Globe and Mail, 21 Oct 2010 – Early last year, David Meiler was a student at a community college in Buffalo, seeing only dead ends in the grim economy of upstate New York. So like many young people before him, he headed west, lured by a vision of a burgeoning industry. It wasn’t software, or green technology, or show business. It was marijuana. Thanks to a measure on November’s ballot, California is surprisingly close to becoming the first U.S. state to legalize recreational use of the drug. Mr. Meiler, 22, is one of the volunteers devoting his days to the cause. Indifferent toward politics until now, he has made more than 20,000 calls to voters in the last two months.