By CONOR SHEA
Features Editor
Alumna Alyson Martin returned to The College of Saint Rose on Thursday, taking time out of her schedule to give guests a taste of her recently published book, A New Leaf: The End of Cannabis Prohibition. She and co-author Nushin Rashidian told their tale, explaining how they started the journey of writing their book, detailing the troubles and triumphs along the way. Their visit to Jack’s place for this Frequency North-sponsored event represented the first stop of their book tour, a specific and intentional decision by Martin.
“I’ll try to get through this bit without getting too emotional, but Saint Rose is a very special place,” she said, regarding making Saint Rose her first stop.
“The professors here are very special, and near and dear to me so I’m thrilled to be back here,” she continued.
Martin and Rashidian’s presentation began with a quick introduction of themselves, followed by a reading of the introduction to their book.
For background, Martin jokingly referred to herself as an “obnoxious” and “irritating” student while at Saint Rose. After graduating in 2007, Martin went on to study journalism at Columbia University, and it was in an ethics class there that she met Rashidian.
Martin, a former Albany County native, and Rashidian, hailing from California, bonded over their fascination with “how they cover things, and why they cover things in the media,” according to Martin.
Martin has written for the New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Nation. Rashidian has similarly written for the New York Times, The Nation, and The Huffington Post, but both have a significantly longer list of writing credentials than can be listed here.
Beyond their passion for writing, they later became drawn to each other by an interest in marijuana legalization, although not because of a desire for personal use as others might be. Their interest was instead brought about by the difference between their experiences with the drug, particularly due to the difference in the environments they had been raised in.
Martin explained that she went to California in 2009 to visit with family and friends. While there, she went to Venice Beach, and was surprised to see the drug used so freely. Rashidian, unlike Martin, was “used to seeing people sitting in drum circles and getting high,” and described Venice Beach as typical.
“I think my most distinct memory from that day was opening the car door, because this wafting smell came in the car and I was kind of like, ‘Uh, so what’s going on here?’” she said with a sly grin.
Thus began the conversation that would plant the seed for what is now their new book, and the topic of cannabis legalization and prohibition would continue to intrigue the two.
“I was hooked on this idea that federal law prohibits something while state laws are saying ‘We don’t really care,’ and that continues to be the crux of why I’m interested in this,” Martin went on.
“We didn’t really have too much to lose, and we had everything to gain by getting on the road, so we had the bright idea to leave New York City, hand in our apartment keys, and just go to Maine. And that’s where it started,” Martin said.
To research the book, Rashidian and Martin spent eight months on the road traveling from state to state, getting a pulse for how each location was handling the process of cannabis legalization and use. When asked about the cost of the research and time spent on the road, Martin jokingly answered, “Oh, Jesus, it’s still costing me!”
“When we started really hitting a rough financial patch, we were in the Michigan to Montana area. [Then] an old mentor came through for us and we started freelancing for the New York Times. The Times pays really well, and after a couple of stories writing for them, we weren’t eating cold chili out of a can anymore.”
She said the cold chili, tasted like “dog food,” and she explained how they kept four containers in their car for food and clothes as they traveled.
Rashidian explained that they also relied significantly on others that they met in their travels to offer cheap accommodations.
“The economy was really bad so a lot of people across the country were renting out any spare space they had in their homes for really cheap,” she said.
“I think people thought we were homeless,” Martin joked, regarding their couch surfing escapades.
After the book reading, students and guests were given the opportunity to ask questions about the book or the general topic of cannabis legalization, serving to start a robust discussion. Questions ranged from the military policy on adapting to changing laws, to even the business model of legal cannabis distribution.
One student referenced a recent article she read that stated the current sales of marijuana from dispensaries in Colorado are only just matching the amount sold illegally by drug dealers. In response to the question of whether that trend would continue, Rashidian said, “A lot of newspapers are trying to come to conclusions…but there is going to be a pretty long transition period, and we’ll have a lot of answers to these questions in probably, by my estimate, five years.”
Martin further commented on those types of newspaper articles, calling them “early trend pieces,” and maintained that she thought, “to some extent, they’re a little irresponsible.”
In terms of what happens in those estimated five years, the process is not unlike any other fledging new business. According to Rashidian, this has a lot to do with supply and demand.
“The prices are pretty high right now, so some people are still going to their dealers. Once all the stores open and everyone has a full crop… the prices are going to drop, and the dealers are going to hopefully be out of business,” she explained.
Due to more than the principles of supply and demand, the dispensaries also have higher prices because of the inherent dangers of the business. Martin said the estimated cost of production for an ounce of cannabis is about $40. The difference between dispensaries and drug dealers is that the legal dealers are publicly and openly breaking federal law (they might even be listed in the yellow book). Thus legal dispensaries are upping the prices to compensate for the risk they assume.
Martin further detailed that “What they’re doing in Washington and Colorado, is they’re raising it to just under the black market prices… and taking all that 40 to 200 dollars [and they’re] taxing the hell out of it. That’s what’s going to school construction, and public health, and that sort of thing.”
Some portions of the book, as well as the discussion afterward, likened cannabis laws to laws regarding alcohol. A point was raised that there are some cities in Colorado where it is still illegal to operate dispensaries, and consumption of cannabis is held to different standards than elsewhere in the state. Rashidian made the comparison to dry counties where drinking is prohibited despite being legal statewide.
“We also have places where you can’t buy alcohol after 10 p.m. It’s funny— when I moved from California [to New York], I was shocked to find out I couldn’t buy wine in my grocery stores,” she went on.
Rashidian and Martin predict that the next state to legalize cannabis will likely be Alaska, Oregon, or Maine, citing the trend of legalizing cannabis use as a medical treatment as a precursor to all out legalization.
Other questions about the economics of cannabis dispensaries were raised, prompting an interesting and unexpected area of cannabis legalization to be discussed. With the way the law currently stands, banks that work with legal dispensaries are at risk with the federal government. As a result, dispensaries are now being forced to only accept cash as a medium of exchange for their product.
While this still returns payment to the store operators, said payment is dangerous in its own liquidity, as dispensaries are at all times holding large amounts of cash and marijuana. Not only does this make them more susceptible to theft, but it can also make it difficult to expand business and build new storefronts.
Regarding the future of legalization, Martin said that larger-scale commercialization might not be all that farfetched. “I think it would be easy to drown out a lot of the ‘mom and pop’ stores,” she said. “I think that people are kind of seeing the writing on the wall a little bit.”
Rashidian contended, however, that legislators in states like Colorado are actively trying to stop that from happening, by making it difficult to vertically integrate.
“The woman who drafted the law made the application fees, the licensing fees really low, so that anyone could get in on the game. She also made it so you could only own one license. So you could only be a grower, or you could only be a packager, or only be a distributer. The community is trying very hard not to make the mistakes that were made with alcohol and tobacco.”
No comments or questions were raised asking what Rashidian and Martin thought of marijuana recreationally, or what their experiences were with the drug. While this might speak to the level of respect the Saint Rose community has for guests, it also might comment more so on the changing climate around the topic of marijuana.
According to A New Leaf, more than 106 million people live where cannabis is legal for medical or general use, which is broadening the discussion on legalization, and encouraging true academic debate. The air of conversations such as these seems less about if it will be legalized, but rather what will happen when it’s legalized.
As the path to cannabis legalization is paved in more states, the discussion continues to thrive with A New Leaf leading the pack. A New Leaf is now available at the Saint Rose bookstore, and in commercial bookstores everywhere.
Those interested in learning more about the authors can visit their personal websites at www.nushinrashidian.com and www.alysonmartin.com.
