#getstoned

On December 27, 1964, GINSBERG and ––––– had marched in front of the Department of Welfare Building, East 9th St. and Avenue C, with signs reading “Smoke Pot, It’s Cheaper and Healthier Than Liquor” and “Pot Is a Reality Kick.” Their individuals are members of an organization called LEMAR (Legalize Marijuana) and their names appear in the files of Interpol.

Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman had always loved the poster of Ginsberg that was sold in the mid-sixties, the one where he was waring a huge placard at an early marijuana demonstration like some bearded, horn-rimmed rent-a-vagrant advertising three-dollar haircuts, a styrofoam of coffee gingerly held aloft, with a light snow topping almost bald pate like white laurel leaves. The sign, crudely hand-lettered, read “Pot Is Fun,” and the sly, sheepish–no, elfish–grin on Ginsberg’s face was testimony to that” (both quotes from:  Reefer Madness: The History of Marijuana in America, Larry ‘Ratso’ Sloman, New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1998, pp. 171-172).