Oakland civil law attorney Jim Wheaton writes laws for lay-people. Over the last couple of decades, he’s written a handful of so-called “ballot initiatives” — contentious laws the the public votes on directly, doing a wildcat end-run around the entire legislative process. Most of them fail, but when they pass, oh boy. Prop. 13 locked in property taxes, thereby destroying California’s tax base. Prop. 215 made marijuana medicine. And Prop. 8 told gays where they could shove marriage. (Not a happy place.) Although Wheaton didn’t write any of those props, his latest work — the legal text of the Tax Cannabis 2010 initiative — promises to change the face of California law just as much as they did. Everyone has their take on this November’s ballot initiative, but let’s cut the crap and talk to the guy who wrote it.
FOLLOW US