The story of why I wrote my novel, "the Plant"

In the spring of 1993, a friend and I made a short road trip, and dropped in on a friend in Denver. The evening we showed up, he was on his way to a Boulder Hemp Initiative meeting at the University of Colorado campus (this is a group that seeks to have the ban on Industrial Hemp farming lifted, in order to allow American farmers to benefit from the widespread use of Hemp as a raw material for such things as clothing, soaps, and food). So we accompanied him. They presented a movie, probably based on Jack Herer's Emperor Wears No Clothes that laid out the history of prohibition on Hemp - that oil and paper magnates destroyed the competition of Hemp by making Marijuana (Hemp's cousin) illegal, and thus, also banning Hemp. That's where I first learned of the deeper story behind the original Marihuana Tax Act of '37 - at least more than I knew from High Times articles. The presenter at that meeting also expressed his belief that the way to end the ban on all forms of Cannabis - Industrial Hemp and Medical Marijuana - was to push to legalize Hemp as an entity of its own, separate from marijuana legalization, and, thus, undo the mistake of the original Tax Act. From there new legislation could be created to reflect today's needs.

I was inspired by that idea, and then a few short months later, I found myself living up in Seattle, and made it to the 1993 HempFest. I had not yet seen that kind of passion about an issue. Besides hearing great live music, I learned two things that day: one, that there was a growing realm of legalization support, and that the wave which events like this would begin, will never stop; and two, after talking to the guys at the NORML booth - who at the time were pushing for easing the laws on marijuana use, as well as medical use, that this idea of pushing Hemp as an unrelated-to-pot raw material needed its own movement.

The following year, having realized that writing was what I really wanted to do with my life, I made a move eastward to get to a place where I could concentrate on my first novel. In early 1995, after finishing a first draft of The Balance, I suddenly had a vision of a Hemp legalization story, and I penned the first two chapters of the Plant. A year later, I wrote The Psychosomatic Survival Guide, and returned to Colorado, to begin a new chapter for myself. For the following eight years the Plant sat on the shelf, enduring being ignored during the revisions of my other two books as well as my first poetry collection, side interests and pursuits in music and photography, and me working for a living, until I finally acquired enough material, thanks to the Bush administration, to fill in the middle of the story. In the fall of 2005 I began revising the chapters I had already written, and then in the spring of 2006 I sat down to my laptop, and wrote the rest of the book.

Many real events in my life inspired aspects of the story, as well as the characters, and I did study the history of the laws, and the history and research of Hemp, in order to better convey the reality in the book, however it may very well be that Hemp Initiative meeting in 1993 that truly gave me the concept. Because, as much as I can appreciate anyone that is passionate about legalization, and any media involved in the same, I do not believe that certain types of protesting will ever work.

What I am talking about is the image that is often portrayed at many Hemp Festivals, street protests, Earth Day events, or college "smoke outs". This image is that of the stoner/hippie - tie-died, dreadlocked, red-eyed, and shouting "legalize it, dude!" Don't get me wrong however, because I DO believe that you MUST carry and live by the flag that makes you happy, and I, myself, have been seen tie-died and shaggy. I have also seen, and been, on the other side - the buttoned-down/khaki, concerned about taxes, bitching around the company water cooler, pissed-off when your employees show up late or not at all, and more concerned about planning the family vacation than getting high, world.

What I discovered in my prohibition research, and keeping up with the legalization efforts, is that there needs to be a balance between it all. Canada legalized Hemp farming in 1998, and despite many problems with the system, it is happening up there. However, if you take a look at any of the related websites, you will see a different world from the Seattle HempFest realm. You will see pictures of, and articles from, farmers - plain ol' farmers, with denim shirts and work boots. True salt-of-the-earth people, who are doing nothing more than cultivating the world's most amazing crop - no tie-dies, no red eyes. And this is what the masses of America can appreciate.

All counterculture is a wonderful thing, whether punk, hippie, rasta, or beat. But the core of the population of the U.S.A. is the average suburbanite, driving Fords or Corollas, wearing the latest fashions from Kohls or Old Navy, and buying toilet paper from Target or Wal-mart. And even though many of the "masses" have taken a hit, or two, or three, they still have kids, go to church, worry about taxes, listen to the latest pop hits, and shun the counterculture. One must find a way to reach this type, and convince them of the need to legalize Hemp, and decriminalize Marijuana.

The best example I can give is Mason Tvert. He is the man behind Amendment 44 in Colorado this year. Despite being an advocate of legalizing the possession of an ounce or less of Marijuana for adults, he has always been seen in public wearing a suit and tie, well-groomed, and well-spoken. He has not supplemented his street protests with Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin, or had open "smoke outs". He has acted like a politician, and spoken to the yet unconvinced, on their level. Because just like GWB speaking at a private Republican-only event is simply "preaching to the choir", so too is a group of radical activists speaking at a HempFest - it's important to keep the spirit alive, but the preaching needs to break out of the closed environments, and out to the public, through channels that the public can relate to.

This is why I wrote the Plant, because even though I respect anyone who is anti-prohibition, no matter what they look like - because I am smart enough to see past the cover of the book - I believe that presenting to the public, in a non-stoner way, the need to end prohibition on Cannabis, in all its many forms, is the best way to success.