Weed Lifestyle

It's NORML to Smoke Pot by Keith Stroup - Weedist, Source: http://norml.org/shop/item/it-s-norml-to-smoke-pot-by-keith-stroupNORML founder Keith Stroup’s book, It’s NORML to Smoke Pot: The Forty Year Fight for Marijuana Smokers’ Rights (Kindle Edition here), weaves the name-dropping tell-all with political commentary and a unique perspective of NORML’s history in a way that made it a real page-turner for me.

I have a biased interest in this book as a member of the NORML Women’s Alliance Speakers’ Bureau and one of the founders and past board members of Oregon NORML. I have had the distinct pleasure of meeting Keith and spending a little time with him through my years as an activist.

I could hear Keith’s voice in my head as I read his recounts of meeting legendary rebels of the ’60s and ’70s like Abbie Hoffman, Hunter Thompson, Hugh Heffner and more. The wild parties, the drugs, it’s all there. Keith is open and honest about his experiences in a most refreshing way. As he says in the book, “Trying marijuana was just another way to distance ourselves from our parents’ generation. We were young, fearless and looking for the next good time.”

For the Baby Boomer generation, and most of us who have had any experience with cannabis, NORML is the name that has been a constant. For the younger generation of cannabis consumers, NORML is the foundation on which they rely. This book tells the personal story of the man who has persevered through it all.

As cannabis prohibition comes to an end, this book becomes even more relevant. It is important to know the history of NORML because it is the history of the cannabis movement. To be able to get that from the man at the center of it all is a rare treat. Stroup tells of his humble beginnings and reminds us that one person can make a difference. He certainly has.

And, it just wouldn’t be NORML without the appendices that include a history of the NORML awards, a list of medical states with overviews for each and a list of states that have decriminalized or legalized. This book is a must-read for cannabis historians, and a fun read for the rest of us. Keith’s vivid pictures of his adventures move us right along through the past forty years of the fight for legalization.

In the end, we are only incidentally talking about marijuana,” Keith writes.”…we are really talking about personal freedom – ‘that realm of personal liberty which government may not enter.'”