Vic was one of dozens of major musicians who volunteered and lent their talent to creating Hempilation I and II (benefit compilation albums), two separate CDs of great cannabis-related music. Vic Chesnutt had been confined to a wheelchair as a partial quadriplegic since a 1983 car accident. He suffered terribly at times from never-ending chronic pain, infections, failed surgeries and bouts with pain medication addiction. He was a regular user of medical cannabis to help control his chronic pain, spasticity and inability to sleep through a night.

Vic’s contribution to Hempilation II was a little pro-medical cannabis diddy called ‘Weed To The Rescue‘.

The reason why I say that I’m disappointed and upset with Vic taking his own life is that, by many accounts from his friends, co-collaborators and his last CD (released late this past fall), he’d finally gotten over his dark desire to prematurely end his life. Many of the songs on At The Cut, including the haunting ‘Flirting With You All My Life‘, seemed to strongly signal that Vic wanted to live, more than he wanted to die.

In my view, one the best interviewers in the media is WHYY’s Terri Gross, host of the NPR-carried show ‘Fresh Air’. I was fortunate enough to catch her interview with Vic in early December, talking in detail with him about his difficult life, muses, multiple suicide attempts and the redemptive nature of his latest album, notably the amazingly personal song X.

After listening to the interview, I was happy to hear what I thought was the resolution in Vic’s voice that any more suicide attempts were things of a difficult past that he had finally gotten beyond the day in/day out pain of his physically limited existence.

When I received the email from Steve indicating that Vic tried suicide again, and it unfortunately took this time, again, I became confused, disappointed and even a bit angry with Vic. I was not sure that I wanted to publicly acknowledge his passing.

But, then I listened on Thursday to Terri Gross’s ‘tribute’ show to Vic, featuring many of his fellow collaborators, and like me, they’re still equally confused and stinging from Vic’s death.

The last time I saw Vic was at a performance in Washington, DC a few years ago. He’d called me a few hours before the show and asked if I wanted to ‘hang out’ (our code for smoking a couple of joints before he went on stage to perform). When I arrived at the venue’s VIP dressing room area, Vic fired up a joint that smelled like burning human hair and ‘harshed’ my throat seriously. I suggested we try one of mine…after Vic’s first inhalation he coughed like he was going to collapse a lung…then he looked up at me, with his eyes watering and a huge grin creeping up his elfish face, he exclaimed “Holy shit…that must be NORML executive director-quality weed!”

After the warm-up act ended the venue’s staff came into the haze to inform Vic that he was up next, but they’d arranged for him to sit in a chair to perform on stage, rather than bring him up there in his more comfortable wheelchair. He asked me if I could pick him up and bring up on stage.

I’m not a terribly strong person, and I wondered whether I could actually lift him out of the wheelchair and bring him up onstage. I was amazed at how light he was and as I started to put him down into the chair at center stage and I said something to him like “Man, you weigh next to nothing!’

A roadie handed him his little guitar, and as he plugged into the sound system and pedals he looked up at me, smiling, and said “I guess I’m only made of blood, sweat, tears…and THC.’ Then, this little, totally frail, meek body started to create a wall of noise, sounds and electronic distortion that filled the entire concert hall.

I always marveled at how much life and enthusiasm seem to explode from Vic’s voice and guitar, considering his severe physical limitations, and it always gave me a strong degree of hope regarding the resilience of the human spirit.

I still believe in the power of one’s own existence to touch the lives of others in positive ways, but Vic’s death presents for me a new and challenging way to view life.

Marijuana Horticulture author Jorge Cervantes with NORML SHOW LIVE host “Radical” Russ at Oregon NORML’s Cannabis Café

Join us this and every Saturday night as we come to you at 6pm Pacific with our new live studio audience at the world famous Oregon NORML Cannabis Café! We stream live at http://live.norml.org for two hours and we feature interesting guests, the latest marijuana news, entertaining audio clips, and 420-friendly advertisers in a live talk radio show made by, for, and about responsible adult cannabis consumers. You can join the conversation by calling 347-994-1810 or by logging in to our live chat window.

Our guest for the first hour is Ryan Tracy, who founded CheechandChong.com in 1998.  Ryan has recently been embroiled in a battle over the website with Live Nation as they are now sponsoring the Cheech & Chong: Get It Legal tour, and he’ll talk about his side of the story from the perspective of a longtime loyal fan.  We’ll also talk about his new site, CheechandChongFans.com.

In our second hour, we visit with the co-author of Pot Culture: the A-to-Z Guide to Stoner Language and Life, Steve Bloom, and his work on the entertainment news site, CelebStoner.com.  Steve will also preview is upcoming book on stoner movies and discuss PayPal dropping his site, California NORML, and others for accepting advertisement from legal medical marijuana businesses.

We’ve also got new specials for holiday advertisers on the live show (10,000 downloads a month), our daily podcasts (50,000 downloads a month), and the Stash blog (100,000 hits per month).  You can focus your advertising dollars on a very specific, well-educated niche of marijuana supporters who are very loyal to brands that support NORML.  Email us at stash@norml.org for details.

Said with a degree of cocksureness, there are not too many people in the world the director of NORML would fear in a ‘pot culture’ quiz, however, I quiver at the prospect of facing Bloom and Halperin in such a contest! I’d be hard pressed to identify a better written and published pro-cannabis polemical, especially its ability to chronicle pot culture through the lens of pop culture, notably the entertainment industry.

The expansive photos, nifty graphics, along with Steve Marcus’ eye-catching cartoon art are of immense high quality, reflect the authors’ mastery of subject matter and demonstrate genuinely hard publishing work (the photo credit work alone appeared to be a full time job). Abrams Image, the book’s publisher, has produced a publication equal to the authors’ passions.

One of the book’s features I particularly like are the numerous celebrity guest contributions and commentaries, among the many:
-Adrianne Curry writes about ‘How to hide the smell’
-Kal Penn opines on ‘Playing a movie stoner’
-Melissa Etheridge on ‘Medical Marijuana’
-Tommy Chong writes the book’s introduction
-Jonah Hall demonstrates ‘How to make apple pipe’
-Redman teaches ‘How to roll a blunt’
-Matthew McConaughey ‘Talking Dazed’

Written in an easy to read A to Z format, there are virtually no ‘stoner’ questions left unanswered, from ‘when did 4:20 start?’ to ‘what are the most stoner-friendly movies and TV shows?’ Pot Culture ably melds pop culture, politics and activism into a very informative and entertaining mix—not usually an easy task for a polemical, but Bloom and Halperin pull it off well.

Steve is a lifetime member of NORML and a frequent contributor to NORML’s daily podcast, Daily AudioStash.

Upon completing Pot Culture I came to a familiar affirmation regarding cannabis prohibition: The more the government prohibits cannabis, rejects law reform efforts, spends tax dollars on enforcement and tries to suppress pot culture, the more the pot subculture (and economy) flourishes, expands effectively unabated and is ever-increasingly being embraced by mainstream media and culture.

Along with a pleasant, informative and comprehensive tour de force of the intersection of cannabis and commerce, Bloom & Halperin’s Pot Culture profoundly demonstrates the resiliency of cannabis consumers in the face of a historically alcohol-dominant culture and so-called stoners’ abilities to create a nurturing and sustained pot culture.

Interested in reading Pot Culture? You can do so and join NORML’s law reform advocacy efforts at the same time. Nice twofer!