if you're interested. >> howdy will but that? we will feel like you're here. what about your emotions? >> more than our fathers to but no matter how pathetic they are. and then when he left, and internalize society pushing extremely low. so when i found out he was a drug dealer, for other people that would be a crushing blow. from the it was amazing. he's a criminal. awesome. using said. what about al, now i understand. i mean, the key moments of his

life. it seemed as though he cannot possibly. and a certain inevitability that takes over when i lay his story out. here is like it could be no other way. to understand is to forgive. >> watching the wire and lately. i mean, i have been watching it is supposedly an accurate portrayal breed i don't know if you have seen it. but an accurate portrayal baby brought in and distributed pitbull and dave simon was a former reporter please do you find -- these two stories don't

really jive with that whole wire police catching people on wiretaps and all these sorts of drug buys and police informants in that sort of thing. and just curious your thoughts on that. >> well, two points. i mean, they are dealing crack and heroin. so categorically different kind of animal involved in that business. i don't know much about how it works really. it is a different individual that gets involved. also on the street corner level i have no idea what happens there. george was. it -- >> george never tell what -- this had nothing to do with those of all ever. they were very high up in the

wholesale business. he did know where -- other than some of the guys you would hire to protective he never noon. he was at ten very. he was care in this class of black kids to teach. they were not trying to except any of his teaching to get a ged people decide that he would teach them how to smuggle if they would get their gigi. it was air conditioned and there. jurors is not want to return of the school. but on this level that has nothing to do with the wire. >> i don't think my father was the guy in that tall grass. he would be there to receive it.

if the load was eight times he would call eight guys. a ton of peace. where it went from there he had no idea. the money, no one pays up front. so the money washes back. when it washed back in small bills my father would get excited. he had some conception of the end user but the he was doing marijuana. that end user is writing music ended late submitted. >> your. >> so in 86 the gang decided to do one last job predicted a huge job. everyone got rich debate and they all were supposed to go off at live private lives. my father and his supplier, the

most prolific smuggler of the reagan era to he did one more jobs with them all bring he used to be involved and, boston guys to and then he disappeared. well, that ring in boston, they had a low shot. eventually the irs notice that all the loans were going to friends and family. they get busted. they get indicted for marijuana sober. so that al qaeda was like a boy who is a supplier. we want to find an. in portugal. and who living it up and a big coastal community. he had a for a. he was driving fast all around the place. the could not find him for a long time. in the court records are all these references. what did they say?

will lau less they one of. they don't know areas. but eventually the local authorities are like a boy who is this correct go with a ferrari. this guy is an idiot. identify him successfully plead he gets busted at the dentist's. the put him in a portuguese jail. his girlfriend is pregnant. he does not like jailed. the plus to the prosecutor flies over and says talk and we will be you out of your. okay. all talk. he comes to the states and caused my stepfather who is the level of other and actively father and me. he says -- he calls our house and asks my stepfather to be for a drink. so he's out and ordered to turn someone else. most of the other coast of the bark. i busted. of cooperating. you should too.

here's the phone number. they're is a film. above cannot do this. and then making the stuff out, he says i wasn't going to do it but they said there are going to break down the door and take you put you in foster care bust your mother. i got it right the guys are going to be safe at that agree to talk. >> a step that was a popular? >> yes. >> i did not know that. [laughter] craigslist the father was the island guy. there were able to get it but had no market. they get together. there were like a way to we need each other. >> city know anything about it said ted? >> no. i didn't know there were

partners. you told me? i don't remember who told me. some government source told ed and i confronted loss of father about it and the $8 to is that he told me the euros story. he said go to the bar. his is a west virginia. coach of the party get the papers of and you'll see indeed i got immunity for you. i saved you guys. he drinks like george allen. it's not right and half of the house. d'agata paper. a comeback the fancy letterhead a lead in league with drug enforcement task force to the big leap signature from the unsecured call the last of father was protected. who.

>> have a private school. >> unfortunately i was there long enough to landry. >> the same sources. the process. >> i mean, i had their names. they have to give testimony special agent david farley comes to the stand and lace up the whole architecture.

he was quoting dillon constantly tearing his life. he was blessed in fort lauderdale by these people he interested. and once he one of their work of eliot know, they're never want to talk about it.

>> just wondering. how do you -- [inaudible question] >> remain employed and 21st century journalism. road trips to mexico any more. seventeen countries were ever you were doing. get a leave of absence from newsweek. >> i was a professor during this . i quit this week to become rich and famous magazine writer.

working full-time. >> sent a day job. ahead of the book ideas she has endured this book. she's out there. >> before you leave a gun ask myself, what's next? this has a woman as the protagonist i can describe it all. st. martin's press. next summer. 2015. the working title is the princess and the da. just quickly to when it is about

a woman who was kidnapped. she is an american woman from a colombian national kidnapped. but colombian guerrillas. and since the king that she was a rich woman who had a multi, multi, multi million dollar wanderings cream in boca raton florida. they kidnapped her, brought her up into the hills. in reality she was working undercover for the da. the story is how they got her back. they had a government agent in their grasp. >> oh, yeah.

>> thank you all for coming. [applause] >> we have books for sale. we have -- if you don't mind folding its shares up and putting them against a wall that will be helpful. thank pirate".

we want to hear from you. tweet us your feedback at twitter.com/booktv. >> doug fine is up next talking about the hemp and argues with

the relaxation of marijuana, hemp will become a billion dollar industry soon. this is about an hour. >> hello and thank you so much for coming. i first met doug last year on colorado day, which is august 1st, when we found each other in front of the capital with the hoisting of the hemp flag that went up above our capital. i don't know if you were aware of that but mike bowman made sure there was a hemp

>> i was going to be in arizona and so was he and we had lunch and grew fond of each other. and since that time our journeys went to varied places like maui, hoisted the flag over the capital on july 4th and moved the needle on where we are taking this. and colorado claims the grund on being the state that put all of this in motion -- ground -- there was the straw that breaks the camels back and colorado is going to lead the full ending of this prohibition nationally in a very foreseeable future.

so it is a great honor and pleasure to introduce my dear friend, doug, who made a dent and mark in my life and spends time on a new mexico ranch milking goats when he is not out on the road helping educate the public about the opportunities before us. he has played an important role in changing the narrative on what we are doing here. with that i would like doug to come to the podium and please welcome my good friend and author, doug fine. [applause]. >> thank you mike and linda. to be mentioned, let alone praised, for people that have done as much for colorado and also humanity means a lot to me. thank you to tattered cover book store and this is the third visit here and you have been

tremendous supporters. thank you for having me back. for me to be speaking about hemp when more than a half dozen of the people, the heroes making this happen, are here in the audience tonight, is like giving a talk about boxing with ali in the audience saying i have to get my facts right but also honor these people. the book wouldn't have been written and we would not be seeing the rebirth of this and phot putting farmers back to work. we have hemp seeds she hopes will go into the her coffee soon. she asked for a blessing. this is non-denomnation here.

blessings to colorado, hemp, and humanity. and thank you come coming here tonight. julie brought an airloom of a 1771 book printed on hemp paper. thank you for allowing us to be up here. and thank you for the hemp plants and i can feel the carbon dioxide being sucked from the atmosphere. the hardest part of talking about hemp is not sounding like you are roommate with the lava lamp because after two years of research i stand here tell you the roommate with the lava lamp was right about the hemp plant. the time is happening now. how do we get the message

across? this year is hemp's biggest year in the possible 10,000 or certainly 77. skipping colorado's achievements for a minute -- the farm bill allows for university research of hemp. it is great first step for people who have been activist for a long time it could be frustrating that only university approved research for the varieties of hemp are approved on the federal level and let's hope the federal agencies -- any dea agencies? welcome if you are here. thank you for coming, guys and ladies. the canadians put their drug squad to work inspecting their crops so we don't have to an across the job firing of the dea

agents but come on board and stop saying those silly things about not being able to tell the difference between hemp and cannabis. it isn't true. the farm bill -- our congress did something and legalized hemp for the first time in 77 years. it matters. research is okay for a couple times. canadians did it and their industry is approaching a billion and growing 24% per year. mike who is one of the two hemp heroes that give the introduction tonight this is him last july 4th in conservative buyers, colorado -- replacing gmo corn with hemp. it has been a magical year. linda, jason, lowl, and shout out to eric hunter as well -- people that were involved in the legislative side of making this

happen in colorado. colorado is ahead of federal law. we were there in bolder on the first day agriculture was accepting permits for commercial hemp. colorado is saying let's do it! let's go. let's generate the revenue from $300 per acre that canadian farmers are making on their hemp and that is ten times what they make on gmo corn. and for a show of hands, how many people know about this guy? there is going to be a statue of ryan loftland some day. he said i am going to print 50 acres of industrial acres in springfield on family land that is getting federal subsidies for the old way of doing things. big farm business no, we are going back to hemp.

he found hemp takes half the water that the wheat he was growing in that land takes and some of his neighbors for whom the reservoir is drying up might be able to heal the soil and get back to the land. remember ryan. he is a hero. so i had no idea when i started researching hemp that instead of being laughed out of committee whenever the iconic clash in the house would bring the hemp bill forward and this was two years ago and i get this saying we will do hemp and he got excited and it is like the committees are like, yeah, no. then all of a sudden it happens right when i am back from two years of world wide research on hemp and have a book about hemp

coming out. much more importantly than that, they made the wish in the books second paragraph come true. my plan the day hemp becomes legal is to begin cultivating ten acres of my land so my sweetheart doesn't have to import the material she does to make the shirts i wear. i would like to be buying colorado grown hemp for my girlfriend to make for hemp clothes. it is coming one step closer to reality. if we leave everybody here with one thought, what i am trying to implant in the colorado university and then the u.s. industly, you know north dakota,

kentucky, california farmers are chomping at the bit and they read the agriculture journals and know the prices. it is a profitable crop. in farming there is a term dual cropping and it means you use one crop for more than one purpose. so what i would like to see it hemp is tricropping and that is main thing that i set out in hemp found. i got to ride in a limo that was powered by hemp. it was very comfortable. bill altus, thanks for that. but the three, so i want to see tri-cropping with hemps. in every colorado processor i deally community-owned processor, farmers will bring their feed in, which is where the money is today we will talk about, it isn't a comp llicated

thing pressing the oil. the gook coming down is an omega super food. i went to a university where they fed the laying hens hemp versus corn feed and the resulting eggs were market hot. the nutritional analysis was way higher content of good things in the hemp fed chickens. seed oil, boom. it comes out and you market it regionally. the seed cake in the press makes fantastic animal feed. i know people that feed their pigs on nothing but that and compost all winter. before tonight's event, mike bowman and i talked about pigs that are hemp-fed in washington

states and they are growing fatter and heathier in a study going on there. and that jives with a woman who said she remembered her dad planting hemp along the irrigation ditches as erosion control. so not just the terrible dust bowl in the heart land, but mali and sub-saharan african. and then when planting irrigation was done in the fall they sent the cattle out and the cattle loved it and that jives with the study we see in the universities. there is your seed oil. i visited the biggest hemp mogul in canada. sean crew. they are undergoing their fourth expansion in ten years. it wasn't that big of a factory.

it doesn't take much to process oil. that is one section. there is your oil in one section. second section we have this fiber obviously. stronger than steel and they are in benze and bmw's. there is a fiber application which is construction. chop up the hemp fibers, mix with lime, and it makes a pink insulation that is better than the chemical-based products. we are going to revamp the shelves of home depot. but the third element i want i want to leave you with is energy. in europe today, entire communities in germany and

austria are becoming energy independent through an anaerobic compbustion product. the units are small and the army is investing in them and that could be in the corner of the factory connect today a grid or maybe a community electric cooperative getting rid of grids and making better and saver distributed grids. you can youtube austria and see this or look up the story of the german town that became fossil-fuel free and are in control of their own energy. i would love to see american communities do that and i would support and advertise it f.

fiber, seed oil and energy. we need the energy to happen. how many people have ready "collapse"? it is a scary story that in great civilizations he documents what went wrong and they sound eerily familiar. this is the modern day cambodia culture. for our purposes as neighbors i am your neighbor to the south and we new mexicans shared that area of the four corners. talk about globalization. they were trading from seattle to costa rica. it looked good. cities and trade routes and then it collapse. see if it sounds familiar to you. it is like poisoning the water supply, overdevelopment and

followed by nutty right ring leaders at the end. seriously. there is an idea the monuments get bigger and they say keep believing, sorry there is no clean water. we need to tackle this. and as a father i am more c confidant about this. i feel as though the carbon mitigation blue print is in place. make sure you include energy -- this is what we call the upside of prohibition. the canadians have the varieties dialled in and ready for us. america's kentucky hemp seed was the sort of beacon of the world. it led the world. kentucky alone -- the first millionaire was a hemp mogul.

hemp was a big business in wisconsin, missouri, ohio -- not so much colorado but it will be now. there was approval for a hemp study in hawaii and we went to visit place that was a warehouse inside a warehouse and opened up a box and there was rotted beef. so we had to start from scratch with research. and people in the room, veronica is one of them, are starting that research now. but we can take the seed industry from canada. the fiber knowledge of china and europe. this is a european dutch factory that makes the fiber that goes into the bmw's and mercedes-benz

today. and make them all part of the first generation. this is fun. mercedes doesn't put hemp fiber in its door panels because they are wearing tie die and throwing peace signs. it is because it is an inexpensive, strong force for their vehicles. the company, hemp flax, that provide the hemp have been at it for 20 years. and they have to jerry rig the process even. there is a learning curve, but you colorado residents out there know how to do it.

they know how to do big agriculture and they know how to interact with the land around here. it isn't rocket scientist especially when it comes to seeds and that is where you should be starting; with seat cultivers. the federal agencies have to thorn feder allow the federal law and allow you to import seeds here. and university research has been approved by the feds and you trying to bring the tax base back and put farmers to work, colorado state, sorry to be calling you out, boulder and other areas you should be signing on with the farmers and conducting research. the canadians want to buy all of the oil and i love you canada

and they have a ban on gmo hemp. but i would rather be boulder county and wells county have regional processors of oil i can buy at my food co-op. chinese presidents visits the hemp factories instead of using money to get rid of them. why would china's president do that? cotton provides 30% of the world's pesticides. so they are poisoning their soil and loosing productivity. they know what is going on. because of the textiles because they girlfriend is interested in it, in the textile world the softness of a shirt you would buy at the mall, some poor

bangladesh put it together probably, they call that hand. it is going to be soft. the soft hand. reminds me of a sign field episode with george had the upper hand in the relationship once and he complains to the girl breaking up with him and said i had hand and she said you are going to need it. china is going into hemp fire because they have to. cotton is toxic. the seed oil industry, let's hope one day that will just be the oil industry. it isn't rocket science rendering seed oil. you can do it. i have a list of some and there are more coming online soon. great ones tonight. chitchatting afterwards but we will have to step it outside as the bookstore closes after the q

and a. so the oil is this super food. we cannot eat enough of the stuff. we buy 90% of the canadian crops. i am a small-time rancher. so when i interviewed sean crew i said what about people like me, i have 40 acres and will plant 20-30 when it is legal. and he said talk to the hand. if you are under a thousand acres you a hobby farmer. and you know, spoke it like a manitoba guy. a winnipeg jet fan. that is how you do it up there. and that is fantastic and fine. i am doing the math here. this isn't anything other than what people are declaring on their tax refounds.

canadians are getting $300 profit per acre so minimum 10,000 acres -- that is more than i made in book sales in my entire career after four books that farmers are making on one-years crop in canada. i don't think you need to do that many acres. a man who was doing everything he could to get hemp to people told me don't let people say it has to be a mega crop, billion dollar industry, you have a network of farms going 15-20 acres of hemp you can have a profitable industry. you all work together and own the processor and are joint investors. i am in the middle ground on

this. i am fine with people having a mchemp sandwich at mcdonalds. that is fine with me as long as it isn't hmo. i am going to chose a local source. my goats can't wait to be fed hemp. they told me that during our morning meditation. it is really true. i start every day meditating with goats. it was one of the reasons i was thanking the politicals. i would like to thank the people that do the leg work in the colorado legislator and got the hemp industry going that is going to show the world what the plant has to offer humanity. they are dealing with human beings feeling all kind of energy and bookroom deals and i am milking goats and listen to

mating calls. so thank you people in the trenches who made it happen. on the fiber side, things i look like hemp textiles like hemp paper. bless you my publisher printing hemp bound on hundred percent recycled paper and they are going for it. they tried to make hemp happen on the first edition of "hemp bound" and it isn't there anymore. it cannot happen on a mass market paperback. so they are talking about through grow hemp colorado sponsoring a colorado farmer and there is going to be a contest to grow the fiber that can go into the future edition of "hemp bou bound". that might seem wild, but in

winnipeg, canada, a government joined private industry -- isn't that wonderful? they are burning the fiber and they have a car and tractor build of hemp and it is out performing petro by every step of the way. they are not hipsters. they are scientist trying to figure out would work. can you see this at your john deer factory? it is built from the hemp you colorado residents are going to manufacture vite manufacture. the first fiber killer app -- plant it for the seed oil, first generation, that is where the money is. your fiber app, if you don't have the skills to do the

sophisticated stuff like the textiles, nano technology and body armor -- how many people knew george bush senior's parachute twine was made of hemp that saved his life in world war ii? construction is an easy low maintenance app. the test that are going on in universities in canada especially are showing hemp, crete and mixing with lime and they create carbon negative homes and out performing pink insulation and starting to be developed in load bearing application. i called up a company that is all over england and now they

are selling it in in the united states. chop up your fiber and sell it to the construction industry. what hemp creed is done right it creates a light and airy easy to pack. concrete has to be heated up to thousands of degrees. it is intensely energy demanding. so i ask in the book, is this a no-brainer? you are building hemp houses and stores out of hemp. and entire subdivisions. is it a no brainer? and he said it is no-brainer for anyone maintaining the structure they are developing. if you are just trying to do, you know, flipping stuff with whatever is cheapest god knows what toxcity and particle board and dry wall -- and flip it. today in europe it is toss up on

cost but the energy efficiency, durability and maintenance with hemp if you are thinking five years ahead is a no-brainer. but i went on sight in canada, ma manitoba, to a house they want to provide it as low income. and they are finding it is extremly mold and mildew and in hawaii they found termite resistant. i asked the real guys, not the pr people and the housing minister giving me the tour, i idea the guys with the construction hats what it was like to build with hemp insulation on the sight. and they said once we got the mixture figured out it was the best job we did. it is quick, you can paint or plaster over it and the energy

efficiency is clear even in the middle of building the house. it took a couple days of experimenting with the mixture of hemp mixed with lime to find the consistency. it took a couple days of experimenting to find the ideal mixture. that is the most cynical thing i can tell you about the application. but more than one long-term hempster said they believe construction will be the first fiber killer app. we have 30% of americans as farmers when hemp prohibition started and now we have 1%. and we can talk about the causes of it but the bottom line is farmers are trying to make a living like everybody else and

if what they are doing is great for the earth, which hemp is, that is fantastic. & a great bonus. but it is about being able to harvest a crop for which there is a market. and i believe whether it is a thousand acres. i visited his farm. and rebuilding america's seed stock and other people were there. he has $600,000 invested in the farm's harvesting equipment. this is real business. he showed me technology i could not believe. if it is going to be massive i would love to see it be hemp. every hemp bound event i have done i have been asked is monsanto going to take it over? and i say if we get the gmo-ban like they have in place in

canada in the united states. i wanted to see if i would explode saying that. it is like we are experiencing technical difficulties on c-span right now. bless you for covering this event. hurray for c-span. you know, i don't know mind when you are driving through minnesota and wisconsin that sed instead of seeing endless field of earth killing corn you see hemp. i will support that. wonderful people, super religious heart land canadian farmers, pauline dick and her terrific kids are growing several hundreds of acres of hemp and she had a dream of

making a healthy energy bar. she is a tri-athlete and thought they were not up to par. she put a mixture together from an early hemp harvest and won a contest and got $20,000 and has this incredible hemp energy bar company from the hemp the family grows on the farm in manitoba. skipping ahead, mike bowman is here today, and the hemp brand is encapsulated by the dr. bronners soap company. $54 million company. he collects five times the salary of the lowest paid

employee. the olive oil in their soap is from orchids cultivated by israels and palstines. and he looked himself in a cage in front of the whitehouse last year with this hemp plant. this is where i want to apologize for my mother. what are you going to say at the bridge club meeting -- saw your son holding the cannabis plant on the booktv. but no, i am proud to do that. my kids have a great time visiting the hemp field and mike

said his grandkids are having a great time this year. so david bronner is arrested in front of the whitehouse. and he is saying it is happening now. thank you again, colorado. as far as the hemp brand goes, that kind of rightiousness is like arm and hammer baking soda that is like a natural way to clean your fridge or counter and hemp has that brand, too. and that is the bottom line reason to make sure there is never any genetically modified hemp. franken hemp that is off-brand and this has been a movement for 77 years to get the plant back to the economy matters. and we should stick to that. for those who come knew to the plant, i should mention hemp

prohibition was an accident and a typo. when the misguided marijuana tax app was inputed -- the most interesting thing is that within a few years it was already shipping american business offshore because world war ii broke out and our source for the 40 tons of hemp rigging that every navy vehicle needed was the philippines because farmers couldn't grow hemp anymore but the japanese captured them. all of a sudden you can go to youtube and check out this pr propganda film. the fact it took another 70 years to cultivate again is in

sane but it happened. i was reducing the sustainable cannabis industry for my last book and i found it in progressive county in the red woods and if anymore progressive it would be clothing optional in the market. the first area to ban genetically modified organisms. and i asked if the sheriff enforced it and he said there was a ride on gmo corn in the county. which i thought was funny. i am still alive. so you are allowed to speak out against gmo. i love democracy. and this cannabis industry is

not an occupier. this is pro-hemp republican senator from kentucky mitch mcconnell leading the charge in the senate. there is a lot of backroom funny stories about what brought senator mcconnell to hemp. and one of them reported by ryan grim suggested that senator mcconnell's colleague in kentucky promised not to run a tea party candidate against him in a primary if he would get behind hemp. whatever it takes. the reason i include my rent sign here is i thought the no passing sign is unfriendly. this is at the interest to my black diamond driveway in the

middle of nowhere. this is the sign here: i mentioned this because i have a sympathy for rural america. i am one of you. i am here to help as colorado gets going and introducing people it processors. after the hemp expo, i was approached by a guy that wanted to provide facilities for the farmers. that is why i brought them here. by the way, no one has ever honored that sign. i am not a dedicated nudist and those of you who know i am a

goat herder and you would think you can go get your boxers off the laundly line without anyone knowing but it is also when mary is coming down the driveway when i am out there. i think she has binoclars on or something. but in buyers, colorado where he did the planting on july 4th, these were conservative people and didn't hear a negative word about hemp. colorado farmers are ready to go and the reason is because of the dust bowl we are experiencing. this is not a photo from 1932 from the grapes of wrath. this is 2012, lamar, colorado. jol jolene hickson didn't know the difference between marijuana and

hemp last year. that is her wheat field. this is no joke. ask a conservative rancher whether or not global warming is real. any time we get off petroleum we replace it with something like building composit and get that into hemp instead of the petro-chemical based building materials we use. any time you get on petroleum you are doing something good were the world. last week in the niger delta terrible things are happening. i am not someone that can criticize the patretroleum induy because i believe they made it great. i will not be able to use my mac

without the petroleum. we would not have won world war ii without texas crowd and hemp for that matter. if we have a gusher up there next to the lincoln monument i am cool with that. but that was last century and let's move on to the next thing. the big issue for american farmers now and you colorado residents know that is how do you get your seeds. one would like to think that the employees that work for us and are paid with our tax dollars follow the law of the land, which now says university research is cool in hemp states so and by the way, there is great further hemp legislation

in congress that we should be supporting and getting involved in that. and if you want me to get more specific on that. does anybody know the name of the current within the state multiple people are developing seeds including people here tonight. so you can find them within the state rebuilding of the plasm

for heme hemp. but the ditch weed in nebraska is still the and hemp's foot long tap roots -- it is an annual plant and has these tap roots and that is why it is so st stabl stablilizin stabilizing. you are creating an underground system with things that are important to soil health. that is why hemp is valuable for remeadiation and why conservative kentucky energy plants are planting hemp and using it in this gasification process we have been talking about. let darwin chose.

use the nebraska ditch weed. just plant that. there is nothing wrong with that. it is good idea especially if your plan is building material where the fiber doesn't have been to uniform. but for the high end application, the hemp flax people in the netherlands, my micromanage this and they have been uniform and perfect if they were going to bmw or mercedes-benz. there is a hemp

it at this. i know the hempsters are law-abiding citizens so i don't want to make it seem like they are outlaws or here heroes but let's change the federal law and university get on board and do the research so they were like where did the seed come from? and he said i am keeping that on the down low and friends sent them to me all over. we are building the seed stock today thank god. and we are not getting raided. the climate change issue you are seeing in eastern colorado is affecting all of you. we had terrible floods. noah had 40 days and 40 nights where he could not find land? well i had 40 days that would

not let me cross the creak from my ranch to the civilization road. a neighborhood tried and it was ugly. hemp matters to me as a father. i came to hemp once i had kids because hemp not cotton held up to that. if you had kids and did clothe diapers and it is poop, line dry, poop, line, dry, break for lunch. and hemp, not cotton held up in the real world. dr. broner's soap was the non-toxic issues to bathe my youngsters in. and hemp seed oil, expensive and waiting for the day i can press it myself, but was my

girlfriend's prenatal high grade source of omega. my goats, by the way, i brought a sample of the book telling them i would be feeding them hemp soon and they started by the biting in the book. and the hemp oil ride i told you about, believe me, the exhaust does give you the munchies. i enjoy the textile side and like wearing the hemp clothes and i am glad my girlfriend makes it for me. this is hemp corduroy and she did a good job with the snaps on this. and this is made by a commercial

market but the vest and shirt she made. this is the message saying this is longevity. recently a study in turkey, looking good and ready for showtime and i was invited to testify for changing international drug laws and ending cannabis prohibition for money laundering and hurting families at the high session of the u.n. i think i was the first person to testify to be claded from head to toe in hemp.

i told you about the hemp eggs and their nutrient profile. and hemp twine. where do i find hemp twine? made in india sold at walmart. i didn't tell you the end of the story about when i was researching sustainable cannabis counties and i saw the stalk from the plant isn't being used and it has an energy resource and that planted me the seeds for "hemp bound". the reason i believe industrial cannabis is going to be bigger than the other kind is because

coors is big but exon pexonn is bigger. so a quick reality check. the post harvest process of retting -- how many people have heard of retting? it is a bit medieval. if you see sketches from the 10th century france hemp fields it looks like this. minus the factory there. i have the slide here because i was told if you tell people something three times they retain it. so in addition to the seed oil and the fiber want you to get the energy. so i am sneaking it into slides that has nothing else to do with it. so retting -- it isn't a no brainer to cultivate hemp for

oil. you have to harvest at the right time and store it in a way that it retains the correct moisture level before getting to the processors and i think newbies could figure it out. there is a fungal battle going on after retting and it is two weeks of rotating with the right amount of moisture so this incredible outer bar opens up. i write about a fellow named clark who developed a decoordinator and it isn't a new concept. but it is expensive and allows you to strip the bark off from harvest. so it might be going from 10th century to 20th and i bring this up so any time i cannot sound like your roommate with the lava lamp i need to do it. i am a believer. i think the hemp industly is

going to take off. canadian farmers are profiting $300 per acre and save the earth while they are at it. it is a patriotic issues that is causing people that don't normally talk about things like mitch mcconnell. and thank you mike bowman as well. that is where i met you. and this was the hoisting of the hemp flag above the colorado state house on colorado day last year. but also july 4th. the hemp flag went over the u.s. capital last year. it is one of those moments you cannot turn back like whether commies were the big enemy. you could not call your congressman and say i need a

photo of boys ner hoisted over the capital. but hemp is the opposite of the ene enemy. it is one of the most patriotic industries you can support. i want to see the hemp sandwich in mcdonald's. this was usda researcher developing cultivars. i want to continue the discussion because the changes happening every day -- in boulder i was approached by a researcher at the national renewable energy labs, and jason spoke to him to, saying i think the farm bill is changing things and i think we may not have to ignore this anymore. we are going to do climate change and it is because your

roommate with the lava lamp was right. thank you for coming. [applause] can i take can up couple questions? >> i am in illinois, any prospect of combgetting that in here? >> in the state of illinois? what i think is going to happen is -- illinois made great strides like medical cannabis. i mention this because minds are open on the officialism. president obama voted to legalize hemp as an illinois legislature twice, by the way. so missouri is in the forefront. ohio is pushing hard and texas just gave a talk at rice university and i should not ask surprise because the baker

institute gets it and they get it in terms of drug policy because they are a border state and know what cannabis prohibition does via organized crime. and from the ambassador to the name-sake of the institute to all of the researchers there are totally on board. and texas is ready on hemp. so i think just as california is often kind of paving the way for things that happen across the nation and across the west i think texas is going to be the reverberation across the south there. i think illinois will follow missouri and ohio are going it be the first in the midwest. >> gary, indiana is stuck in a terrible cycle.

we have had the land since 1875 but the bank runs it and we are paying a lot for the input. we all inherited it but we are not making good use of it. we have a fine farm house and weep don't want to live it. it is out in the country all by itself on the highest land location and eight miles from indiana. the whole history of the tipping canoe battle is in that vicinity. but the thing is it is all petro chemicals out there. farmers now just farm when we harvest the crops like mowing the yard. we are stuck in a syndrome of the high cross of what they call input. >> it sounds like ripe for fiber

remediation. but i am glad that you mention this because besides the strictly physical soil remediation it is land use and putting farmers back in control with their land from farmers that can make a living. that is the ultimate goal. i would like to see it happen in illinois. anybody from illinois with influence contact your legislatures. >> bill gates just bought a whole section near the farm. but it is big farmers. they will sell off a section at a time and we are just a small farm. >> how many acres? >> about 2/3rds of the half session. >> that is enough to get the hemp going.

>> but the thinking is stuck in the state of illinois. >> spending top energy for that. >> linda? >> i want to encourage anyone who wants to know more check out the rocky mountain hemp association's website. and there is a button where you can become a member. we welcome everyone. we want it to be the networking website for farmers and industry and anyone who is interested on any aspect of this unfolding of hemp in the united states or at least in colorado. rockymountainhempassociation.org . >> i am a member and i forgot to introdu introduce susan. this is a colorado senator who put force the earliest efforts.

linda and jason can speak to this better. but a day to see farmers cultivated commercial hemp must feel good and thank you f. >> how much of the market is driven by the prohibition? ...

you can't make any assumption that way but the curve of demand is not only so strongly upward it has me been reached that malfusian where it takes off yet. the canadians are desperate and the processors in canada are desperate for american farmers to get the seed planted because how much the demand demand is going. at least in the foreseeable future i believe farmers will see profits growing seed oil and effect winds up stabilizing keep in mind a 100-dollar profit is more than twice of what the average american farmer is making on soy profit. even if that stabilizes the energy independence i think hemp is here to stay and it is true that this is the new industry

for the u.s.. one of humanities longest utilize plants as an industry. most industries fail. most new industries fail. we can't guarantee this is going to be an automatic success but hemp is not new. the benefits of hemp i mean the persians call it the king of seeds. i don't want to lay the dash my own spiritualism on anyone else but if you are a religious person genesis chapter 1, the first chapter of the bible, first 29 says you shall have all the plants and seeds to use, not unless some dude named richard nixon comes along and says there's a couple we don't like. thank you all. [applause] >> thank you doug.

doug will be happy to sign copies of his book at the front desk. pepperdine university's angela hawkins sat down with booktv to discuss the pros and cons of marijuana -- marijuana legalization. this interview is part of booktv's college series. >> host: the book is called "marijuana legalization" what everyone needs to know. it's published by oxford university press. one of the co-authors and editors is angela hawken who is

a public policy professor at pepperdine university where we are on location. angela hawken is this book pro-or anti-legalization of marijuana? >> guest: neither. if it's written by four authors and that is what is the genius of oxford university press bringing together four different opinions and together figuring out what the evidence base is. the problem with issues surrounding marijuana is there are such strong advocacy groups on both sides of the issue and when the public reads about it they have no idea which direction they are being pulled into. >> host: where do you stand personally initiate? >> guest: i was hoping you'd wouldn't accept that now that you did in chapter 16 of the book each of the authors was required to basically declare the subject and for many academics it's an uncomfortable thing to do.

you don't want to show your hand in and research we have provide as unbiased as we are able to set of perspectives. in this case the four authors i was the one who was most in favor of there are one or legalization until commercial legalization which i think was surprising to many because my background. >> host: why are you in favor of? >> guest: as i said in the chapter my drug of choice at cradle anglican had my first drink of wine and when i was 13 years old during communion and a irregular consumer and reasonable and safe consumer of wine. my drug of choice is alcohol. for others their drug of choice is marijuana and in terms of social harms the social harms of alcohol or dominate the social harms of marijuana. as a policy analyst everyone wants to see the laws handled more equitably and there wasn't

a strong case for anti-marijuana use in the face of rolax laws surrounding alcohol given the risks of alcohol use and the harms are so much greater with alcohol than marijuana. the question didn't ask me which "cnn" has done to a number of my colleagues is have you used or are you a user. you are the pro-legal one so clearly you are a user. my team had been working with the state of washington and we would ask the question often argue users and who is advising the government? for a while the position taken by the team is simply not to answer the question. there's no good way if you are a researcher to answer the question are you a pot user but i'm willing to tell you today in spite of the fact that i'm one of the four who is most in favor of marijuana legalization i am not a user. i really do come to this without a horse in the race and someone who looks at the data and is concerned with what i have seen.

>> what's the acceptability of marijuana use in the united states and maybe even hearing california? >> it's unclear at the time and this is why we seen such strong -- and political rhetoric surrounding marijuana is changing. the latest result that i saw last year the change in the meantime peer recorded findings from the summer of 2013 looking at where the public is on the issue and at that time it had changed by now but 50% of americans were in favor of legalizing marijuana. when you have a majority the public supporting something like that politicians have to pay attention. politicians tend to be rather fickle. the language surrounding marijuana use is changing and california did not pass marijuana legalization when voters want to pull in 200010. it was not passed in by an narrow margin net loss of the

two states that passes the book has been out planned a release date surrounding the time of the book going to the voting polls. we were surprised. my co-authors thought the state would not tip. we sell washington and colorado move in the direction of legalization. >> host: when is it going to be on the ballot in california? >> guest: you know i believe the advocacy players are in california and 2016 and for a few years now it's been the chatter that the big push for marijuana in california would be 2006 and that would be an important election year. i'm surprised if other states of move in the meantime. california will be a laggard state in that regard. >> host: who smokes marijuana in united states?

>> guest: was stunning number of people smoke marijuana. they prevalent use is three to 4% globally. americans have a much more aggressive taste for marijuana than that. we are running at three times. >> host: so 10%. the. >> guest: nl last year 13 million americans smoked marijuana. most of them about a third of those were people who we call the experimenters someone who will really think of it as being something quite radical. they have the drag and a smoke of puff. about a third of that as people who are the unusual experimenters. it's not a way of life for them and that we have a relatively sizable share of the population who are social smokers. they will smoke once in a while because they have peers who are smoking and is really another way of life but there's a group of people about 20% of marijuana users for whom this is really way of life. they spoke every day or every couple of days and some of them

will go want to have an issue with abuse or dependency. marijuana is different from some of the illegal drugs in terms of abuse and dependency so if you look at people who are regular consumers of marijuana for example people who use every two days or more often and daily users or every two days, about a third of marijuana users who use that much meet clinical criteria for abuse or dependency. if you take a drug like cocaine 88% meet the clinical criteria for abuse or dependency so the typical heavy user of cocaine is dependent upon cocaine. the typical user of marijuana is not dependent on marijuana. which i think does differentiate marijuana from some of the other drugs in an important way. >> host: how does that compare to alcohol abuse or use? >> guest: until my senegal and marijuana in terms of use and abuse are relatively similar. many people use alcohol every day or every three days.

every couple of days i'm going to have a glass of wine. those ratios look similar to marijuana and alcohol in terms of how many people going to have a problem with use. that's not to say it's an issue. some people really do meet clinical criteria for dependency and abuse whose lives are unproductive and they are not able to get things done. they self disclose is having tried to quit and haven't managed to quit the people who do meet those political criteria even though they are a minority have serious issues and trying to move on to a life that doesn't include the use of the substance. >> host: angela hawken with a medical marijuana laws is that i way around legalization and punishment? >> guest: at the jerry's depending on the state you are in. in california it's essentially if you went to venice beach is notorious you could look at the long list of ailments and they will tell you what to complain

about and he will meet with the recommendations in a few minutes so essentially it's become a very easy environment in which to obtain, essentially legal access to marijuana. but the legalization of marijuana and that commercial legalization is different from medical marijuana and that it really allows the production and sale of marijuana for nonmedical use, for recreational use. in the book i describe medical marijuana in detail and my concerns about medical marijuana according to the california model where really they -- these doctors have made a fuss. there are some people who have serious medical issues who are turning to marijuana for relief. they turn out to be a tiny percentage of the total number of medical marijuana users. about 5% have what we would consider diagnosable reason for carrying a medical marijuana card. the rest are probably people who enjoy amusing -- enjoyed using

marijuana. as i said i'm in favor of legalization side no reason to be unhappy about that except i don't like is somebody who is willing to lie to a doctor to obtain a card has no problem where someone who does want to make those false statements does. i think it creates an uncomfortable system. i have some real concerns about how it is played out in some states. >> host: what kind of tax revenues has california garnered from medical marijuana and what are the early results from colorado? >> guest: colorado has been fascinating to watch. the last few months we have seen taxation results released and advocacy groups from the beginning were talking massive tax benefits in many states looking for additional source of

revenue is very appealing. in some of the states the idea of marijuana legalization being a cure for problems sounded very appealing. the initial estimates most of us thought were too high. the tax revenues would not be nearly as high as the advocacy group had implied. the results came out in colorado and the tax revenues were much higher. suddenly we were wrong in our understanding of this. if you look closely what happened in colorado in the early after when pot was made legal there wasn't sufficient legal supplies. supply and demand will tell you if you ever do supply and there's a lot of tourism. people came to colorado to use because it was the first movement around it so a lot of people came into colorado. there was limited supply so prices skyrocketed.

there was an artificial blips surrounding the law. colorado itself has issued statements saying their protections for tax revenue in colorado aren't nearly, not nearly as rosy as the initial data suggested so my guess is that tax revenues, there will be tax revenues. they won't be nearly as big as initially predicted an part of that is because of reductions in price. as morris produced and as the producers get better producing it we are likely to see downward pressure on prices. some of my co-workers believe there will be a sizable reduction in plummeting in prices. the nature of how marijuana is produced and running a business in general there are natural costs involved in any sort of business operation that will keep the price is higher than we might have suggested in the book. it's one of the things we should have -- [inaudible]

>> host: is there an association with crime and marijuana? >> guest: it's so interesting. the association between drug use and crime is muddled. all the criminal literature and none can show a true causal relationship between drug use and crime. the idea is there a many reasons why people might be involved in crime and drug use at the same time. some people commit crimes to finance their drug use. marijuana is an expensive so the economic motivation for marijuana users isn't especially a compelling argument. some people might commit crime because of the physiological response to the drug and somehow the drug makes them predisposed to commit a crime. the evidence in madison very good and the drug that comes closest to that is methamphetamine. the physiological relationship is slight.

the lip laboratory experiments were with mice and they would load up these mice with methamphetamine. you have to give mice near lethal doses and they don't behave all that differently. what happened with marijuana users is there with aggression associated with it. much like with heroin users if someone uses heroin the guy in the corner goes to sleep essentially. the causal uses between drug use and crime are complicated and often where the criminal elements as come and is sometimes the trade related to the drug rather than a drug use itself. and of course drinking and driving or driving under the influence is a crime and will marijuana legalization lead to an increase in drunk driving is an important question. someone like myself who says i've might be willing to see legalization play out would quickly change my mind if i see results from washington and colorado and they show an increase in drunk driving or more partly if the results show

marijuana and alcohol use together. if an increase in marijuana use is accompanied by an increase in alcohol use i will fundamentally change my mind on marijuana legalization. we will learn in the next few years. if many of us who are academics studying the marijuana issue want to see that result. the other issue is the controversial voice for many decades now is the relationship between marijuana use and other illegal drugs. is the fact that more people are consuming marijuana which is lacking the face of legalization will lead to higher rates of use of other illegal drugs, that could be a concern or is the opposite possible that an increased use of marijuana because it's legal might suppress the use of other illegal drugs? all these questions that we will know the answers to in a few years which is why some of us think if we are ambivalent about the legal -- legalization of marijuana you might learn a

stunning amount for the future. back to drunk driving. often we get the question asked by a parent is it better for for me if my child drives stoned or drives drunk like the answer is better not let your children use any of the above if they're behind the wheel. it's much more dangerous to drive drunk and stoned. in other words driving under the influence of marijuana and alcohol is much more dangerous than driving either under one or two in isolation. relationship is a complicated one and i think we will have to learn a lot about before we understand where policy should be. a stunning fact was talked about prevalence a while ago, 44% of american twelfth-graders have used pot. 6% of them are everyday users so marijuana use is -- has been around for long time and it can

be used in large quantities. we know very little about the influence of marijuana on the growing brain. brain science hopefully now that we have the states tipping will allow for brain science to catch up so we can learn about what stages the brain develop in the cycle is marijuana essential in a negative way. >> host: angela hagan is the marijuana being sold in colorado and medical clinics etc. isn't it domestic product? >> guest: most of our marijuana spread from mexico. there is high-grade marijuana produced in california so the high-grade the commercial grade is in the single digits thc level. there have been scary stories in the media about teenage levels of 40% and this is the marijuana that will kill your grandchildren. we hardly ever see those cases played out. most of the upper of the

marijuana that's confiscated his commercial grade. it's low-level thc coming from mexico. >> host: that's the medical marijuana as well? >> guest: the marijuana would be produced locally. >> host: is higher thc? >> guest: was grown to make sure not only is there a known thc level but gracious between chemical compounds in marijuana. thc tends to get all the attention but there's another chemical in marijuana code cbd which reduces anxiety level associated with marijuana use. a trend that has been to increase thc and increased cbd which is why you see more emergency room appearances because people are using marijuana at higher levels of thc than typically used in the past that the cbd is suppressed so you can't have anxiety depressed -- and that is why we

see emergency visits increase. >> host: in part of our series with pepperdine high school we talked with a public policy professor as well. he said he's been smoking cigarettes for 62 years and today would be easier to smoke marijuana in california than a cigarette in public. >> guest: i don't think that's true. he has a fun personality but it is. that's not a prescription. these aren't prescriptions made by doctors and if they were doctors would be held accountable for a higher standard of diagnosis. anyway i wish there was a prescription requirement. instead of the recommendation won't doctor recommend marijuana might be useful for whatever your ailment is at the clinic. but it's astonishing to secure recommendation and easy to find. >> host: angela hawken again this book what everyone needs to

know about me at marijuana legalization do you take a position on marijuana legalization in this book collects. >> guest: in the book i say outright that i'm of the four authors the most in favor of legalization for the reason i suggested. the cost of the criminal justice system is astonishing, 750,000 per arrests for marijuana use. we are making criminals out of our relatives and children. there's a better way to deal with this than to the criminal justice system so i'm in favor of air while legalization. that said i'm in favor of evidence. if the early data shows this decision was a bad one i will be the strongest advocate for turning things around. it really depends on the data. >> host: how does the u.s. fit in with the rest of the world when it comes to legalization issues? >> guest: we have seen

decriminalization. people talk about the netherlands and portugal but these two states where the first jurisdictions on earth to ever allow the commercial sale of marijuana which makes this -- uruguay has filed suit. what's interesting is this is left the community and a bit of a scramble. the u.s. government is a signatory to treaties that say you have to pursue and stop the use of illegal drugs including marijuana. international narcotics control board has sent letters to the united states into uruguay following these legalization moves and as a watchdog body international narcotics board doesn't have a lot of teeth. a park slope at his neverland teeth. the truth is very little the states -- states are not signatories to international and the federal government can pursue marijuana cues in any of

the states but can't require the states use their resources to pursue marijuana grocers and -- growers and users. the federal government has been really quiet and has taken a backseat. if they were ever going to take a mission of marijuana legalization and try to stop it in their tracks they should have done it now while it was in two states. the federal government has limited resources for fighting drug issues. 4000 dea agents nationwide. if they were to take it on that have to do it in washington and colorado. >> host: what are the laws in their home country of south africa? >> guest: it's illegal. >> host: illegal being jail time, illegal being a fine? >> guest: the legal response to marijuana use is relatively muted. they have for stories about some kid who ended up spending real

time for marijuana use. that rarely happens. if someone is in custody for marijuana use is usually the result of a plea bargain or some kind of history where the judge was concerned about public safety records for other reasons. for example if you look at inmates serving time with marijuana charges most people would say -- if you look at their histories the history of the typical marijuana user in a prison has a stronger history of violence than serving for a violent charge. if you are marijuana user made it into custody there was more going on than just marijuana use. we tend to have laws that treat marijuana differently from other drugs. often in it could be a penalty or fine. >> host: angela hawken teaches public policy at pepperdine. she consults for the u.n. and the state department.

>> tony dokoupil who covers marijuana legalization for nbc news talks about his father who smuggled more than 50 tons of marijuana into the united states between 1975 and 1986. this is about an hour and 15 minutes.

[applause] >> i have an assistant that is coming in here with some more notes so i won't stand on that. i remember when the store was open in the early 70's. i haven't been back here very much but park slope, we came out here in 1968 and bought a house 50 yards away on the other side of paul menos. this old irish lady was holding out for $40,000. [laughter] we got her down five grand, something we could afford. and then i left 20 years later

having raised a family here and so it's really good to be back. writing a book about drug dealers is very alluring. a lot of people do it because you are dealing with people -- unless you were doing with methamphetamine dealers or heroin dealers whose product is a lot more lethal they are basically an entertaining lot. while they know there are drugs they don't really think what they are doing is wrong. selling stuff to people who want

it at a market price. it's only harmful if you overindulge. sean licker next door which we used to call sean liquor and he would not only deliver liquor but he would deliver cash money and he would give him a check. he would cash the check, give your liquor. [laughter] i just left his son a note to say hi kevin i think his name is. do you still deliver cash to houses along with liquor? but these guys feel very clever about themselves. not only because they made a lot of money but because they really enjoyed their cat and mouse game with the police which is automatically usually very fun funny.

they go on until they are caught but it's a lifestyle that to them is as addictive as if they were putting something into their arm. and very few of them get out of it safely. very few of them graduate to normality. take my guide george who was the protagonist of blow, he was free and clear of the law when he and i got together and 91, 92, two years. he had been blacked out for testifying against carlos later. he wasn't out on any condition. he was sentenced to 60 years. they just let them out so he was

given this incredible get out of jail free card. so we talked, but the book came out i think in 93. george got bored. he went throughout the tv shows and everything and there's nothing george could do that would engage him anywhere near as much. he couldn't do anything. he was never employed other than a manual labor when he was a teenager. so we had found this yucky indian import ofori-atta whom he had smuggled pot within the 60s. he went back to ramon in 1964 and they started smuggling pot again. he got arrested right away for 600 pounds in his basement on the cape. he was behind a false wall.

didn't know how he got there. [laughter] the prosecutor waived the book in the courtroom, blow and said this man has followed the law his whole life and the judge in 1994 gave him 22 years straight up. he was 52 years old and he did every penny of it. he's getting out in may. he missed the movie. he missed everything. johnny depp came to the prison to learn the koran does boston's working-class accent that is probably the actor's bane of any accent. they went up there to give he and his wife a special showing of blow blowing everything but george missed the whole thing. it will be out i think it's ma

may 28 out of fort dix federal correctional institution. i've lost touch with him in the last several years but he has a web site. he has a lot of people waiting for him out there. he has signed on with one of these piranhas in hollywood who will guarantee you we are going to do a lot with you george. you are going to be famous and he has for a while. something is going to happen to him. so anyway, georgia 72 and he has had a cancer operation on his forehead, a melanoma but i think he's okay. so he is out in 72. seller author tonight, he also knows somebody who stuck with it

a long time, his old man. so this is his first book and just reading the bio, is certainly an impressive career. you have heard some of it but some of it that i thought was interesting was he graduated from gwu in 2003; lobby. he graduated first in his class. i have never known anybody, i have never known anybody who graduated first. he's very embarrassed about that i'm sure that they went to colombia for american studies and he found his way to "newsweek" magazine when it was connected with the daily beast. >> even before that when i was connected to the american mainstream.

[laughter] >> right. my memory is hazy in that. and what interested me about it is he is a traditional jack of all trades reporter. i mean they are not around much anymore. he has written everything from a 10,000 a day corporate psychic to the last surviving veteran of world war i. the only in baltimore who adopted a white girl. >> we didn't fact check that. that's an assumption. >> no other black fathers have come forward with a white daughter. >> i can't "newsweek" when they started and i broke from colombia journalism and they started dropping their fact checker. the checkers i interviewed, smith is the editor and said well yeah i know but a few

mistakes here and there. on the cover they misspelled garry wills' name on the cover of the magazine. where was i? black father, oh yeah. portrait of a reclusive author of the anarchist cookbook back in god knows when and one of the more effective exposés of scientologist l. ron hubbard. he's a senior writer at nbc news lives with his wife and two children. and another one just around the corner? >> thank you bruce. [applause] thank you all for coming. a lot of people in the room have been aware of this book for a long time. it's behind schedule. fortunately behind schedule.

i was supposed to turn it into years ago and legal weed was not here. i think much of the conversati conversation, people wouldn't be as interested in the book if they weren't able to buy the stuff in washington now. where do i begin? i will give you a summary of the book which is something i gave a lot of thought to. i just created the daily news headlines from sunday. in the printed edition it was 50 tons of trouble. 50 tons was the number of poundage of weeds that my father brought in but the on line headline got a little more space. it managed to encapsulate the whole story. how a genius drug lord who peddle tons of pot became a destitute deadbeat dad with a habit. [laughter] that encapsulated perfectly. it should've been my subtitle but i didn't put it on there.

bruce brings up an interesting point about the feeling that drug dealers in the 70s and 80s had about themselves and was an incredibly oceanic self satisfying feeling particularly the marijuana dealers. what made it possible for me is that my old man began getting into open up about his past is i could hide behind a reporter's notebook and reporters notebook and read it until they squirm a father-son story which i did squirm a bit, i was able to tell a bigger story about outlaws and the last kind of great american outlaw the gentleman smuggler, the gentleman dealer of that era. how did it become such a person? unlike a knockoff prohibition where people were happy to imbibe that the gangsters were providing the boos were a different social class and considered to be separate in the 70s when marijuana explosions when marijuana exploded as a drug and incredible explosion,

right, the dealers were of the same social class. you were getting it from your college roommate. you weren't getting it from al capone or a gangster or a killer. this was a dramatic shift. it created a really adjusting alliance between the smokers in the dealers. eugene debs, you probably know this some sort of political leader in the 30s. i don't know. [laughter] >> first in her class? >> there's an actress next to the first in a class. it was a business school, come on. he said something like when a soul is in jail no man is free and marijuana smokers in the 70s felt like when the dealers in jail no smoker is free. so they deified these guys.

if you were able to provide marijuana by the pound in mexico you were an absolute hero. in high times which is now a weird blend of rap music and gardening tips, it used to be a magazine. [laughter] it's an incredibly bizarre magazine now. it was founded by one of these are relic smugglers and it did for marijuana would rolling stone did for rock and roll. it had huge feature stories on grand scores and wonderful adventures and it talks about the contraband elite flying in that dope air force. if put out board games where you could beat the dealer and score and monopoly cards would be doled out and he would get your comeuppance or score big.

so to enter this lifestyle was incredibly alluring. my father was 24 years old in 1970 when marijuana use was taking off. in 1967 to give you an idea, 5% of college kids according to gallup had tried marijuana. by 1970, 45% had come incredible growth and by the end of the decade one in five adults that smokes in the last month. it was the peak of marijuana use in this country. we are not there yet. we are heading there. my father wanted to participate in the show. he did it first with mexican marijuana and then in the middle of the decade he was thinking well, i made some money, i have a teaching degree. i can substitute maybe i will get out. jimmy carter came along and jimmy carter as often forgotten is very pro-marijuana. he ran on a platform of

legalization. he nominated a drug czar to petition congress to pass a law to decriminalize marijuana. i think carter himself stood on the floor of congress in 1977 and had famously no drug should have a penalty that's worse than the drug itself. front page news so of course my father was like i'm on the ground floor of something gigantic. so he doubles his input. he starts driving winnebagos full of weeds out of key west enthusiastically looking to grow further into the country. and then shortly after carter's famous speech that christmas in fact this is an amazing moment in drug history and it changed my father's life and change my life by abstention. carter's drug czar peter bourne decides, i'm not sure why but he decides to go to the christmas

party thrown by deleting marijuana legalization lobby company grown by -- a townhouse in washington d.c.. you walk in and he can see to the roof. it's a wild party. there are trace of joints being passed around. there are lines of cocaine as long as i in 95. there are jugglers doing psychedelic tricks with lights and the leading, the man in charge of drug enforcement in america walks into this party. not only does he walk in but the rumor starts to spread and it turns out it's not a rumor peter bourne wants to do cocaine. peter bourne would have been a hippie psychiatrist always liked cocaine wanted to decriminalize it also so he said let's go upstairs and we will do some cocaine. he goes to the top for this townhouse and in full view of

two writers from high times for "washington post" reporters and the founder of the first marijuana legalization lobby he does a one and one which is one snort of cocaine in his right nostril and one sort of coke in his left nostril. it's called a bullet. just a twist and a twist. and so the story holds. unbelievably the story holds for six months. and then he makes the mistake of writing a prescription for qualoods which were known as a drug for hour-long sex sessions. the press gets ahold of that and they start digging more and they go from two friend on good morning america the story breaks. drugs are does cocaine at pot

party. everything america had progressed towards in terms of progressive liberal drug laws completely collapses. jimmy porter declares a war and marijuana in my father's life has completely changed. he still driving winnebagos out of the u.s. but public opinion shifted and here comes ronald reagan. he could have gotten out that he didn't. and then there was a second moment much later in his career in 1986 where he had reached his own benchmark for moneymaking if he said he wanted to make a million and it made a million and you want to make 2 million then he got to 3 million and really he has nothing. the job was successful and 15 years after starting realizing

he was qualified for nothing else at this point he made an offer to sit tight. i was in a private school in a nice home we had a mercedes with the cool boat and took vacations. in 86 he still around. he comes home to us and he's retiring. we have an ethic retirement party in st. thomas on a chartered yacht built for 15 people. there were 12 of us on it. fresh fruit and red snapper fillets. comes back to miami where we are living and all he has to do is nothing. just nothing and he's incapable of it. just like george yonnet sounds like. something about entering into the business either at the beginning or in the process of becoming successful that boils the mind or something. you become incapable of certain point of doing anything else. the alarm goes off and it echoes down the decades of life and you

can't go forward on a regular constrained existence and you have to do something else. >> you are really lucky in that you had your source in your family. >> yes, lucky and not so lucky. my father was a funny sort because when i first found him, he disappeared from my life when i was 10 and i didn't know anything about the marijuana. i knew my parents were hippies and there were rumors of marijuana. >> so the party in the caribbean was when you were 10? >> that was when i was six but in between six and 10 my father went in search of the high that wasn't dealing. he became an ethic user himself. not of marijuana. many drug dealers self-destruct in so-called retirement but i think he was looking for self-destruction. all the escort services and

miami refused in business. it was a pretty big flameout. when i was 10 was one of reagan's task force is caught up with one of my dad's rings. incredible melodrama. my stepfather told my father to high tail it out of the state. an unusual wrap up. on the one hand he was a great source because he's my father and he was willing to come in but on the other hand he's my father so he is not willing to go into the -- all the details. at first i had to poke them with a stick to tell me all the stuff. i'm interested in young. was he somebody who immediately caught in to the idea of being world-famous?

>> well yes if you had offered him that option he would have certainly snapped it right out. i applaud george for $1200. >> better quickly explain that. [laughter] >> well, it's all very logical. there was a writer for "rolling stone" howard cohen. howard khan was pretty well-known back in the 80s. he wrote that karen silkwood book. he wrote a wonderful piece and a book that's not as well-known on his father's farm in michigan. but he had found george and george was testifying against carlos later in the late 80s. he was going to do george's story. george was very accessible. in the middle of this the

iran-contra scandal erupted and howard wanted to do blow. he was so outraged. he wanted to do a book on morality. so here he had george. george had written his own sto story. a small part of it was true. it was this big fat manuscript that have a lot of stuff in it. so he was starting with that and but then he was seized with this vision of morality in the government. that was the time so his agent was my agent. so he called my agent and said well i've got to do this story and i've got george here. is there anybody that might be

ingested. sarah called me up and so i don't know. george is living on the cape. he had gotten free of prison. he had gotten his deal for testifying against carlos. he was free. there was a woman who would take care of his two pack a day camel habits plus twos tours a day. that was never with george when he did not have a bottle of doers that day. i went out to see him and we got along fine. he's a very gregarious. the movie doesn't paint him anywhere near as gregarious and funny as he is. he's a person when it comes into the room everybody turns and says george is here. so we got along well and so i

told my agent that yes i will take them over. we wrote a book proposal and it was successful so we paid howard cohen $1200. >> any idea how howard cohen feels about the movie? >> i've talked to him since. he wished me very well. he never wrote his book. he was very gracious. i made a lot of them he said so i didn't feel bad. but these guys are very easy to approach. so i had to make a deal with george. being a journalism professor i'm always challenged on making deals with the people you write about. you are partnering with them.

and as a matter of fact when the book came out there were several reviewers, one in particular wrote the "boston globe" very angry that there was a deal. that i gave george money, gave him $100 a day plus expenses for all the time he was with me. he had a part of the movie. we didn't know there was a movie but i had them all signed up. so i think they reviewers said you know the guy is a reporter. why don't you tell your students at columbia about paying for stories and doesn't that compromise the whole thing and what you do about that? i said you're absolutely correct. it compromises the whole situation and here's how i deal with it.

one, if there is no other way to get the story and you want to do the story than you would pay. .. then pablo came out. there was this -- well, he is talking to george.

this guy who delivered a new presence who has been an informer. in the polls of his 45 and should some in the head. george said at that point he felt the -- told petra and i would wait here. i couldn't check that. there was no new way i could find out. it certainly seemed in character but. so that is the only thing. so that was the -- i wrote about it. because i wanted to do it. i tried to check everything. it certainly is a constant subject for discussion. >> of the way i got around the problem of having many sources, all of whom were happily sideways during the years in

question was to take my father's point of view as the one i would go with it but i went with the written record followed by my father's memory. if he didn't remember and there was no written record at what with the most plausible. bjorn so a great person to have here tonight. his character is someone who my father would have looked down upon quite dramatically george began as of marijuana smuggler and transition to cocaine. and this was something that most people did because to make money you could make a million dollars of what you could fit into a backpack. it was like smuggling pixie dust with marijuana to make that same million dollars you needed a ton of extremely pungent plan matter. it was like smuggling elephants

into the country. and so to stick with that when you had this very easy source of revenue on the side you had to be passionate about what you were doing in your head to look down on cocaine. so the defining characteristic of this particular character i tried to highlight and that my debt represents, the defining characteristic is marijuana is peace and love. we are parents to find the government that has a silly prohibition. cocaine, that is the sole killer. we will bring that into the country. we will use it like bags of flour. [laughter] >> honestly. one line at a time. that's for sure. >> as soon as he heard about it.

i mean, speak the herbalists launcher, you know. marijuana when, you get into trouble with the judge once. he could not see what the problem was. transporting of plant across an imaginary geographical line. but he was -- i remember him saying to my he went and he got caught for marijuana. his mother turned amend the. for sure. i talked to the fbi agent who arrested him 1972. and george b., part of his -- interested, the psychodrama of his life.

i mean, i identified with it. at a lot of similarities. a father was use the denigrated by the mother. the father was raised upper cut in george's eyes as a loser. he could not make it in the oil business. the mother, this is outside of boston. the ad kneels in boston were quite prominent. there was nobody here old enough to remember. the preface clubs was donna kneele. you were raised in the 40's and 50's's. that is what he turned on the morning for radio city and to seek the she was fooled by him. so she played him his whole life. and she which talked to george

as the paradigm of success, his father's brother who was a commander in the navy, an officer. "would put his sword over the fireplace. would put dollar bills on the christmas tree and give everybody -- end of these elaborate presents. at the airport. they thought he was george. the cocaine smuggler. he wasn't. he was the august commander, retired commander. so i asked the fbi returned in george, who call to. was it the mother. he said, no, not directly.

so the mother called the article called the fbi. that is the way i interpreted that. >> a lot of confusion in the life of these drug dealers, particularly the big ones. people in the media during the 70's and 80's were very interested in covering drug smugglers. running operations that were of military precision. that narrative camino, runways and militia. they have in tow equipment. when they are the equal to the american military. journalists love the story. the american government loves the store because the american government is using a ridiculous amount of technology to pursue these individuals.

one clip by keeping my desk at work from 1982. the news brief. and says of a boat carrying a small rock o'hara warcraft colluded coastguard and navy destroyer and four jet fighters for 27 hours on fried apply. can you imagine that? so and be when that person gets caught they got that far. in florida so many bills of marijuana got tossed overboard as a result of idiocy, that captain john bad and the pursuit of the cops. people would reel them in with rods and get skirt grouper. cops seldom.

>> so when you were doing your boat you would go and answer to your father in a room? >> well, we went on a little road trip. my father felt quite hard and ended up the petitioner in cambridge. he went to prison for marijuana smuggling but never face charges for tax fraud. he still is saw the social security for is front companies. so he lives in public housing in boston and your social security check the increase savings of as on an unfunded some of its troops. we went to miami, new york, check topic. it was entertaining because he had to cut he conducted himself like a guy with $5,000 in a spoof. he walked through the palace hotel and the possibility of the place. but he was wearing of thrift store polo shirt with blue of

the sludge in the front. had a happy face sweat stained. wearing gloves. his toes littler exhibit from an archeological dig. everyone is polish. he has more presence than any of them because he is operating in the realm of memory. as one moment in particular were rare at the plaza. cahuenga always trying to cool their heels from walking in central park. applause a dozen like that. they immediately give you a menu n.y.u. to order a $6 diet coke or get out. they did that to us. my father immediately west the menu back to the waiter and said , we won't be having any today. jenny looked down the nose of the week and a waiter skirting. then there was another. one of my father's favorite

hotels in new york city was the park hotel overlooking one of the last private green spaces in the city on the east side lower east side. end he went in there and it had just undergone a quarter billion dollars overall. it did everything. and the new york times reviewed it and said it was absolutely grand. my father walks around like it was a ruined car. and then as we're walking out he looks at the chandelier and gives it the middle finger. that isn't real crystal. it turns out he was right. it was cast resin. he knows his chandeliers.

>> you were looking your father was so soft george was hard to travel with. he was a football player. big shoulders. this ready beatles hair cut. just hung down he usually had a brown leather jacket. so he looked like something, somebody who should be under arrest. plessey had this incredible alcohol addiction. he had stopped cocaine. he never took any cocaine. he never really had the interest scotch was his best friend. so our deal was the once he started drinking scotch he was just impossible.

he would get belligerent. he would get stupid. he would -- that he would get threatening to strangers. so i made a deal with him that he could drink beer. we're going to do this, this is going to be a famous book and movie making millions. you're going to drink beer. that said. he could drink 10,000 years. >> are you covering his expenses ? >> in for a nickel and for a dime. and for a diamond for dollar. yap. i covered everything. so he could drink beer all day long. the moment he started belly of to the barn.

double doors water back. he talked in this crowley voice. doubly threatening. i knew that the day was over. but we at that point had not eaten anything but when we traveled all over. we had not eaten anything, whether it was down in the bahamas of florida are mexico are california. the cape, where real went. so he would start. we would pick up a restaurant. we would go into the restaurant. by now and george had maybe three or four double dewars water back please the maitre d, you know, some of this one out in a minute. this guy was trouble. he approached george. george said, excuse me sir. we are all for their beautiful. all these have the tables.

you're gonna let me in here or i will reduce is poised to matchsticks. and so we get kicked out. and we would have to go to some little chinese restaurant somewhere in some alleyway. i started going to restaurants earlier. i would not tell georgia was going. i would at least try to get the bread tray down before george bush showed up. a major deal would go like this and we get kicked out. so he was -- and remember a particular wanted to get in. he was put in prison in mexico enduring go. this was an interesting experience because being in a mexican prison -- i have done a lot of work for the ford foundation. and i was interested in prisons. i had never been in a mexican prison. they are supposed to be horrendous.

so are called the award. this guy was there. very agreeable. come on up. so we're were going up the coast and george with his everlasting good judgment got thirsty and we had to stop by the road. there were some kids selling this really evil looking fluids. and george, 15 minutes later, i don't feel so good. so he passed out. drives up to the rego. i really wanted jurors there. turnout these mexican prisons are kind of interesting