Great Moments in Weed History

Celebrate 4/20 at home this year with Abdullah and Bean, in a special two-part episode where the hosts of Great Moments in Weed History share their own personal greatest weed moments with each other—and with all of you weed history heads out there.In part 1, they swap stories about grass-oriented adventures they've shared jointly together while working at VICE and High Times, including legalization day in Denver, the world's biggest ever Cannabis Cup, a trip to Hunter S. Thompson's house, getting to know Nonna Marijuana, and the origin story of the cannabis cuisine show Bong Apetit.Part two will drop on actual April 20th so look out for it!And remember, great moments in weed history happen to everyone, and they happen every day, so while we're all stuck at home this 4/20, we can still get together with our friends online, get lit, and share our best weed stories. And someday that will be a weed story too.To hear the long, strange story of how 4/20 became a high holiday, check out our episode about the Waldos from Season 1.Abdullah and Bean wish to thank everyone who has reached out to say that the podcast has been bringing them some joy, relief and laughs right now, it means the world to us. We also wish to dedicate this episode to all of our weed crews, past and present.PATREONPlease support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

When 22 tons of weed washed up on Brazil's beaches one magical summer, the locals interpreted it as a gift from Yemoja, a sea goddess deity with African roots that was adopted into Brazilian Catholicism. In celebration they threw some of the most incredible cannabis-fueled parties in history, where they sampled and shared the countless cans of incredibly potent "Thai stick" that improbably came in on those unforgettable "green tides."One minute cannabis was expensive, shwaggy, and hard to find in Brazil. The next it was suddenly free, dank, and everywhere.So naturally, it will be forever remembered as The Summer of the Cans!Special thanks to Tocha Alves, a Brazilian director who made an incredible documentary film called The Summer of the Cans and supplied us with a version with English subtitles so we could tell this story.Very special thanks to weed legend Danny Danko, host of the OG cannabis podcast Free Weed, for suggesting this story!And a HUGE THANKS to Savage Henry Comedy Club for hosting us as part of their incredible annual comedy festival in the heart of Humboldt County, California, and to Alec Cole for his help with the recording.PATREONPlease support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

Smuggling hashish out of Afghanistan in the 1970s presented the Brotherhood of Eternal Love with a unique supply side problem, which they solved in a way that forever changed the game for cannabis concentrates and culture.Best known today for their international LSD operation, this legendary group of surfers, smugglers, and psychedelic evangelists also worked together with the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground to break their spiritual leader Timothy Leary out of prison.In this episode, Abdullah and Bean focus in on the Brotherhood's incredible marijuana smuggling ring, which got them dubbed "the hippie mafia" and involved some of the most fascinating characters in the long and fascinating history of cannabis true crime. Including the largely unknown story of Ronald Hadley Stark, who has been pegged by various people at various times as an undercover CIA asset sent to subvert the counterculture, a rogue KGB operative sent to foment a new American revolution, a ruthless career criminal disguised as a peace-and-love flower child, and a cunning snitch who transformed the Brotherhood of Eternal Love from idealistic hippies into international drug smugglers.For more on the BOEL, check out these books (The Brotherhood of Eternal Love, 1984 and Orange Sunshine, 2010) and documentaries (Orange Sunshine, 2016 and The Sunshine Makers, 2017).PATREONPlease support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

Hashish bon bons play a starring role in one of Louisa May Alcott's "scandalous" short stories, but you'd never know that by reading her many biographies. Partially because she wrote Perilous Play (1868) under a pen name, but mostly because her experiences with high-powered edibles have been all but erased from history.With the recent Greta Gerwig adaptation of Little Women sparking a revival of interest in the author, Abdullah and Bean spend the episode recounting Alcott's incredible life story, and uncovering her stoney exploits, including settling in for story time as they read weed-infused excerpts from her jaunty little tale about a group of young society women who pass a most interesting afternoon and evening together by getting absolutely wrecked on hash candy.Special thanks to researcher and activist Ellen Komp, author of Tokin' Women: A 4,000 Year Herstory, which chronicles this story and many others. PATREONPlease support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

His newspaper ads read 1-800-WANT-POT, promising New Yorkers quality cannabis at a fair price, delivered in under an hour, by bicycle, at a time when legal cannabis was still a distant dream.Known as the Pope of Pot, Mickey Cesar had first learned how to navigate the illicit weed business in the 1970s while living in Amsterdam, before coming home to start America's first underground delivery service. What followed was a tale of overcoming arrests, getting shot, and a snitch calling Howard Stern, all to bring the cannabis sacrament to his growing flock.This episode features special guest Ben Sinclair, star and co-creator of High Maintenance on HBO. On High Maintenance, Ben plays a NYC weed delivery guy who makes his rounds on bicycle, so naturally Abdullah and Bean were thrilled to share with Ben the story of his real life predecessor. We recorded live in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Bell House in NYC as part of the 2020 Brooklyn Podcast Festival.Special thanks to journalist Mike Sager who wrote a June 1991 Rolling Stone article about Mickey called "The High Times and Strange Time of the Pope of Pot"Special thanks to Danny Danko for MCing the live show. And to Kevin Schumacher for taking photos. And to everyone who came out to share a very special evening.PATREONPlease support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

In the middle of the night on December 9, 1976, a pair of Vietnam vets turned international weed smugglers stood on a makeshift runway in Baja, Mexico, watching as a work crew loaded up their twin-engine airplane with 6,000 pounds of primo sinsemilla bud. The unregistered flight’s illicit cargo was a locally-grown high-grade red-hair strain known as Mota Magic.Unfortunately, the ill-fated smuggling run ended in disaster when the planeload of weed crashed into a remote frozen lake tucked away in Yosemite's rugged backcountry. But from that tragedy arose the greatest "gold rush" in weed history, as some of the world's top rock climbers, the DEA, the forest rangers, and itinerant hippies all raced to pull as many bales of Mota Magic from the frozen lake as possible.This episode was recorded live in Humboldt County, California as part of the Savage Henry Comedy Festival. Special thanks to everyone at Savage Henry, an incredible independent humor magazine and comedy club operating in the heart of America's most famous cannabis cultivation region. Also thanks to a "Great Moments in Weed History" listener known as BGTM for hipping us to this incredible story. Please send suggestions for future episodes to gmiwhpodcast@gmail.com -- don't worry, Abdullah won't see them.And please do us a huge solid and tell all your cool friends about the podcast at your next smoke session!PATREONPlease support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

High Times founder Tom Forcade's story concludes in part 2, which features a special guest — Rex Weiner — who was there for the magazine's wild early days, and shared many illicit adventures with the weed smuggler/political activist behind it all. We discuss how the book Agents of Chaos by Norman Spinrad influenced Tom Forcade towards an embrace of chaos as the true third rail in American politics.Rex recalls High Times' glory years including cover stories on Bob Marley, Hunter Thompson, Debby Harry, The Sex Pistols, Cheech and Chong, and other cannabis celebrities.And we hear about the time Tom and Rex stowed away on a luxury cruise to watch a rocket launch!High Times magazine changed the world, and if you love weed, you should know this incredible unsung story.PATREONPlease support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

Weed smuggler/political revolutionary Tom Forcade once described his life goal as going “all the way, whatever that may bring." In 1974, at just 29 years old, he used profits from flying planeloads of Colombian bud into the country to found High Times magazine.At the time, Forcade already had a long history of subversive acts under his belt, including throwing a pie in the face of Otto Larsen, head of the U.S. Commission on Obscenity and Pornography during a congressional hearing, getting indicted for a supposed plot to firebomb the 1972 Republican National Convention, forming the Zippies as a more confrontational alternative to Abbie Hoffman's Yippies, and helping to lead the then ascendent underground press movement in the United States.But while everyone today knows High Times, few remember the brilliant, radical, mercurial swashbuckler who started it all. So buckle up for one of the wildest, weediest rides in the history of this weed history podcast.Also in this episode: As a ten year High Times veteran, Bean shares his thoughts on that experience, and speculates on what Tom Forcade might think of today’s cannabis industry—including the investors who’ve taken control of his creation.Check out the book Smoking Typewriters to learn more about the underground press movement of the 1960s and 70s, which was frequently targeted for marijuana arrests as part of a general campaign of government repression.PATREONPlease support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

In 1970, the author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ran for Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado as the anointed candidate of the newly formed Freak Power political party. He promised an immediate end to marijuana arrests and abusive policing. He also promised to rip up the streets of Aspen and sod them. And that his first act as sheriff would be to “install on the courthouse lawn a platform and a set of stocks in order to punish dishonest dope dealers in a proper public fashion.”Thompson even shaved his head bald, so he could refer to incumbent Sheriff Carroll D. Whitmire as “my longhaired opponent” during their much anticipated debate. Hear an excerpt from that debate in this episode, plus archival audio from the Freak Power Party’s campaign headquarters on Election Day.Read the book Freak Power for more on Hunter S. Thompson’s run for sheriff, including his incredible artwork and campaign materials.Watch the documentary Gonzo to celebrate the life and work of one of the 20th Century’s towering figures in journalism, politics and literature.Watch Great Moments in Weed History co-host David Bienenstock (aka “Bean”) visit Hunter S. Thompson’s house for an incredible weed-infused dinner in this viral VICE video.PATREONPlease support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible. 

Reefer, muggles, gage — whatever jazz-age slang you prefer, marijuana most definitely played an outsized role in the development of this most unique and influential American art form. From the formation of the first ever jam sessions to the racial integration of the leading jazz bands, cannabis culture and consciousness of the era pushed musicians and audiences alike towards a higher appreciation of authentic, improvised, expansive self expression.As jazz evolved into the world’s most popular musical genre, weed-friendly musicians began to tour, leaving a trail of newly initiated reefer smokers (and freshly planted reefer seeds) in their wakes. A wide range of jazz greats also made approving references to “Mary Warner” in songs like Reefer Man (Cab Calloway), If You’re a Viper (Fats Waller), Texas Tea Party (Benny Goodman), Muggles (Louis Armstrong), Gimme a Reefer (Bessie Smith), When I Get Low, I Get High (Ella Fitzgerald), and I'm Feeling High and Happy (Gene Krupa).We explore this incredible underground history via the unique friendship of two of the scene’s most legendary Vipers (or weed enthusiasts) — Louis Armstrong, the most famous jazz musician of all time, who inhaled two cigar-sized joints on the daily, and clarinetist Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, a middle class Jew from Chicago who became very, very well loved in jazz circles for having a steady supply of the finest herb available.Read more about this incredible era in weed history with Mezz Mezzrow’s book Really The Blues (1946).PATREONPlease support Great Moments in Weed HIstory on Patreon. Supporters get exclusive access to video shows and seshes, plus access to cool rewards like a signed book or signature lighter. And it truly helps us make the best show possible.