Bob's Blog

A bowl of buds and a ticket to ride… Exotic strains, hallucinogenic surroundings and the burgeoning business of big marijuana. As pot goes mainstream, PBS travel guru speaks of his heady days fighting the 80’s new dumb, and their “just say no” anti-pot campaign of hypocrisy. Join Rick as he speaks about the joys of watching marijuana become legalized in his home state of Washington… and traveling the world while getting high.

While Rick and his travel company are enjoying an elevated status now… It’s not always been this way. Long before Steve’s was paid to travel the world, enjoying the sights – and some of the best cannabis the world has to offer. He was known around the neighborhood in his Edmonds, Washington hometown, as being a somewhat low-key, pro-legalization advocate. Speaking out against the pitifully ill-conceived marijuana policy, perpetuated by the federal government on some of Washington’s local radio shows. Rick was a pioneer in the marijuana legalization movement, looking to put a positive, average guy face – to the otherwise demonized topic of marijuana consumption.

 

So here we are, in your home, with an ounce of legal marijuana. How does it feel to be able to say that after all this time?
It’s nice to stick a bong on my shelf and just hope somebody asks about it – because it’s legal here in Washington State. Ahhhhh … that is a nice feeling.

When did you try marijuana for the first time?
The first time was in Afghanistan, in Kabul.

Wow. What year was that?
Must have been 1978. I never got high in college.

So you went through college in the ’70s without smoking pot, and then went to Afghanistan and tried it?
I didn’t smoke in college because I felt like there was a lot of peer pressure, and I didn’t want to succumb to it. But in Afghanistan, the whole world was high – you’d be riding a bus, and at the rest stop they’d all sit around and watch somebody slaughter a goat while passing some sort of a pipe or bong. Everybody would get as stoned as you can imagine, and then they’d say, “Okay, time to get back on the bus.” It was an amazing, strange world.

Of course, where I really learned to enjoy the experience was in Nepal, in Katmandu. I’d get high and eat apple pie hot out of a medieval oven while listening to the Stones or something like that, surrounded by travelers from all over the world. And I’d just think, “Life is good.”

You sometimes describe “high” as a place you like to visit. Can you explain what you mean by that?
What I mean is that, when you travel, you enter a different mind-set – and when you get high, you can find yourself in a different mind-set, too. And I think that if you’re an adult, you should be free to choose whether or not you want to go there. Also, if somebody tells me I can’t step across a little line on the sidewalk, all of a sudden I want to step across. That’s kind of human nature, isn’t it?

So you think outlawing marijuana has been counterproductive?
You go to the Netherlands, and the Dutch people think it’s just kind of odd that Americans are so excited about marijuana coffeeshops. For them, it’s like, “Yeah, if you want it, it’s down the street. What’s the big deal?” Well, you can do hard time for marijuana in America. That’s what’s the big deal.

And if you look at marijuana usage in the Netherlands, for both youth and adults, it’s lower than here.

I wish Americans understood that. By every measure, the Dutch smoke less pot per capita than we Americans do. There’s no correlation between consumption and the strictness or looseness of a society’s laws. The Dutch approach drugs in terms of pragmatic harm reduction: They want to take crime out of the equation, and they treat those with addictions as people with a health problem who need help – not criminals who need to be locked up.

So, if “high” is a place and it’s now legal to go there in Washington State, do you have any travel advice for a first-time visitor?
That’s a good question. The thing is, I’m not really a proponent of pot – I just believe that if somebody wants to smoke it, that’s their right. Still, I’d say try it in a safe environment with experienced people you trust and feel comfortable with. You also might need to try it a few times, because it doesn’t always work the first time.

Do you think marijuana tourism will become a big ancillary business?
Right now, there’s a lot of speculation about marijuana tourism here in Washington State – the same way people visit the little vineyards in Walla Walla and go wine-tasting. But I don’t think that’s going to be much of an industry. I think Washington’s just going to be an example of a progressive state that understands the futility of criminalizing marijuana. Other states will see the positive results of that approach, and pretty soon tourists won’t need to think about traveling to Washington for legal pot, because pot will be legal all over the United States.

Why did you decide to speak out publicly about marijuana legalization?
All my adult life, most of the people I’ve worked with – including most of the people I’ve respected in my field – have smoked pot secretly, and they’re perfectly upstanding citizens in every way. But they’ve had to lie to their own children; they’re nervous about their employers; some are even nervous about their spouses. And I always thought, “This is not right.” As Americans, we embrace a lot of lies – and for me, the “evils of marijuana” was one lie too many.

Then, in 2003, the campaign to pass I-75 [the initiative that made marijuana the lowest law-enforcement priority in Seattle] asked me to give a talk on Capitol Hill to help raise money. I had to ask myself, “Wow, do I actually want to stand in a public place and explain the wisdom of taking crime out of the equation?” Ultimately, I realized this was the right thing to do. This is good citizenship. I was speaking up for the truth.

Really, I want to make marijuana less scary for the people who wish it would just go away, because marijuana is never going to go away.

Have there been any negative consequences to speaking out?
I figured there would be, but there haven’t been. I suppose I have turned certain people against me – but those are people that I don’t necessarily want for me, so what’s the loss? I don’t need to compromise on the truth or what’s good for society in order to have everybody like me. I have some celebrity and a bit of clout because of what I do, and I’d rather use it in a way that’s a little more courageous than simply trying to make everybody happy.

I guess over the years a few people have told me, “We know what you think about marijuana, and we’re never going to use your guidebooks or take your tours.” And all I can think is, “Europe will be a lot more fun without you.”

Where were you on election night?
I went to the official results-watching party at the Westin Hotel in Seattle. I was on pins and needles all night because we didn’t have any [advance] numbers for the initiative, and then all at once it was clear legalization had passed by a wide margin. I-502 won! At that point, I was euphoric. But I also realized I never want to go through another political campaign again – I just don’t handle that kind of stress very well. Because, you know, when it comes time to count the votes, you either win or lose – it’s 100 percent or zero. And we worked so hard and put so much energy and money into the campaign; all the conditions came together in what felt like a perfect storm. I didn’t know if we could ever get it all together again in the future.

How do you assess the reaction of the federal government since the election?
That’s the big question mark. Our governor here in Washington State wants the federal government to say what they’re going to do so we can build a regulatory system and start collecting tax revenue. I’m a friend of Governor [Jay] Inslee, and he understands this is a real issue. He flew to Washington, DC, to meet with US Attorney General Eric Holder and try to find out if we can do this or not – because he’s hoping to divert hundreds of millions of dollars from the black market and then tax and regulate a new and legal industry. That is quite exciting.

Keep in mind, marijuana legalization got more votes in Colorado and Washington than President Obama. So if the federal government comes in here to overrule us, it will be a really blatant disregard of the will of the people. Fortunately, I think what the Justice Department wants to see is a smart law that’s enforced consistently and prevents legal Washington State marijuana from “leaking” into other states. The federal government doesn’t have endless resources, so they have to pick their battles.

And once we won, the tenor of the discussion changed very quickly. Now people can much more easily support the idea that we shouldn’t be locking up pot smokers. So overall, I’m feeling very confident that we’re going to have our chance to pull this off. I think that in a year or so, people will realize that the sky’s not falling – and in the meantime, the government will become addicted to the tax revenue.

So you’re saying tax revenue is the addictive property of marijuana?
That’s what I’m saying.

Source:

Marijuana.com