 would come on board in favor of state-wide regulation. However, Oaksterdam founder, Richard Lee, who bankrolled Proposition 19 to the tune of $1.5 million, will not be able to repeat his largesse.

We wrote recently about the hijacking of California’s medical marijuana trade by profiteers, a situation which has led to threats from federal authorities to evict dispensaries and cultivators from their properties. These threats have led Lynette Shaw, director of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, to call on the President to issue an executive order to stop these actions.

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong form the Los Angeles-Canadian comedy team Cheech and Chong. Their comedy derives from pot smoking, hippies, the free love movement, pop culture, incompetent leaders (particularly cops) and more pot smoking. Cheech Marin, a Mexican-American, was based in L.A. and Tommy Chong, the son of a Chinese truck driver and a Scots-Irish waitress, was born and lived in Canada.
Chong was originally the guitarist of the interracial R&B group Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers (formerly "Four Niggers and a Chink"), whose hit single "Does Your Mama Know About Me", was cowritten by Chong (it was inspired by Chong's Afro-Canadian ex-wife, Maxine, the mother of Rae Dawn and Robbi).
While attempting to turn a strip joint into a comedy club (including combining strippers and comedy routines), Chong met Cheech, who came to Canada to evade the draft, and the rest was history. Born Richard Marin, the stage name "Cheech" is short for "chicharron", a fried pork skin that is a popular snack in Mexican cuisine.
Cheech & Chong developed a crossover audience by opening for rock bands in gigs arranged by manager Lou Adler, who got them a Warner Bros. recording contract and a string of hit comedy albums. Some of their best-known bits included "Earache My Eye" (a novelty single featuring a skit and a song by Alice Bowie), "Basketball Jones" (sung in character by Cheech as an African-American basketball player, with appearances by George Harrison, Carole King, Billy Preston, and Tom Scott), "Santa Claus and His Old Lady" (in which Cheech tells a fractured version of Santa's origins), "Sister Mary Elephant" ("Class? Class—SHUT UP!!!"), and, in particular, "Dave", in which Cheech is trying to get inside the house after a successful drug transaction, but Chong, too stoned to realize who is outside, tells him "Dave's not here!"
Their success with live shows and albums was followed by a successful film career, beginning with Up In Smoke. However, Cheech felt that if he continued playing stoner roles, he wouldn't be taken seriously as an actor, leading to the duo's breakup, following more "experimental" efforts like The Corsican Brothers, which didn't feature any drug humor at all, and the video and album Get Out Of My Room, which focused primarily on comedy music (and, again, featured very little pot smoking).
Cheech had the most success as a solo actor, appearing in the series Nash Bridges, lending voice acting to Disney movies like The Lion King and Cars, and small roles in Robert Rodriguez movies like From Dusk Till Dawn (delivering a hilarious "pussy" speech trying to hustle people into the Tittie Twister bar), Spy Kids and Machete, and pretty much moving away from his former stoner image entirely. Chong, however, retained firmly in the stoner culture, and his film and TV roles were pretty limited, with his biggest solo success being his role in the series That '70s Show.
Attempts at a reunion were largely unsuccessful because the two comedians were unable to get along with each other for a very long time, and appearances together in Ferngully and South Park were done with their voices recorded separately. (Chong was also offered a part in The Lion King, but turned it down, and as a result, the character was changed into a female and the part was given to Whoopi Goldberg). Meanwhile, Chong and his wife, Shelby, toured as a team, and their routine included updated versions of Cheech and Chong bits.
Plans by Cheech and Chong to finally unite were halted when Chong was targeted by two American investigations code-named Operation Pipe Dreams and Operation Headhunter, which sought out businesses selling drug paraphernalia, mostly bongs, and was arrested and imprisoned for his son's "Chong Glass" company, which sold water pipes with Chong's likeness. These events were chronicled in the documentary a/k/a Tommy Chong. After Chong's release plans to reunite resumed, but the two still had trouble getting along with each other, and cancelled reunion plans.
Finally, in 2008, it was announced that the duo had resolved their issues with each other, and would officially reunite, and completed two tours in which they performed classic routines, updated routines, and new material. Shelby Chong performed standup as the duo's opening act. Cheech and Chong lent guest voices to an episode of The Simpsons and plan to make a sequel to Up in Smoke. In 2011, they did the voices of two of the Three Little Pigs in Hoodwinked Too: Hood versus Evil.

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