Prologue

PROLOGUE

YOU KNOW THAT smell.
You’re walking across a parking lot, maybe leaving a Target or hitting up a Taco Bell, and it drifts past you. That unmistakable, skunky, slightly sweet cloud of something. Maybe it’s a car full of dudes hotboxing in broad daylight. Maybe it’s some dude in joggers casually sparking up behind the dumpster like it’s 1977. Either way, you know what it is.

Weed.

It’s everywhere now.
In your neighborhood. In your friend’s tote bag. In your state legislature. In gummy form, vape form, and luxury-brand form. On your TV. In your memes. On your uncle’s coffee table even though he voted for Reagan twice.

Weed is having a moment, or maybe it always was.

But weed has never just been weed. It’s never just been “a plant” or “a drug” or “something chill.” Weed has been a scapegoat, a symbol, a punchline, a prison sentence, a healing ritual, a billion-dollar product, a reason to run from the cops, and a reason to sit still for the first time in weeks.

It’s gotten people jailed.
It’s gotten people paid.
It’s built empires, fueled revolutions, numbed pain, inspired music, and helped a whole lot of people feel okay, or at least a little less not-okay.

So how did we get from sacred smoke of the gods to stoner comedy franchise with four sequels and a Netflix spinoff?

That’s what this book is here for.

We’re going deep.
Like, civilizational deep.
We’re starting in the mountains and ending in the metaverse.
Through temples, empires, slave ships, jazz clubs, prisons, strip malls, courtrooms, dorm rooms, and dispensaries.

This isn’t a stoner’s guide or a D.A.R.E. reboot.
This is what really happened, what really happens, and what it says about us.