Keith Stroup on Marijuana in the '70s

Marijuana was integral to the evolving culture wars of the 1970s, with long criminal sentences meted out to some while others flouted the law with alacrity. No one was more central to the battles over marijuana policy than Keith Stroup, who founded the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in 1970 and directed the organization for most of the decade. His allies spanned the spectrum of respectability from Harvard professors and former high level government officials to Gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson, Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and assorted marijuana smugglers, most notably Tom Forcade, who started High Times magazine. We talked about President Richard Nixon’s efforts to block marijuana law reform and President Jimmy Carter’s support for decriminalization. Eleven states decriminalized marijuana during the mid-1970s but the momentum faded rapidly as the decade neared completion. Most fascinating to me were Keith’s reflections on his own activism in an era that preceded my own engagement in drug policy reform activism beginning in 1988.

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