It’s high time for ‘Pot Culture’

INTERVIEW. Our interview with writer Shirley Halperin was scheduled on the holiest of stoner holidays, 4/20, which is  fitting, since the book she wrote with Steve Bloom, “Pot Culture: The A-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life” (Abrams Image $19.95), was coming out that day.
 
Hi Shirley
Hi
 
Speaking of hi/high, are you right now?
[Laughs]. I’m not, because I have a huge thing to throw together tonight, in about five hours, and I need to be on my game, although I probably will be later.
 
In your book, one of the things you discuss is the odd celebration of 4/20, and how it wasn’t really a police code for “marijuana smoking in progress,” as people thought, but it could have derived from the “everybody must get stoned!” Bob Dylan anthem, “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” and how if you multiply those numbers, you get 420. Who knew?
We didn’t know it either until we were putting together the book. I had heard the story about this group of Deadheads that would meet at a certain time and they sort of got the 420 number going, and it was in the ‘80s, but it didn’t really hit its height until a few years ago. Now there’s marketing efforts surrounding that date. … Movies come out specifically on that date.
 
Speaking of which, how psyched are you for the new “Harold and Kumar” movie?
I’ve already seen it! I saw an advanced screening, because I did a big story last week in Entertainment Weekly about the history of stoner movies, and that was the peg. It’s really funny.
 
With all the celebrities you spoke with for this book, was it hard to get people to talk about their experiences with marijuana? You have some great obvious interviews in there like Ray Manzarek from The Doors, and Tommy Chong wrote the forward, but then you have people like Adam Levine from Maroon 5 and Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20.
Well, they’re like me. We grew up in the suburbs, went to Phish concerts and like music. When I first met Rob I was doing a story for Rolling Stone that was an in-studio piece, and I think I got the assignment because no one else at Rolling Stone wanted to write about Matchbox 20 and I was like, “Sure, I’ll do it.” And I went, and I’d never met him before and we sat down, and he pulled out a little plastic bong and put it on the table, and said, “Wanna hit?” and I was like, “Ohmigod, I love you!” My 45-minute interview turned into a four-hour hang out session and I got to listen to all their stuff, and then I just got to know him over the years. He’s really an amazing guy.
 
Who’s the most interesting person you smoked pot with?
One time, I didn’t smoke with this person, but I got passed a joint at a concert and I smoked it. This was like a few years ago, and I was so f-cked up. I mean, I can handle pretty strong weed, but I was like, “Ohmigod!” And I went back to the person that gave it to me and I was like, “What is this stuff?” And he’s like, “Oh, that’s Snoop Dogg’s weed.” And I was like, “Of course! It makes perfect sense!” I couldn’t believe how strong it was.
 
What concert was it?
I don’t remember. It was at Irving Plaza [in New York] and it must have been somebody that was on his label. But, yeah, it was the Snoop chronic. And I’ve never smoked the Willie Nelson weed, but I’ve heard tons of stories from people who have smoked the Willie weed, and it’s just out of this planet. I’d like to do that one day.
 
How often is it too much for you?
It doesn’t happen that often. I’m a really hard worker. I’m very motivated, so it really doesn’t slow me down that much. Actually, the thing that screws me up most is that I have to cover a lot of events in Hollywood, and there’s so much drinking going on. The drinking is what makes me sort of hazy in the morning. I don’t drink a lot, but even two drinks and I could be in pain.
 
When you were working on this book, was there ever a moment when you had one of those introspective spiritual highs, and you thought to yourself that you might be making a mockery of marijuana?
I think, while I was actually working on this book, I really became an advocate for medical marijuana. I didn’t know that much about it. I knew a little bit about it before I started writing this, but really, since moving to California, writing the book and learning about the dispensaries and everything that’s out here, that was the big light bulb for me. It was like, “Wow, this is actually a viable medicine that maybe in our lifetime, we could see this decriminalized, and this book might have something to do with that, and I’m all into it.” The fact that people make fun of stoners and look down on stoners, well, you know, pot is funny. There’s no way around that. It’s a funny thing. You get the giggles, you laugh, you do silly things sometimes, or maybe you just zone out, but most of the time it’s a funny thing, so I don’t take offense to it. I kind of embrace it. I’m more like  Seth Rogen in that sense. He’s proud to be the stoner poster boy, and I’m with him.
 
How did you meet your co-author Steve Bloom?
Steve and I met when I was working at my college newspaper, and I went in to interview Phish, and he had the interview slot right before me. So, I walked into this conference room at Electra Records in New York, and it reeked of weed, and there were issues of High Times everywhere. I was like, “Ohmigod, this is the guy from High Times!” …We had a very short conversation and I said, “Hey, if you need an intern, I’d love to intern for you.” And I did. I interned for him. And then I came back to work there in the late ‘90s. Steve and I really pushed the whole celebrity angle at High Times. … We really wanted to get those unlikely stoners to come out, so people could see that these people are cool. I mean, this is a magazine for potheads. It’s not exclusively for jam-band potheads. It should be inclusive. … In the book, we split it up, generationally. He handled anything that came before 1980, and I handled the more current stuff, and that was a really great division of labor, and that was important to me, that anyone could be able to pick it up and relate to it, no matter how old they are.
 
When was the first time you ever got high?
[Laughs]. Do you have to ask me that?
 
Why, were you like six or something?
No, it’s just that my parents don’t exactly know about this book yet.
 
You’re lying.
No. They don’t really know about it yet, and I’m so fearful of disappointing them.
 
Is Shirley Halperin a pen-name?
No, I’m writing under my own name. I’m going to tell them this week. They just haven’t figured it out yet, and I just worry about them reading something really outrageous about me. Let me just say this: Everyone starts experimenting in high school, I was no different. It never affected my grades, it didn’t affect my attendance. I wasn’t one of those burnout kids. I was a suburban, preppy kid, living in New Jersey, going to Phish shows, and it wasn’t really any different than the Deadheads that came before me. I mean, I will also say this: When I was 16 and they had these model congress things, and the debate club, I was in it. I was in it as a junior, which was something you couldn’t really do unless you were more advanced, but anyway, I did this debate class, and my bill was the legalization of marijuana, so ever since I was 16 and a junior in high school this has been something that I’ve been kind of active in on a different level than, “Oh, let’s just go and get stoned and be stupid.” You know what I’m saying?
 
Right. So if your parents read this, they’ll see that it’s the school system’s fault. It’s the fault of the debate club.
Well, I just don’t want them blaming themselves! You know, like if it’s to be seen as a bad thing.
 
Well, the main bad thing people say is that it’s a gateway drug. As someone who celebrates marijuana, how do you respond to that?
I was talking to a medical marijuana doctor who did a radio show with me on Friday – and this was another light bulb moment – and he said he looks at pot as an exit drug. People who are recovering addicts, and  I’m talking serious addicts, whether it’s opiates or cocaine, sometimes pot is the way to let them still have something, discourage them from smoking cigarettes, since he was saying how everyone at AA meetings is just like cigarettes, cigarettes, cigarettes. And pot can help them transition out of serious drug addictions to something that’s more controllable and can still allow them to function. … But we’ve been hearing about this gateway drug thing for years, and a lot of people think it’s pure propaganda, and I don’t disagree in a way, but this exit drug thing really makes sense to me, and seems like something that should at least be tested.