Neal Pollack - Pothead: My Life as a Marijuana Addict in the Age of Legal Weed

Pothead captures a giddy, buzzy, unprecedented moment in our culturea new, outwardly joyful wave of reefer madness that takes its toll. Neal has always been a hilarious writer, but also surprisingly reflective and bravely self insightful. His latest book is as funny as always, but also bracingly, movingly sober.

John Hodgman, comedian and author of Vacationland and Medallion Status

You dont have to be a pothead to appreciate the humor and pathos in Pothead, Neal Pollacks zippy, deep-thinking Gen-X recovery memoir.

Caroline Kepnes, author of You

In the recovery movement, they might call the first half of Neal Pollacks Pothead a war story, for its impressively rich catalogue of indignities and pratfalls. But as in all the best war stories, Pollacks account is rendered with such spirit and wit, with such a bottomless arsenal of hilarities that it is impossible to look away. We long throughout this harrowing account for the moment when Neal Pollacks feet will strike the earth, and when he does, his considerable talent billows out with a bright new reflective aspect. This is an especially lucid and welcome account, therefore, of a long journey through compulsion into clarity, insight, and acceptance.

Rick Moody, award-winning author of The Black Veil and The Ice Storm

Neal Pollacks Pothead is a harrowing corrective to the popular myth that marijuana use is always safe and consequence-free. Told with ruthless honesty and Pollacks signature irreverence, it delineates how a seemingly harmless habit can devolve into a life-ruining addiction, and what it takes to come back. This is a valuable, timely addition to our cultural conversation about marijuana, and a gift to anyone who loves fearless memoir laced with dark wit.

Kristi Coulter, author of Nothing Good Can Come from This

Neal Pollacks memoir tells a story of an addiction very different from mine. His drugs of choice were marijuana and gambling. But, as is so very often the case with stories of recovery, his story is very much the same as mine. Addiction is addiction, after all.

Pollacks writing is heartbreaking, funny, tender, and honest. And it offers great hope for the growing numbers who are finding themselves addicted to marijuana in this legal age of weed. I read this book in one sitting. Its that good and its that helpful. All at the same time.

Dana Bowman, author of Bottled and How to Be Perfect Like Me

NEAL POLLACK

MY LIFE AS A MARIJUANA ADDICT IN THE AGE OF LEGAL WEED

Central Recovery Press (CRP) is committed to publishing exceptional materials addressing addiction treatment, recovery, and behavioral healthcare topics.

For more information, visit www.centralrecoverypress.com.

2020 by Neal Pollack.

All rights reserved. Published 2020. Printed in the United States of America.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Pollack, Neal, 1970- author.

Title: Pothead : my life as a marijuana addict in the age of legal weed / Neal Pollack.

Description: Las Vegas : Central Recovery Press, 2020. | Summary: Renowned author Neil Pollack chronicles his journey from marijuana addiction to marijuana recovery in this eye-opening memoir-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019054973 (print) | LCCN 2019054974 (ebook) | ISBN 9781949481303 (paperback) | ISBN 9781949481310 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Pollack, Neal, 1970- | Drug addicts--United States--Biography. | Marijuana abuse--United States. | Marijuana abuse--Rehabilitation--United States. | Authors, American--21st century--Biography.

Classification: LCC HV5822.M3 P65 2020 (print) | LCC HV5822.M3 (ebook) | DDC 362.29/5092 [B]--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054973

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019054974

Photo of Neal Pollack by Regina Allen.

Every attempt has been made to contact copyright holders. If copyright holders have not been properly acknowledged please contact us. Central Recovery Press will be happy to rectify the omission in future printings of this book.

Publishers Note:

This book contains general information about addiction, recovery, and related matters. The information is not medical advice. This book is not an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider.

Our books represent the experiences and opinions of their authors only. Every effort has been made to ensure that events, institutions, and statistics presented in our books as facts are accurate and up-to-date. To protect their privacy, the names of some of the people, places, and institutions in this book may have been changed.

Cover design by The Book Designers.

Interior by Sara Streifel, Think Creative Design.

FREE AMERICA

The sun had already gone down by the time Rich and I crossed the golden border from New Mexico to Colorado. We looked at each other, free at last. For the first time in our lives, we could legally smoke marijuana in our home country. And all it had taken, in the Year of Our Lord 2014, was driving a minivan through a mountain pass.

I dont have any weed on me, said Rich, a burly and cuddly middle-aged stoner dad who, like me, worked from home. But if I did, it would be okay.

I opened the window and breathed the sweet mid-December mountain air. At the time, Pueblo was the first place across the border where you could buy pot. We still had a hundred miles to drive. We followed our TomTom directions, getting increasingly excited as we headed toward a new and glorious future.

We had arrived in Free America.

I was embarrassed that it had taken me that long to get to Colorado. Of all the writers I knowreally, of all the humans I knowI was the biggest, most fervent, most frequent stoner. So it was beyond pathetic that it took me a year to get to the Holy Land, especially because I had the free time.

All summer, I sat around getting high in Texas and saying, I really should head up to Colorado for a couple of weeks. I could have done it at pretty much any point; instead, I just sat back and watched as unqualified CNN reporters got their tours of airplane hangars full of marijuana plants, as Dr. Sanjay Gupta, of all people, became medical marijuanas biggest advocate. For Bob Marleys sake, even Maureen Dowd went to Denver and got high.

I was missing the revolution. But even the last person who arrives at the party gets to attend.

To get to legal pot before closing time, wed left Austin at 8:30 a.m., and that only worked because we gained an hour on the way. We drove the entirety of the Texas Panhandle, skirting Lubbock and Abilene and passing through downtown Amarillo, followed by nearly two hours of barren New Mexico high desert. It took forever and was unimaginably boring. Rich summed up the absurdity: You can go down the street and buy an automatic weapon whenever you want. But you have to drive twelve hours to get legal weed.