In the 60’s and 70’s marijuana moved from being an illicit drug to fairly ubiquitous among late teenagers and young adults. Growing up in and around college towns probably helped the availability of the herb. The smell of it filled every rock concert we went to, every college event, and even when you went to the shore you would smell it on the beach or the boardwalk. Both of my brothers embraced the drug, though I rarely tried it. My friend John Kurtz’s mother decorated her flowers beds with hemp as a ground cover. She was stunned when she found out it was marijuana and she had to remove it. My mother, on the other hand, really took to weed, and went so far as to grow plants around the inside fence of our patio and bought a toaster oven so she could more easily dry Cannabis leaves. My parents would then regularly host parties that included booze and pot brownies. One morning it was clear my normally cool and calm mother was very upset. The calamity? Someone walking along the street the night before noticed Mom’s prized possession, her largest pot plant, swaying in the breeze above our six-foot fence. They snuck through the gate and ripped her plant right out of the ground and stole away. Another day, while Robin and I were hanging out at home, Mom called me and told me to drive over to one of her friend’s house in the country. So Robin and I drove over there. We were agast when she opened up the trunk and inside were two large tubs, each with over a dozen marijuana seedlings. We were pissed because, if we were stopped, the cops would never believe we didn’t know what was in there, and really wouldn’t buy the idea that they were Mom’s plants. Back in 1971, they would’ve thrown both of us in jail for up to five years and affected our ability to be accepted into a college program or get a decent job. The embarrassing truth is that the main reason why I didn’t embrace marijuana is I never got high. Also no one in the band was a pot-head, so peer pressure was not a factor. One time I went with Brad and a college co-ed friend to a July 4th fireworks celebration at Palmer Stadium on the Princeton campus. We couldn’t afford to go inside the stadium so we all laid down on the grass and watched the dispay outside. She pulled out a joint, lit it up and started to pass it around to share. When I drew in my first toke, she looked at me and said, “come on don’t bogart it, draw it into your lungs. Let’s not waste it.” Since I was the one who never smoked, I had never done that, so I sucked it all the way into my lungs. I felt the burning sensation and I coughed for about three minutes. When Brad said to her, “look, he can’t handle it,” I felt what was left of my teen pride get crushed. “No,” I said, “I can do this.” So as the fireworks exploded over our heads I slowly got used to it and for the first time, I got high. The co-ed afterwards got pretty talkative and confided in us she was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society. The SDS was a subversive group, who’s goal was to take down the military industrial complex. They burned down ROTC buildings on college campuses, fire bombed government vehicles, and even threatened hawks who supported our involvement in the Vietnam conflict. In 2015, SDS members would be considered domestic terrorists. In 1971 they were supported by doves and draft dodgers, and were under the watchful eye of the FBI and State Police.