By VANESSA LANGDON
Staff Writer
Marijuana legalization is a hot topic across the country and a 2007 graduate of The College of Saint Rose, Alyson Martin, wrote about it with her co-author Nushin Rashidian, in their book, “A New Leaf.”
The book will be out Tuesday and it’s available in the Saint Rose book store. The book, first focused on medicinal marijuana, changed as legalization occurred across the country.
The 27-year-old has accomplished a lot since her journey as a student here in Albany, but she has not forgotten where she came from. The two authors, Martin and Rashidian, will come to campus Thursday, February 6 for a Frequency North talk at Jack’s Place, in the Hearst Center at 7:30 p.m. The event is free.
This is “the first time an alumnus is part of the series,” said Associate Professor Dan Nester, who heads Frequency North events for the College. Nester also had Martin for a student during her tenure here at Saint Rose. Nester had nothing but nice things to say when he recalled Martin. “She’s just whip smart, really intellectually curious…we’re going back to when she was 20 or 21-a whale of a writer. A born journalist,” he said.
Martin, who was the editor of The Chronicle during her time at Saint Rose, said that “The Chronicle prepared me the most; working for The Chronicle was pretty close to what it’s like in a real newsroom– breaking news, enterprise stories, [and] layout…helped reporting for the book.”
Reporting for the book was no small task for Martin and Rashidian. The duo, who met in an ethics class at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, went on the road for eight months. During this time, “We reported from Maine to California. We went to many states in between. It was crazy and a really, really interesting time, Martin said”
While it was just the two women on the road together, Martin mentioned numerous mentors: “we of course had mentors that kept us from getting anxious on the road, including Cailin Brown.” Martin estimated three to four years of research was dedicated to this project.
Brown, Martin’s mentor, has the former student on her speed dial and even texted Martin during the interview, to inform her that “A New Leaf” was now in the campus store, exclaiming, “Sorry, I would never usually do this, but she’s that good of a friend.”
Beyond their friendship, Brown stressed the pride that Martin brings to the College.
“Saint Rose was very lucky that Alyson Martin chose to come to school here,” Brown said. “Those of us that were fortunate enough to work with Alyson are happy for her success. I’m especially happy that she chose to include me in her journey because it’s been fun.”
Nester shared similar feelings of camaraderie and pride with Martin.
“I don’t know if I taught her anything but I think her experience here was good,” Nester said. “She made her professors work. She would call me on my BS. I really learn so much from my students, exhibit A is Alyson. It’s weird to have a beer with her. She’s a peer now.”
Martin characterizes herself as someone who always wanted to pursue journalism from her time crouched over the Times Union.
“[I] was always kind of a talkative, inquisitive kid [and that] ended up serving me well in my career,” Martin said.
That career is now taking a new turn with the publishing of her first book with Rashidian. She maintains “A New Leaf” is definitely not an advocacy book for the end of marijuana prohibition, but “a work of journalism.”
The publishing of “A New Leaf,” which Kirkus Reviews calls a “cogent, well-sourced and ambitious analysis of the slow decline of cannabis prohibition in the United States,” was always planned in book format.
“I think we both hoped it would end up as a book, but of course when you start an involved project you have your hopes for what it’ll end up being in the end, especially when publishing has become a different world after the recession,” Martin said.
The research process was one the two went into with their goal of a book in mind.
“We wanted it to be a book. It could have been a documentary, a photography project, a few long form pieces tied together,” Martin said. “The best case scenario [was a book]. The reporting was done in that way, as deep as it was and as broad as it was. That’s what we wanted to do. We scheduled enough interviews in every state and enough varied interviews to expand the length of a book, and it was bold. At the time, we were a little naïve, but it worked in our favor.”
Martin remembers those eight months vividly. She recalls the moment when she realized the magnitude of what she was covering.
“Actually at the end of the trip, we were in Colorado in 2011 and we were at a national conference at the Hyatt in Denver where people from across the country and the world [came] to talk about cannabis and the cannabis industry…the lobby was even packed,” Martin said. “Everywhere you turned, people were coming and going —that was the moment— because the industry had become so sophisticated. Anytime money investors, creative people, all of those kind of minds invest their energy in one thing, it can only mean it’s going to get bigger…I knew it was going to keep growing and keep changing,” she said.
The book was something both Martin and Rashidian poured their heart and soul into, but Martin didn’t have any expectations for readers’ reactions. However, she did realize the differences between writing a book and the daily grind of writing for a paper.
“Daily journalism is a daily sprint and writing a book is a really long marathon. Keep going and have faith that you’ll reach the finish line,” Martin said.
The long marathon of the work resulted in the first-person reporting featured in its 228 pages. The personalities of both Martin and Rashidian are evident in each word they have crafted.
While the work is light enough for the average person to read and enjoy, the nonfiction narrative in it makes it not a ‘light joking book,’ but rather a hard hitting piece of journalism that is already being used for a textbook. Martin explained that there has been interest in the book in many different types of classroom settings including law, medical, criminal justice, and sociology.
In response to being asked for closing remarks, Martin simply said, “I would really encourage anyone who is thinking about doing anything new or innovative to be persistent and be your own champion. It’s really amazing what people can do when they just don’t give up…[“A New Leaf”] exists today because we just kept at it and kept at it.”
