PREFACE

by Steve DeAngelo

Ed Rosenthal and I emerged from the same underground cauldron of culture and politics known as the Youth International Party, more commonly referred to as “the Yippies” or sometimes even just “Yippie!” (The exclamation point was very important to us.) Although the Yippies were often written off as the court jesters of the New Left movement of the ’60s and ’70s, the Yippie! movement gave birth (or at least shelter) to a cadre of remarkably effective and absolutely determined cannabis activists who would go on to play crucial roles in the formation of the modern cannabis movement and industry.

Like old CIA officers, old Yippies never really retire. Ed and I are both fortunate to have now reached elder status, but in the early 1970s I was just about the youngest Yippie and Ed had been around the scene a lot longer; he was this impressive, distant figure I heard about long before we met. I think I first met him at the 1975 White House Smoke-In, though it could have been the 1977 White House Smoke-In, or possibly while smoking or even selling weed in a smoky commune somewhere.

Marijuana Grower’s Guide, the original edition of this book, seems to have always been present in my life, and I recall my reaction upon first seeing it; it was one of the most powerfully subversive books ever written. Here was an extremely specific, detailed, impeccably researched and written guide to producing the best cannabis in the world. The only other instructions for growing cannabis that I had seen had been mimeographed handouts passed from hippie to hippie, or the rudimentary drawings sometimes published in underground newspapers. I could tell right away that this book was going to change our world.

At the time, almost all the cannabis consumed in the United States was imported from countries like Mexico, Jamaica, and Lebanon. Ed had produced a tool that would allow any reasonably dedicated cannabis consumer to liberate themselves from this very long, expensive supply chain and, with a steady application of effort, might also enable them to grow enough for their friends and family.

Marijuana Grower’s Guide taught the earliest domestic growers how to produce higher-quality cannabis than what was coming from other countries. Appreciation for imported cannabis began to wane. More people began to consume it as higher quality became more available, and the earliest cannabis breeders built on the foundation Ed had laid. In a stroke of good fortune (or divine intervention), this high-quality cannabis was abundant in California during the AIDS crisis, where it played a key role in preserving and enhancing the quality of life of AIDS patients. This real-life demonstration of the therapeutic properties of cannabis convinced the voters of California, and eventually other states and nations, to pass cannabis initiatives.

Today the millions of people who have been introduced to cannabis since the first publication of Marijuana Grower’s Guide have coalesced into a powerful movement that will ensure that everybody who needs cannabis has safe and affordable access to it and that one day the prison doors are thrown open and every single cannabis prisoner on Planet Earth comes home to their family—with the resources they need to rebuild the lives that were stolen from them.

Thank you, Ed, for all you have done to teach and guide us on our common mission. Always Onward, Forever Free!