Sinsemilla Bootlegger

Bootleggers have a long and colorful past in the annals of American history. They were equally depicted as ruthless gangsters and “Robin Hoodesque” outlaws, bribers and benefactors of the police and politicians, architects of immense business enterprises and grand personal fortunes. Throughout the age of speakeasies and bathtub gin, bootleggers were the benevolent providers of the social lubricant that fueled the social network of both the common man and American aristocracy in the age of Prohibition in early 20th century America. Flash forward to the 1980’s, where a new Prohibition is in full swing. This time, however, the bootleggers were not distilling corn for whiskey, but rather growing an age old crop for public consumption; marijuana. Seen as the drug de rigeur of the 60s counterculture that was grown abroad and imported into the USA, marijuana had become a significant domestic crop and a new cadre of bootleggers came to the fore. These were, most certainly, difficult times for California’s herb growers. Ronald Reagan was President and marijuana growers were on the front lines of the culture war. The forces of Prohibition were once again deployed in full force, on the attack and threatening these peace-loving entrepreneurs with every weapon in their arsenal, including helicopter gunships, special forces and home invasion. But potheads, contrary to popular belief, are a highly motivated group. Thwarted by the efforts of forces like CAMP (Campaign Against Marijuana Production,) they moved their illicit crops indoors, perfecting the art of indoor agriculture while risking everything to earn a living and support a thriving community trying to live on its own terms. This is a story about what it was like in those heady outlaw days, when herb was precious and marijuana bootleggers roamed the countryside. Jason Garrett is a modern day bootlegger, plying his trade from the fertile back roads and forests of the Emerald Triangle of northern California to the clandestine back rooms of Oakland at the heart of the domestic marijuana trade. In a time when marijuana patients can grow their own medicine in any spare room of the house and medical marijuana outlets proliferate like corner liquor stores, this adventure, set in the heyday of California’s pot country takes us back to a time when it took balls to grow weed and the smarts and guile to get away with growing, harvesting and distributing. Sinsemilla Bootlegger is compelling tale of the modern bootlegger’s life. It portrays the adventures of a singular bootlegger and his perilous life on the edge. In Sinsemilla Bootlegger, Jason takes us along for a wild ride complete with all of the fears, the highs, the lows, the cash, the sexual adventures, the exotic climes and the outlandish and exotic characters who work the streets, grow the crops, and populate a world of intrigue built around the herb. Sinsemilla Bootlegger is a deadly accurate and vividly depicted tale, some true, some not so true, that is certain to entertain and enthrall readers with a riveting depiction of some of the early founders of the marijuana trade.

Paul Kalman was born in Oakland, CA in the late-fifties where he was raised by parents of Russian and Jewish descent. His parents were deeply involved in the movements for social justice, the union movement, civil rights and the peace movement, so he was taught from an early age to question authority and be an independent thinker. It was this free-thinking attitude that led him to drop out of his first year of college and take to the road with a rock band. At eighteen, he began transporting and providing sound for East Bay music groups playing in local nightclubs. The next 20 years were spent on the road and in the studio. An avid marijuana connoisseur of 40 years, Kalman’s quest have led him into some of the most remote outdoor gorilla and clandestine indoor grows from their outlaw days to the high-tech present. Living in Oakland, the pot capital of the world, and working in the music business has given Kalman unique insights into the inner workings of the domestic marijuana trade. Sinsemilla Bootlegger reveals a “slice of life” of the intriguing history of indoor marijuana cultivation.