Maybe It's Holden That Hates Hippies

I have just read Dominic Holden’s “Shit Or Get Off The Pot” and I would like to make the following personal observations. Let me be clear that these opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of HIGH TIMES magazine or its staff of which I am member. I am speaking as a marijuana activist and businessman who has remained quiet on the subject of cultural bigotry within our movement for far too long.
    

On the number of professional occasions that I have been with Mr. Holden I have always sensed a thinly-veiled bigotry on his part towards the so-called “hippie” faction of the counterculture. Those of you who might know me would probably agree that I look like and exemplify the stereotype of an old hippie and, like any other cultural minority, I have learned to identify and avoid those people who intrinsically dislike me and my kind. As a pot smoking hippie for 37 years I have been culturally targeted for my entire adult life by the police, employers, coworkers, dimwitted bureaucrats, ad nauseum. I’ve never liked it and I don’t find it funny. For these reasons, I have always kept my professional interactions with Dominic at a minimum.
    

A few years ago I was on a panel with Dominic at Hempfest with Jack Herer and after Jack and I said our piece it was Dominic’s turn and he quickly brought the level of the discussion down to long-haired, Patchouli-smelling activists who he thought were detrimental to the cause of marijuana-law reform and advised all present to wear the proper haircuts and wear the proper clothes if they want to be effective activists for marijuana law reform. I was about to vehemently disagree when the panel ran out of time.
    

I too believe there is a place for mainstream-styled activism to present itself to mainstream-minded individuals and media in order to promote marijuana law reform; but that message should never be promulgated at the expense of any portion of its constituency. Such personal bigotry disguised as strategic activism is offensive, counterproductive and gives ammunition to those who would do marijuana smokers harm. In fact, a very large percentage of the 20 million marijuana smokers who have been arrested in the U.S. since 1965 have been long-haired, holes-in-your-jeans patchouli drenched hippies like myself, the targeted class to which you, Mr. Holden, turn up your nose.
    

Strategically speaking, Mr. Holden’s words are a detriment to our cause, That a former co-director of the highly-popular Seattle Hempfest would refer to that event as a “ patchouli-stained ghetto” is shameful; that one would use that phrase in the following context: “the current discourse about pot is wallowing in the patchouli-stained ghetto of Hempfest” is simply inaccurate. The current discourse about pot revolves increasingly around marijuana being seen as a possible solution to our nation’s economic woes and, for that reason, more possibilities for national reform exist right now than at any other time in recent memory. Mr. Holden alluded to this reality later in his blog but not before he vented his spleen on his least favorite minority.
    

On a side note, speaking as a journalist, I find it unbelievable that The Stranger did not insist on identifying its blogger as a member of the NORML Board of Directors or as a former co-director of Hempfest. Such standard citations exist to protect the public against possible bias and the public was ill-served in this instance.
    

I believe Dominic Holden’s consistent negative public comments on a viable portion of the marijuana law reform community make him a poor choice to represent any part of that community. Our movement needs to be inclusive, not excluding. Our movement needs to embrace the full variety of its constituency not pander to those few small-minded individuals who have since the beginning of time marked “those people” as the problem (quote marks are mine). I would suggest that Mr. Holden be removed from the NORML Board of Directors which is a shame because I think he has been sincere in his belief in marijuana law reform, smart, well-read, well-spoken -- all the things our movement needs to take advantage of this moment, and I certainly don’t hate him because real hippies don’t do that sort of thing. It’s just that his statements are bigoted and that can only hurt our cause.