WEBVTT - The Devil Weed 0:00:08.245 --> 0:00:13.205 School of Humans. Do you want to join me here? 0:00:13.205 --> 0:00:16.485 Whence you be seated, please, Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, 0:00:16.525 --> 0:00:19.525 I would like to summarize for you the meeting that 0:00:19.605 --> 0:00:22.005 I have just had with the bipartisan leaders, which began 0:00:22.045 --> 0:00:25.885 at eight o'clock and was completed two hours later. I 0:00:26.005 --> 0:00:29.165 began the meeting by making this statement, which I think 0:00:29.205 --> 0:00:33.085 needs to be made to the nation. America's public enemy 0:00:33.205 --> 0:00:38.605 number one in the United States is drug abuse. In 0:00:38.725 --> 0:00:41.645 order to fight and defeat this enemy, it is necessary 0:00:41.685 --> 0:00:51.805 to wage a new, all out offensive. Depending on your 0:00:51.845 --> 0:00:54.325 age or interest in history, that voice and speech may 0:00:54.325 --> 0:00:57.205 sound familiar to you. This is a press conference with 0:00:57.325 --> 0:01:01.965 President Richard Nixon, also known as Tricky Dickey. Nixon was 0:01:02.005 --> 0:01:04.645 elected president in nineteen sixty eight, and in June of 0:01:04.765 --> 0:01:09.525 seventy one, Nixon declares public enemy number one drug abuse. 0:01:10.525 --> 0:01:13.085 Drugs and the people who distribute them are the most 0:01:13.365 --> 0:01:20.205 dangerous enemies to the public. The war on drugs has begun. Now, 0:01:20.285 --> 0:01:23.445 drugs are put into categories based on how dangerous they 0:01:23.445 --> 0:01:28.125 are thought to be LSD and pot. The foundations of 0:01:28.125 --> 0:01:32.445 the psychedelic Revolution of the nineteen sixties are considered the 0:01:32.485 --> 0:01:38.965 most Dangerous Schedule one. So Nixon increases federal funding for 0:01:39.085 --> 0:01:44.005 drug control agencies and proposes super strict measures like mandatory 0:01:44.045 --> 0:01:48.445 prison sentencing for drug crimes. Nixon also creates the d EA, 0:01:48.645 --> 0:01:53.045 the Drug Enforcement Administration in nineteen seventy three. And in 0:01:53.085 --> 0:01:55.405 the middle of it all is my dad building up 0:01:55.445 --> 0:02:00.685 his smuggling business in Marine County, California. This is disorganized crime. 0:02:00.925 --> 0:02:12.165 I'm your host, Rainbow Valentine do Young, free and groovy, 0:02:13.805 --> 0:02:26.005 making it up. We rolled along, rolling along far Country, 0:02:26.445 --> 0:02:32.725 the Golden Ganging Dot, New York State, making it up 0:02:33.005 --> 0:02:46.565 as we roll. It's the summer of nineteen seventy three 0:02:47.365 --> 0:02:50.005 and we are living in Mill Valley. You're nestled in 0:02:50.045 --> 0:02:55.565 the red wood. Just a hot producer tip. When you 0:02:55.605 --> 0:02:59.365 blow your nose, put some space between the storytelling and 0:02:59.365 --> 0:03:02.405 the nose blowing so I can cut it out. I 0:03:02.445 --> 0:03:06.885 didn't even think about That's why, ah, Dad. One day 0:03:06.925 --> 0:03:11.085 we'll figure out how to record perfectly. So in nineteen 0:03:11.125 --> 0:03:13.965 seventy one, when Nixon declares the war on drug dealers 0:03:13.965 --> 0:03:16.725 and drug abuse, my dad has been living with my 0:03:16.765 --> 0:03:19.605 mom and her small daughter, Vertica for a while, taking 0:03:19.645 --> 0:03:22.445 on the role of father and he needs to start 0:03:22.485 --> 0:03:25.885 providing for his new family. Anyway, I needed to make money. 0:03:25.925 --> 0:03:28.965 I wanted to make money, and so I started doing 0:03:30.405 --> 0:03:33.845 smaller time deals ten pounds of this or twenty pounds 0:03:33.845 --> 0:03:35.605 of that or whatever. And so if you're doing it's 0:03:35.645 --> 0:03:39.485 quite a small time selling a satchel here, say it, right, 0:03:39.885 --> 0:03:42.045 you know, a box full of ten pounds of this 0:03:42.285 --> 0:03:45.645 or and you'd sell it? Announces maybe, no, never, I 0:03:45.685 --> 0:03:48.245 didn't do that, but I would sell at least a 0:03:48.325 --> 0:03:51.725 pound that. It's you're still sort of larger. You're never small, right. 0:03:52.285 --> 0:03:54.685 He goes over to a dealer's house who is the 0:03:54.725 --> 0:03:57.485 boyfriend of one of my mom's North Beach belly dancer 0:03:57.565 --> 0:04:00.485 friends from the early sixties. Now, this guy sells pot, 0:04:00.525 --> 0:04:04.645 acid coke. He's a reasonable sized dealer. My dad's at 0:04:04.685 --> 0:04:06.965 his house and he and a bunch of other smuggler 0:04:07.005 --> 0:04:10.085 type guys and music guys are playing cards when and 0:04:10.285 --> 0:04:12.925 there's a knock on the door, and all of a sudden, well, 0:04:12.965 --> 0:04:17.765 these cops come busting in. So they arrest me, along 0:04:17.805 --> 0:04:25.205 with everybody else, and my dad has a gram of 0:04:25.245 --> 0:04:28.285 coke in the pocket of his sergeant Pepperesque jacket, which 0:04:28.325 --> 0:04:31.205 was a gift from the film producers of Alice's Restaurant, 0:04:31.565 --> 0:04:34.405 Arlo Guthrie's nineteen sixty nine cult classic that my Dad 0:04:34.445 --> 0:04:38.565 was an extra. Luckily, the coat is hanging on the rack, 0:04:39.045 --> 0:04:41.685 so when it's seized by the cops, my dad is 0:04:41.725 --> 0:04:46.885 literally not in possession of any drugs. Dad sacrifices his 0:04:47.005 --> 0:04:50.445 precious coat in exchange for freedom, and to this day, 0:04:50.445 --> 0:04:52.965 he still misses it and I always look for it 0:04:52.965 --> 0:04:56.765 in the San Francisco thrift's stores. My dad and the 0:04:56.805 --> 0:04:58.805 rest of the gang are hauled down to the jailhouse, 0:04:58.925 --> 0:05:00.565 but the cops let him go with a warning that 0:05:00.565 --> 0:05:02.845 he'll get a summons. Says he didn't have any drugs 0:05:02.885 --> 0:05:05.645 directly on him. He was just hanging out with a 0:05:05.725 --> 0:05:10.085 drug dealer, and luckily Dad and I former filmmaker and 0:05:10.205 --> 0:05:12.965 candlemaker from New York, was in a relationship with one 0:05:12.965 --> 0:05:16.205 of the most well connected people in San Francisco, my mom. 0:05:17.885 --> 0:05:21.485 My mom was a quiet, beautiful powerhouse in the inner 0:05:21.525 --> 0:05:24.845 circle of the San Francisco music scene. At this point, 0:05:24.965 --> 0:05:28.525 she's a jeweler for San Francisco rock Stars. She knew 0:05:28.565 --> 0:05:31.245 everyone in the San Francisco sixty scene. From the rock 0:05:31.325 --> 0:05:34.445 stars to the smugglers, to the lawyers, because all she 0:05:34.525 --> 0:05:38.845 knew was huge time lawyers. She didn't know he's small time. No, no, 0:05:38.965 --> 0:05:42.485 she didn't, right, she knew all these guys, these guys 0:05:42.805 --> 0:05:48.605 who represented yeah, smugglers busted for five thousand pounds of 0:05:48.725 --> 0:05:52.445 pot or whatever it was, or this or that. Now, 0:05:52.485 --> 0:05:54.925 even though he got off, this arrest taught my dad 0:05:55.045 --> 0:05:58.165 an important lesson. If he was going to be a smuggler, 0:05:58.405 --> 0:06:00.965 he had to start taking it much more seriously and 0:06:01.085 --> 0:06:03.925 become a true professional, you know, and now and talking 0:06:03.965 --> 0:06:07.085 about it, I could say, Okay, you've been You've given 0:06:07.165 --> 0:06:11.965 up your child stuff. I was conscious enough to learn 0:06:12.045 --> 0:06:16.325 to be aware and cautious about parts of things. Getting 0:06:16.365 --> 0:06:19.925 busted is a smuggler's worst nightmare, and in the early 0:06:19.965 --> 0:06:23.525 seventies it becomes a much more common experience because Nixon 0:06:23.565 --> 0:06:28.005 has declared drugs public Enemy number one. Remember, just a 0:06:28.045 --> 0:06:32.085 few years ago, LST was perfectly legal, but now busting 0:06:32.165 --> 0:06:37.725 drugs and smugglers is an American priority. They are the enemy. 0:06:37.765 --> 0:06:41.725 In order to defeat this enemy, which is causing such 0:06:41.805 --> 0:06:45.725 great concern, and correctly so, to so many American families, 0:06:46.365 --> 0:06:50.845 money will be provided to the extent that it is necessary, 0:06:50.885 --> 0:06:56.285 under the extent that it will be useful. The criminalization 0:06:56.365 --> 0:06:59.205 of pot has a very long and very deliberate history. 0:06:59.805 --> 0:07:02.165 It started in the early nineteen thirties at the end 0:07:02.205 --> 0:07:05.885 of alcohol prohibition, and it leads to today when pot 0:07:05.925 --> 0:07:10.485 is categorized as a Schedule one drug. Schedule one drugs 0:07:10.525 --> 0:07:13.805 are substances, chemicals, and drugs that are defined as drugs 0:07:13.805 --> 0:07:18.045 with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential 0:07:18.125 --> 0:07:24.645 for abuse. Incredibly, cocaine and methamphetamine also known as crystal meth, 0:07:24.965 --> 0:07:34.365 are Scheduled two. One of the leading experts on the 0:07:34.405 --> 0:07:37.725 history of pot criminalization is my dad's friend, Bill Panzer. 0:07:37.965 --> 0:07:40.805 Bill Panzer has practiced law in California for over twenty 0:07:40.805 --> 0:07:43.245 five years and has been my dad's go to pot 0:07:43.245 --> 0:07:46.925 attorney since his longtime attorney, civil rights activist Bernie Siegel, 0:07:47.045 --> 0:07:50.965 passed away. Cannabis has been used, you know, for five 0:07:51.005 --> 0:07:54.965 thousand years, at least met medicinally, and in this country. 0:07:55.045 --> 0:07:59.325 What happened was, you know, we had alcohol prohibition in 0:07:59.325 --> 0:08:03.445 the nineteen twenties, and when that got repealed, there was 0:08:03.485 --> 0:08:06.205 a guy named Harry Anslinger who had been working on 0:08:06.245 --> 0:08:10.245 alcohol prohibition for the federal government helping to enforce alcohol prohibition, 0:08:11.285 --> 0:08:15.765 and when that was repealed, he was appointed head of 0:08:15.805 --> 0:08:18.525 the Bureau of Narcotics, which is the forerunner of today's 0:08:18.565 --> 0:08:23.485 DA Viewer of Narcotics. As a small, little federal agency, 0:08:24.405 --> 0:08:27.925 didn't have much of budget, didn't have much power, and 0:08:28.005 --> 0:08:31.205 he basically wanted to have a job for himself, so 0:08:31.325 --> 0:08:36.165 he decided that since alcohol prohibition been repealed, he was 0:08:36.245 --> 0:08:40.085 going to go after cannabis when alcohol is re legalized. 0:08:40.205 --> 0:08:44.045 This guy, Harry Anslinger, the former prohibition enforcer, was probably 0:08:44.045 --> 0:08:47.085 concerned about his job security and he purportedly starts spreading 0:08:47.245 --> 0:08:50.565 fictional stories about pot, allegedly with the help of William 0:08:50.645 --> 0:08:54.685 Randolph Hurst, the newspaper baron and purveyor of yellow journalism, 0:08:55.045 --> 0:09:00.205 which is journalism based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration. Now, 0:09:00.245 --> 0:09:03.845 according to many historians, billionaire Hurst was on board to 0:09:03.885 --> 0:09:07.645 help spread lies about pot all things pot related because 0:09:07.925 --> 0:09:11.525 Hurst had invested heavily in the timber industry in order 0:09:11.565 --> 0:09:15.285 to make his newspapers, and hemp fiber was proving to 0:09:15.325 --> 0:09:17.765 be more durable and a cheaper way to make paper 0:09:17.925 --> 0:09:21.885 than timber. Not cool for timber investments. So he and 0:09:21.925 --> 0:09:26.645 his newspapers allegedly become instrumental in spreading graphic, histrionic, murder 0:09:26.765 --> 0:09:30.845 rape stories about cannabis. These high school boys and girls 0:09:30.885 --> 0:09:34.445 are having a hop at the local soda fountain. Innocently, 0:09:34.565 --> 0:09:38.885 they dance, innocent of a new and deadly menace lurking 0:09:38.965 --> 0:09:45.045 behind closed doors, marijuana, the burning weed when its roots 0:09:45.205 --> 0:09:49.845 in hell. Now. The most famous piece of antiweed propaganda 0:09:50.045 --> 0:09:54.045 is Reefer Madness, which is actually quite amusing. The nineteen 0:09:54.085 --> 0:09:57.645 thirty six film is a megamelodrama about pot smoking high 0:09:57.645 --> 0:10:02.045 schoolers whose theatrical descent into pot smoking addiction includes hit 0:10:02.125 --> 0:10:07.445 and run, rape, murder, suicide, hallucinations in total madness Smoky 0:10:07.565 --> 0:10:10.965 with the sole destroying refer they find a moment's pleasure, 0:10:11.405 --> 0:10:22.325 but at a terrible price debt, violence, murder, suicide. With 0:10:22.485 --> 0:10:26.045 help from the nation's newspaper billionaire Baron, all Harry ann 0:10:26.085 --> 0:10:29.125 Slinger has to do is convince states to pass anti 0:10:29.205 --> 0:10:32.325 cannabis laws, because at the time, the Fed still don't 0:10:32.325 --> 0:10:35.365 have the power to do that. So in the nineteen thirties, 0:10:35.525 --> 0:10:40.125 Harry embarks on a ruthless anti marijuana pr campaign, starting 0:10:40.165 --> 0:10:44.085 in the Southwest. At that time, cannabis was usually known 0:10:44.125 --> 0:10:48.525 as hamp or India hamp or cannabis, and he started 0:10:48.525 --> 0:10:51.205 in the Southwest, where they were prejudiced against the Mexican 0:10:51.245 --> 0:10:55.405 migrant farm workers who called it marijuana. He with the 0:10:55.445 --> 0:10:58.525 help of William Randolph Hurst, who made up these stories 0:10:59.125 --> 0:11:02.525 about like Mexican farm workers that would smoke the marijuana 0:11:02.805 --> 0:11:05.245 and then rape the farmer's daughter and chop up the 0:11:05.245 --> 0:11:08.325 farmer and his family would hatchet. They started making up 0:11:08.325 --> 0:11:12.765 these stories and putting them in the local papers to 0:11:12.885 --> 0:11:17.725 try and drum up, you know, anti Mexican, discriminatory kind 0:11:17.725 --> 0:11:23.365 of attitudes and get behind making marijuana illegal. I have 0:11:23.485 --> 0:11:26.805 some friends who insist on calling pot cannabis. They never 0:11:26.885 --> 0:11:30.045 used the word marijuana, And when Bill told me about 0:11:30.045 --> 0:11:34.765 Harry's very intentional smear campaign, I understood why marijuana is 0:11:34.805 --> 0:11:43.245 a word specifically chosen to spread and incite racism. Now, 0:11:43.245 --> 0:11:46.565 while they couldn't make cannabis illegal, Harry and Slinger and 0:11:46.685 --> 0:11:51.485 his growing team of cannabis prohibition enthusiasts found ways to 0:11:51.565 --> 0:11:55.365 make it impossible for people to legally possess it. Nineteen 0:11:55.485 --> 0:11:58.805 thirty seven, they came up with this great idea that 0:11:58.925 --> 0:12:03.085 although we can't make marijuana illegal. We can set up 0:12:03.085 --> 0:12:06.885 attack and require people have tax stamps and then just 0:12:07.005 --> 0:12:11.605 not print any tax stamps. That was the first attempt 0:12:11.645 --> 0:12:15.725 to make it federally illegal, and that stood until I 0:12:15.805 --> 0:12:20.125 believe it was nineteen sixty eight. In nineteen sixty eight, 0:12:20.245 --> 0:12:24.845 Tim Leary got busted driving into the United States in 0:12:25.005 --> 0:12:28.445 his Volkswagen with his family from Mexico. They had a 0:12:28.525 --> 0:12:30.325 little bit of weed on them. Ah. This is the 0:12:30.405 --> 0:12:35.445 same Timothy Leary, former Harvard professor drug activist Millbrook affiliated 0:12:35.565 --> 0:12:40.485 LSD pioneer who we talked about in the last episode. Okay, 0:12:40.485 --> 0:12:42.725 So Leary gets arrested and takes this case to the 0:12:42.765 --> 0:12:46.925 Supreme Court, stating that the nineteen thirty seven Marijuana Tax 0:12:47.045 --> 0:12:52.165 Act is unconstitutional. Leary challenged the Marijuana Tax Act and said, 0:12:52.205 --> 0:12:57.525 it requires you to incriminate yourself, requires me to self 0:12:57.565 --> 0:13:01.925 declare that I am growing or possessing cannabis, and that 0:13:01.965 --> 0:13:04.925 would violate the Fifth Amendment. And the Supreme Court agreed 0:13:05.645 --> 0:13:08.645 and knocked out the Tax Act of nineteen thirty seven, 0:13:09.005 --> 0:13:13.165 and in response to that, Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act. 0:13:13.365 --> 0:13:17.765 President Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act CSA into law 0:13:17.805 --> 0:13:21.485 in nineteen seventy calling for the regulation of certain drugs 0:13:21.485 --> 0:13:25.885 and substances. Now, the CSA outlines five schedules to classify 0:13:26.005 --> 0:13:30.005 drugs based on their medical application and potential for abuse. 0:13:31.085 --> 0:13:33.885 Schedule one drugs are considered the most dangerous, as they 0:13:33.965 --> 0:13:38.125 purportedly pose a very high risk for addiction with little 0:13:38.205 --> 0:13:41.845 evidence of medical benefits. They also come with the longest 0:13:41.885 --> 0:13:45.565 prison sentence. Schedule one was supposed to be a temporary 0:13:45.565 --> 0:13:50.205 placeholder for cannabis, and even a Nixon appointed committee advised 0:13:50.205 --> 0:13:54.045 that cannabis should not be a Schedule one. They didn't 0:13:54.045 --> 0:13:56.445 know what to do with cannabis, so initially they put 0:13:56.485 --> 0:14:00.445 it in Schedule one with the agreement that they were 0:14:00.485 --> 0:14:05.045 going to appoint a committee to research cannabis and report 0:14:05.085 --> 0:14:07.565 back to Congress as to where it really should be scheduled. 0:14:08.205 --> 0:14:12.845 That committee appointed by Nixon was headed by Schaeffer. Now 0:14:12.885 --> 0:14:16.565 that's Raymond Schaeffer, a Republican who had served in the 0:14:16.605 --> 0:14:19.445 Senate and was the former governor of Pennsylvania. And the 0:14:19.525 --> 0:14:23.005 Schaeffer Commission to testimony looked at the science on it 0:14:22.965 --> 0:14:26.445 and everything, and they came out of the report that 0:14:26.525 --> 0:14:28.685 it should not be in Schedule one that the most 0:14:28.765 --> 0:14:32.805 dangerous thing about cannabis was getting arrested for it. This 0:14:33.045 --> 0:14:35.925 was surprising because nobody expected that result, because this was 0:14:35.965 --> 0:14:38.605 a conservative committee that was basically hand picked to come 0:14:38.605 --> 0:14:40.845 back and say that it's the evil weed. The report 0:14:40.925 --> 0:14:46.525 Schaeffer presented to Congress was called Marijuana a Signal of Misunderstanding, 0:14:47.085 --> 0:14:51.205 and in it he calls for the decriminalization of marijuana possession. 0:14:52.005 --> 0:14:56.325 It even favored totally ending marijuana prohibition. But then the 0:14:56.365 --> 0:14:59.445 White House just ignores it, suppresses the report and pretends 0:14:59.485 --> 0:15:02.085 like it never happened. Somewhere I think I heard they 0:15:02.085 --> 0:15:04.845 only printed up four hundred copies of it, the minimal allowed, 0:15:04.885 --> 0:15:08.485 and that was it. Why was Nixon so anti getting 0:15:08.485 --> 0:15:10.445 this information out? Like, what was that stake for him? 0:15:10.485 --> 0:15:14.645 I mean, Nixon hated hippies and black people and Jews, 0:15:15.445 --> 0:15:18.685 and he was hippies and black people and Jews who 0:15:18.725 --> 0:15:25.045 smoked marijuana. Real God fearing Americans drank alcohol. So Harry Anslinger, 0:15:25.085 --> 0:15:29.285 the marijuana prohibitionists, got his way. Pot and pot smugglers 0:15:29.365 --> 0:15:34.525 like my dad were officially public Enemy number one. I'm 0:15:34.605 --> 0:15:38.885 Ramo Valentine, you're listening to disorganized crime we'll be right back. 0:15:47.645 --> 0:15:50.085 This is the environment in which my dad started taking 0:15:50.165 --> 0:15:53.885 his smuggling career much more seriously, when marijuana had been 0:15:53.925 --> 0:15:58.165 totally vilified, even though a Republican Commission chairman reported that 0:15:58.205 --> 0:16:01.725 the most dangerous thing about marijuana was getting arrested for it. 0:16:05.525 --> 0:16:08.165 Over the next two years, Dad's building up his business. 0:16:09.245 --> 0:16:11.725 How any freelancer will tell you, business is based on 0:16:11.765 --> 0:16:14.725 who you know. And for the next few years, my 0:16:14.845 --> 0:16:16.885 dad got to know more peeps and Marine in San 0:16:16.925 --> 0:16:20.525 Francisco through his partner, my mom. He met people through 0:16:20.605 --> 0:16:23.005 music bands like The Grateful Dead. He was part of 0:16:23.005 --> 0:16:26.365 a weekly poker game with Elton Kelly, Stanley, Mouse, David Gets, 0:16:26.365 --> 0:16:29.685 and Big Daddy Tom donaghue, the rock and roll record producer, 0:16:29.685 --> 0:16:33.125 promoter and rock and roll disc jockey. Anyway, Big Daddy 0:16:33.125 --> 0:16:35.445 Tom Donahue had a Mill Valley mansion with a non 0:16:35.485 --> 0:16:38.125 stop party twenty four seven, and my parents would go 0:16:38.165 --> 0:16:42.725 hang out, make friends. That's how freelance business works. Biga 0:16:42.765 --> 0:16:46.605 New York City transplant amidst the pot industry of Marine County, California, 0:16:46.845 --> 0:16:50.565 was a major asset. My dad is a people person 0:16:50.565 --> 0:16:52.805 who stays in touch with all his trust to childhood 0:16:52.805 --> 0:16:56.845 friends still in New York. They loved getting high, making money, 0:16:56.925 --> 0:17:02.125 and turning people on good pot. A thriving smuggling business 0:17:02.125 --> 0:17:06.365 for Marinto New York organically evolves. Parents and big sister 0:17:06.645 --> 0:17:09.365 moved from San Francisco to San an Salmo and Marin County. 0:17:16.725 --> 0:17:19.165 Most of the musicians and big dealers are living in 0:17:19.205 --> 0:17:22.325 Marine And as my dad says, he melted into the 0:17:22.365 --> 0:17:25.445 scene such a hippy thing to say. I love it. 0:17:25.525 --> 0:17:29.205 I being very fortunate in the scene that I came 0:17:29.285 --> 0:17:33.325 right into was at the top of the top. So yeah, 0:17:33.325 --> 0:17:36.045 I mean I was just introduced to big time people 0:17:36.085 --> 0:17:40.605 and so that was that was life in the direction 0:17:40.845 --> 0:17:44.245 I guess I chose. Pot was and still is part 0:17:44.285 --> 0:17:47.765 of the fabric of the culture of northern California. It's 0:17:47.765 --> 0:17:51.245 as common and intrinsic as church is to the South, 0:17:51.645 --> 0:17:55.605 film to La or corn to Iowa. So my dad 0:17:55.685 --> 0:17:58.445 was getting busier making real money. He did a quick 0:17:58.485 --> 0:18:02.405 deal involving pink coke. The manufacturers of the cocaine had 0:18:02.445 --> 0:18:04.365 made an error and the entire batch was pink. It 0:18:04.485 --> 0:18:06.605 wasn't white. It was so good pink because they had 0:18:06.645 --> 0:18:09.965 fucked up how they processed it. Apparently I didn't know 0:18:10.085 --> 0:18:14.165 this then, but they're they're, they're, they're presenting it as 0:18:15.045 --> 0:18:20.685 rose cocaine, you know whatever. My dad sold a kilo 0:18:20.765 --> 0:18:23.365 of rose cooke in one day and made four thousand dollars. 0:18:23.925 --> 0:18:26.525 Four thousand dollars in nineteen seventy two is the equivalent 0:18:26.525 --> 0:18:29.565 to over twenty four thousand dollars today. This is the 0:18:29.605 --> 0:18:33.005 only time my dad says he sold coke. After this experience, 0:18:33.005 --> 0:18:35.285 he vowed he'd never do it again because the coke 0:18:35.325 --> 0:18:39.765 guys were sketchy. So the smuggler and I, he really 0:18:39.805 --> 0:18:41.925 loved that I got rid of it. The next thing 0:18:41.925 --> 0:18:45.325 he did was invite me down to He was from 0:18:45.485 --> 0:18:50.165 La so he says, hey, come on down, we'll talk 0:18:50.205 --> 0:18:53.965 about more stuff. What I do remember is going down 0:18:54.045 --> 0:18:57.325 there and staying at his house and sleeping over it, 0:18:57.645 --> 0:18:59.605 and in the middle of the fucking night, he comes 0:18:59.685 --> 0:19:02.845 roaring through carrying a gun because he thought he heard 0:19:02.885 --> 0:19:06.325 somebody fucking coming through the door, which he didn't. Nothing happened, 0:19:06.645 --> 0:19:09.245 but that that was it for me, you know intern, 0:19:09.365 --> 0:19:14.205 Holy shit, guns, fuck this. And all these guys involved 0:19:14.245 --> 0:19:16.685 in this whole scene were older guys. They all scared 0:19:16.725 --> 0:19:22.085 me anyway, because they were adults and these are not 0:19:22.285 --> 0:19:24.605 my These are not people I want to be around. 0:19:24.965 --> 0:19:28.645 You're dealing with guns, you know. Fuck this? Yeah, your 0:19:28.765 --> 0:19:35.445 world was not good. Integrity, handshakes, friendship, music, well, so 0:19:35.525 --> 0:19:38.365 to speak. Listen, there were plenty of pot dealers who 0:19:38.365 --> 0:19:43.005 were major fucking Slee's bag assholes. Also, I mean there 0:19:43.045 --> 0:19:46.365 was lots of money rolling around, and consequently, you know, 0:19:46.445 --> 0:19:49.045 good people were good people and bad people were just 0:19:49.245 --> 0:19:52.365 But I very clearly you know that was it for me. 0:19:52.765 --> 0:19:56.205 Side note, Pot being a schedule one drug feels so ridiculous, 0:19:56.285 --> 0:19:59.405 a complete odds with a collective opinion of my parents, 0:19:59.445 --> 0:20:02.245 my parents, friends, and my friend's parents, also known as 0:20:02.285 --> 0:20:07.565 the Psychedelic Pioneers aka the counterculture Insider, because all hippie 0:20:07.565 --> 0:20:12.165 elders agree that cocaine and heroine destroyed the joyful, peace 0:20:12.205 --> 0:20:16.645 loving world famous San Francisco counterculture scene. So you saw 0:20:16.805 --> 0:20:21.645 the scene, the music scene destroy destroying by artistic heroes, 0:20:21.725 --> 0:20:24.685 by cocaine and hard drugs. Yeah, hard drugs, cocaine and 0:20:24.805 --> 0:20:27.525 hard drugs. Of all these people who were all these 0:20:28.645 --> 0:20:30.965 you know, I look at the whole what I look 0:20:31.005 --> 0:20:34.485 back on now and look at what happened in San Francisco, 0:20:35.525 --> 0:20:38.805 and this whole thing exploded and then got destroyed. It 0:20:38.925 --> 0:20:44.805 exploded with acid, exploded positively and amazingly with acid, and 0:20:44.885 --> 0:20:50.685 it was completely poisoned by hard drugs, which was despicable. 0:20:51.085 --> 0:20:55.565 We listened to the dead behind the backstage, and the 0:20:55.685 --> 0:20:58.365 cocaine was disgusting, and you know, and it was all 0:20:58.365 --> 0:21:04.285 the shit. I grew up with very strong anti cocaine 0:21:04.285 --> 0:21:08.645 and anti heroine rule drug rules, no cokeer heroine. But 0:21:08.645 --> 0:21:11.285 you can totally smoke pot or like lsd yes just 0:21:11.325 --> 0:21:15.405 come to us mushrooms. Great division quest Back to pot. 0:21:15.485 --> 0:21:17.525 It's nineteen seventy three and my parents are living in 0:21:17.525 --> 0:21:20.405 Mill Valley near the library. They're a house up a 0:21:20.485 --> 0:21:23.285 steep hill with over fifty steps to the front door. 0:21:24.245 --> 0:21:28.125 A load called lime green Mexican comes in and Dad remembers, 0:21:28.165 --> 0:21:31.645 the lime green is wonderful pot. Lots of pot that 0:21:31.685 --> 0:21:35.125 flowed in was like it. Literally they called it bricks 0:21:35.165 --> 0:21:38.605 because they were they were pressed. So it was such 0:21:38.685 --> 0:21:42.365 poor pot to begin with, and it was pressed in 0:21:42.445 --> 0:21:45.005 these presses that came in bricks, so you'd have a 0:21:45.045 --> 0:21:48.725 two pound brick. So it ran the gamut of quality 0:21:48.765 --> 0:21:53.365 and quality control was really important, and at that point 0:21:53.365 --> 0:21:58.325 in life and time fifty years ago, the most popular 0:21:59.045 --> 0:22:01.365 we all knew of and liked was a very light 0:22:01.445 --> 0:22:06.685 green lime green Mexican sativa. It was light, it was 0:22:06.725 --> 0:22:12.525 almost gold green, and was a very nice uphead with 0:22:12.805 --> 0:22:17.685 no physical characteristics. So that was like the legendary lime green. 0:22:17.885 --> 0:22:20.965 My dad remembers hauling fifty pound bales of lime green 0:22:21.005 --> 0:22:23.725 Mexican up the fifty plus steps to the front door. 0:22:23.965 --> 0:22:25.965 He did at least five hundred pounds of lime green, 0:22:26.045 --> 0:22:29.445 so that's a lot of steps. I remember carrying these 0:22:29.525 --> 0:22:33.725 giant garbage bags, fifty pound bales up to the house 0:22:34.605 --> 0:22:37.085 and then it'd be rolling out. But because of where 0:22:37.085 --> 0:22:39.005 we lived, nobody could see it anyway, and it was 0:22:39.045 --> 0:22:41.445 on a quiet, secluded street even though it was close 0:22:41.645 --> 0:22:46.245 right downtown. So these bales would move up, they'd move down. 0:22:46.925 --> 0:22:50.005 It was very funny, you know, jeez. I go back 0:22:50.005 --> 0:22:55.325 to that time, I'm twenty six years old or twenty seven, 0:22:55.725 --> 0:22:59.685 twenty six, twenty seven, you know it, gentle times and 0:22:59.965 --> 0:23:11.565 lovely pot and just living in that same year, in 0:23:11.645 --> 0:23:14.685 nineteen seventy three, my dad lands his biggest trip so far, 0:23:15.245 --> 0:23:18.325 remember trips or deals from start to finish. It's the 0:23:18.365 --> 0:23:21.765 big Panama Read trip. This trip, my dad moves the 0:23:21.805 --> 0:23:25.565 seven hundred pounds of Colombian pot. So my parents named 0:23:25.605 --> 0:23:28.245 this load Panama Read, which was a kind of generic 0:23:28.325 --> 0:23:31.165 term for various kinds of pot. Panama Read was later 0:23:31.285 --> 0:23:33.525 made famous by a song written by Peter Rowan in 0:23:33.605 --> 0:23:57.245 nineteen seventy three Animal on his later on at summer 0:23:57.285 --> 0:23:59.485 camp in the nineteen eighties, Peter Rowan showed up and 0:23:59.485 --> 0:24:02.325 he taught Panama Read to all the campers, and of 0:24:02.325 --> 0:24:04.485 course I took it literally. I thought it was about 0:24:04.525 --> 0:24:07.965 a cowboy. It's a pretty good song. It's pretty catchy. 0:24:09.005 --> 0:24:12.285 Now here's how the first Panama Red trip worked. It's 0:24:12.365 --> 0:24:15.085 nineteen seventy three. My mom is pregnant with me, my 0:24:15.125 --> 0:24:17.725 big sister is between four and five, and my dad 0:24:17.765 --> 0:24:20.525 gets a hold of seven hundred pounds of pot from 0:24:20.525 --> 0:24:24.325 a Big Bay area smuggler. They're living and working out 0:24:24.325 --> 0:24:27.005 of the rental Mill Valley house with the fifty plus 0:24:27.045 --> 0:24:30.205 steps to the front door. My dad met the Brooklyn 0:24:30.205 --> 0:24:34.165 Boys through Nicki Sunshine, the East Coast Acid King, and 0:24:34.245 --> 0:24:37.245 the Brooklyn Boys would come over, pay my dad for 0:24:37.285 --> 0:24:39.565 the product and take it to New York City in 0:24:39.645 --> 0:24:44.085 big old cars with big trunks, Chevies or Plymouths. They 0:24:44.125 --> 0:24:46.965 would buy it outright, drive it to New York City, 0:24:47.085 --> 0:24:50.805 and then come back for more. The first Panama Red 0:24:50.805 --> 0:24:54.325 trip of seven hundred pounds earns my parents fifteen thousand dollars, 0:24:54.645 --> 0:24:57.005 which is the equivalent to more than eighty two thousand 0:24:57.085 --> 0:24:59.805 dollars today. So my dad is working with people who 0:24:59.845 --> 0:25:05.405 are surprisingly organized for disorganized crime and meticulous. Each box 0:25:05.685 --> 0:25:10.365 is expertly packaged and exactly ten pounds. Just love this 0:25:10.685 --> 0:25:13.925 pot because it was beautiful, absolutely beautiful, and it was 0:25:14.085 --> 0:25:18.605 really upper stuff. It was just very pretty stuff, well 0:25:18.645 --> 0:25:22.765 well manicured, well manicured into little buds, and they it 0:25:22.885 --> 0:25:27.325 smelled beautiful, It smelled like chocolate. And it was so consistent, 0:25:27.925 --> 0:25:32.125 which is a pretty unusual thing with hippies doing pot trips. 0:25:33.165 --> 0:25:36.205 Consistency is not what they were known for in the 0:25:35.885 --> 0:25:39.845 early days, necessarily, and so we ended I ended up 0:25:39.885 --> 0:25:43.325 doing seven hundred pounds of it. I remember these numbers 0:25:43.365 --> 0:25:45.805 because it was that was a lot of it seemed 0:25:45.845 --> 0:25:50.125 like a really pretty good amount of pot. Explain how 0:25:50.205 --> 0:25:52.765 this happened and where you picked it up? How did 0:25:52.805 --> 0:25:56.965 you get it? I don' understand right. So there's fishing 0:25:57.005 --> 0:25:59.525 all over the West coast, so fishing fishing boats and 0:25:59.605 --> 0:26:03.805 then fishermen. Different of these guys are approached and a 0:26:03.965 --> 0:26:07.525 main boat would come up and be thirty miles fifty 0:26:07.525 --> 0:26:12.885 miles offshore, and then a smaller fishing boat would meet 0:26:12.925 --> 0:26:17.125 it wherever and off float onto the smaller boat. You 0:26:17.165 --> 0:26:22.045 could fit ten thousand pounds on not huge boats. It's 0:26:22.085 --> 0:26:24.885 good size, but not huge boats. So when it came 0:26:24.965 --> 0:26:27.205 off the boats onto the trucks, it would go to 0:26:27.605 --> 0:26:30.485 a central warehouse generally, unless it was so big it 0:26:30.525 --> 0:26:34.725 had to go to several different warehouses. And then from 0:26:34.805 --> 0:26:39.365 there I would be dealing with people who had who 0:26:39.845 --> 0:26:43.245 were at that step who had to warehouses and then 0:26:43.285 --> 0:26:52.805 moved to meet or others like it. To celebrate the 0:26:52.845 --> 0:26:55.845 completion of the first Panama Red Trip, my parents embark 0:26:55.925 --> 0:26:58.645 on a vacation to Hawaii and leave five year old 0:26:58.685 --> 0:27:03.365