Down for the Cause is Bruce Margolin's memoir, covering his career as the "dean of cannabis law" and as an ardent advocate for the decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. He has been "down for the cause" since the heyday of the 1960s in Los Angeles, when he quickly became well known for defending those who didn't "just say no" and keeping them out of jail and prison. Bruce struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia, but his older brother had wanted to be a lawyer and when he died at an early age from leukemia, Bruce took up the mantle. His father's untimely death also made Bruce seek out the answers to the deeper questions of life. To explore his search for meaning, Bruce left his booming law practice to travel, winding up in India where he met Ram Dass (whose book, Be Here Now, had a profound impact on him) and Ram Dass's (and his) guru, Neem Karoli Baba, who touched his heart deeply. When Bruce returned to the West, he brought to his law practice a spirituality based on the Vedic concept of dharma (right living) mixed with the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam (the "repair of the world"), and a regular meditation practice. He was called upon to defend Dr. Timothy Leary, the Pied Piper of LSD, in the trial that followed his escape from prison. It was a valiant attempt to bring the concept of the punishment fitting the crime to the forefront of America's attention, as Leary had originally been sentenced to ten years for simple possession of a small amount of marijuana. As the founder and director of the Los Angeles chapter of NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), Bruce ran for political office a number of times in order to promote the idea of legalization, and came close to winning. In Down for the Cause, Bruce shows how legalization, in all its complexity, was finally accomplished in his home state of California.