Martin Alyson - A New Leaf The End Of Cannabis Prohibition

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR A NEW LEAF

With great clarity, A New Leaf offers a sweeping and important view of todays changing attitudes toward marijuana.

Amy Wilentz, author of The Rainy Season and Farewell, Fred Voodoo

A comprehensive look at the political and social revolution taking place that is leading to the day when marijuana will inevitably be legal in all fifty states. The authors take us on a journey to meet the people on the front lines of this transformation.

Dale Maharidge, co-author of the Pulitzer Prizewinning And Their Children After Them and author of Bringing Mulligan Home

Martin and Rashidian have crafted a superb, lucid look at why cannabis prohibition has hurt the world in ways many of us would have never guessed. They put a human face on sterile laws and policies and provide the most up-to-date information on todays controversies about the plant. They treat readers to an accessible and well-documented explanation of the backhanded and thoughtless way we have arrived at our current predicament and emphasize that thorough and considerate approaches are our only way out.

Mitch Earleywine, author of Understanding Marijuana

A New Leaf is a wonderful read for anyone who wishes to have a better idea of how dastardly this prohibition has been, particularly in its last years. Fortunately, it is now virtually over and what we are seeing is a culture desperately trying to find accommodations to this new leaf on the block.

Dr. Lester Grinspoon, associate professor emeritus of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of Marihuana Reconsidered and Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine

I thought I knew everything about cannabis and its journey toward legalization. Well, A New Leaf proved me wrong. I emphatically recommend this eye-opening book to everyone, especially those who believe they know the entire story. A must-read.

Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

2014 by Alyson Martin and Nushin Rashidian

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher.

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Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2014

Distributed by Perseus Distribution

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Martin, Alyson.

A new leaf : the end of cannabis prohibition / Alyson Martin and Nushin Rashidian.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-59558-929-3 (e-book) 1. Marijuana--Government policy--United States. 2. Drug control--History--United States. 3. Marijuana--Therapeutic use--United States. 4. Drug legalization--United States.

I. Rashidian, Nushin. II. Title.

HV5822.M3M376 2014

363.450973--dc23

2013034220

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Book design and composition by Bookbright Media

This book was set in Goudy Oldstyle

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For our parents

CONTENTS

A nother prohibition is ending. On November 6, 2012, voters in Colorado and Washington were the first in the world to successfully challenge nearly a century of bad policy and misconceptions about cannabis.

In downtown Seattle, the Hotel ndra was dressed white and blue, the team colors of Washington States Initiative 502 campaign. Supporters hoping for a victory, cannabis legalization, walked into a smartly decorated ballroom and picked up bumper stickers and pins. Activists and politicians anxiously buzzed about to pass the hours. Alison Holcomb, then drug policy director for the ACLU of Washington State and the woman leading the states legalization push, wore a black blazer and fuchsia shirt. She paced and whispered to her colleagues, scouring tablet screens for clues long before votes had been counted. At this early point in the night, the expressions on the brunettes angular face moved so fluidly between nervousness, confusion, and excitement that it was difficult for photographers to capture a representative portrait.

Around 7 P.M., the owner of one of the largest and most successful medical cannabis dispensaries in the country arrived. Steve DeAngelo was unmistakable even in a crowd, with his signature long, tight pigtail braids and dark fedora. He listened as a woman stood closely and told her story. DeAngelo got that a lot. Earlier that year, he was the star of his own Discovery Channel show, Weed Wars. His two Harborside Health Centers are in the Bay Area, but he had a soft spot for Seattle. Just a few months before, he had spoken at Seattles well-known Hempfest, attended by tens of thousands each year. Ive been working on this issue for my entire life.... And I know tonight, when 502 passes, that theres going to be a whole lot of angels dancing in heaven, DeAngelo said, his eyes flooding. Its not very often that I find myself at a loss for words, but Im grasping to describe the magnitude of the emotion that Im dealing with right now.

Meanwhile, 1,330 miles away at Denvers Casselmans Bar and Venue, hundreds of Amendment 64 supporters squeezed shoulder-to-shoulder, increasingly unable to remain composed in front of the many live cameras. It could have been a St. Patricks Day gathering; many people wore green, in one way or another. A man in an emerald dress shirt held a green and white YES ON 64 sign. He walked up to Mason Tvert, a face of the Amendment 64 campaign, and extended the sign. The stout millennial scrawled his signature, handed back the memento, and smiled sheepishly before walking away to fix his red tie.

In the previous five years, the Rocky Mountain states medical cannabis industry had grown faster and more sophisticated than any other, earning a feature on 60 Minutes and its own National Geographic show, American Weed. The states nearly seven hundred dispensaries had grossed $186 million in sales and paid the state $5.4 million in sales taxes from mid-2011 to mid-2012.and stuffed it into a simple and smokeless e-cigarette-like contraption; it looked like the intersection of Venice Beach and Apple. Colorado was serious about cannabis.

Nearby, a woman and man embraced and smiled calmly. By the time 9 percent of precincts had reported and people saw the numbers from KDVR Fox31 Denver, there was loud whistling, clapping, and yelling: Amendment 64 was ahead 52 percent to 48. As the imminent reality of cannabis legalization swept the room, the racket swelled to a roar. A man repeatedly cheered and pumped his arms as if trying to lasso something.

When it appeared a final call might soon be made, people took photographs and videos; hugs abounded. A man who sported a tie-dyed shirt and a balding crown with long hair dangling past his nape walked around aimlessly. Near the cameras, a lady with a foam cannabis leaf over her hand joined a guy who smiled, mouth agape, and made the hang loose sign to whoever tuned in to watch the revelry. This man with impressive sideburns held a YES ON 64 sign above his head and beamed. The rounds of high fives were never-ending.