Executives Who Inhale

New York Business ^ | July 25, 2005 | Matthew Flamm

[Wolfie]

Executives Who Inhale

New York -- Some New York executives unwind in the evening with a glass of wine. Others go out for a beer. And some take the edge off in a way they rarely discuss with their colleagues. Particularly in the summer, when children are at camp, these Gothamites are kicking back in a fashion reminiscent of their college days. "When my son's away, I keep my bong and my bag out on the dining room table," says Jim, co-owner of a furniture manufacturing company, who, like every other pot smoker interviewed in this article, asked not to be identified. "It makes me feel young again.

Despite the ongoing war on drugs and the stigma surrounding any illegal activity, a certain portion of the New York business community never turned in its rolling papers. For many of these otherwise law-abiding citizens, taking a few tokes of their favorite illicit substance is simply their preferred way to decompress. Though they might conceal their after-hours smoking from their co-workers, they insist that, used in moderation, the evil weed doesn't have to hurt job performance.

"It's an asset to the conceptualizing part of the business," Jim says. "It's a liability to the implementation part."

Among New York professionals, smokers tend to be discreet, even when children aren't in the picture. There's too much to lose from being typecast as a stoner. After all, Cheech and Chong--the pothead comedians of the 1970s--weren't exactly known for productivity.

"It's not something I would discuss with clients, even if they brought the subject up," says Sam, who has his own architecture firm. "And I only smoke with close friends."

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But statistics suggest that some of those clients are probably indulging as well. According to the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, conducted by the Department of Health and Human Services, 97 million Americans have smoked marijuana at least once, and it is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States.

In the marijuana underground, New York has a reputation not only for widespread use but for the buying habits of its upscale users. City dwellers fork over as much as $600 an ounce for top-quality product, while dealers brag about selling strains grown from winners of the Amsterdam Cannabis Cup.

The city is also famous for its efficient delivery services.

"It's the only place in the country where you can get cannabis delivered, uptown and downtown, faster than pizza or Chinese food," says Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, based in Washington.

New York is also known for strict enforcement of laws against marijuana. Under the Giuliani administration, marijuana-related arrests peaked in 2000 at about 74,000; about 90% of those busts were for possession.

Arrests for grass have dropped by more than half under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to about 34,000 last year--a number that still makes the city among the national leaders in marijuana arrests per capita, according to NORML.

Though there is disagreement about government policy, even critics of the laws warn that heavy pot use can stunt ambition and accomplishment, as well as destroy personal relationships.

Growing Use

"Marijuana is the most difficult drug to get people to give up, because it allows them to keep functioning," says Andrew Park, a Manhattan psychotherapist who specializes in addiction. "You can't see the damage to a person's life that you would if they were smoking crack or shooting dope."

But neither the law nor the dangers of abuse have dampened the nation's appetite for cannabis: the government's survey recorded 15 million current users in 2003, compared with 10 million in 1995.

"Alcohol dulls everything," says Abe, a litigator at a Manhattan law firm who says he would rather toke than imbibe. "Pot sharpens certain things, like creativity."

Marijuana is also the one illicit substance that appears to enjoy widespread appeal across social and economic lines.

"Lawyers, accountants, actors, cooks ... I deal with people across the board," says Jason, who has been selling marijuana full time in New York since 1996. "From people living in hellholes who can't really afford it, to people whose secretaries I have to talk to before I can talk to them."

But longtime aficionados find that, just like the sports they played in college, the drug is something they can no longer partake of as often as they did when they were young.

"The lifestyle changed when I had kids," says Bill, who manages a short-term apartment complex in midtown Manhattan and smokes only on those rare occasions when his children are not around. "Yet I still have a roach, wrapped in aluminum foil, in the back of my sock drawer."

[AppyPappy]

City dwellers fork over as much as $600 an ounce for top-quality product,

We paid $30 an ounce for Columbian Gold. Some people can't see the obvious problem. That's like buying Johnny Walker Blue Label as your everyday Scotch.

[AppyPappy]

Let's get the price down, so people don't have to trade up to the hard stuff.

Marijuana is a different high than Meth or Heroin.

[Dark Skies]

It was a joke, my friend.

Sorry, painful memories.

[Servant of the 9]

Let's get the price down, so people don't have to trade up to the hard stuff.

Marijuana is a different high than Meth or Heroin.

Yes, and they are very different from each other.

My point was that when enforcement inverts the price vs. power relationship it begins to do much more harm than good by driving people to cheaper but more addictive drugs.

So9

[AppyPappy]

I'm sure he can buy cheaper marijuana if he wanted. You can still get a single high for $5 which is what a rock will give you.

[commonerX]

(0)

[iconoclast]

When you grow up and see how middle age feels

I hate to think what you're going to do when you reach your "Golden Years"! ;-)

[Servant of the 9]

When you grow up and see how middle age feels

I hate to think what you're going to do when you reach your "Golden Years"! ;-)

I have, though I see them more as the "Corroded Brass Years".

What I do is try to grab every possible pleasure when I still can, while I still can.

Too much is not enough.

SO9

[vin-one]

wow, successful people smoking pot, I was told that was impossible.......

[TKDietz]

"By the way, the website also lists George Washington as a possible pothead. The evidence? Because, "Washington's diary reports that he separated males from females in his hemp garden, "rather too late." Much speculation has ensued about whether or not Washington's reason for sexing his plants was to make a more smokable product." I like this, "Much speculation has ensued...". Much speculation from who? How do they know that Washington's goal was to produce "a more smokable product"? Did it ever occur to the potheads that perhaps Washington was simply experimenting to get greater yields from his crops?"

I have no idea whether Washington ever smoked pot. But I can't imagine why someone would think he would increase his hemp yield by pulling his male plants. Roughly half of Washington's crop would have been male plants. Why would he want to kill half of his crop? There is also a letter he wrote that I have read where he discussed obtaining a "hemp preparation" from a doctor. I don't have a link to it saved but there is more than one website where you can find all of the letters he saved during his presidency scanned and archived. The preparation he was talking about could have been all sorts of things that weren't intoxicating, or as many speculate it could have been hashish. I have no idea, but we know hemp farming was a major part of our economy back then and that growers like Washington were experimenting with varieties from all over the world. You know they had to know that it was used as a medicine and an intoxicant in various parts of the world and it seems highly unlikely that none of these hemp farmers experimenting with all of these exotic strains from all over the world smoked or otherwise ingested a little just for the heck of it.

[TKDietz]

"We paid $30 an ounce for Columbian Gold. Some people can't see the obvious problem. That's like buying Johnny Walker Blue Label as your everyday Scotch."

Where I live commercial grade pot goes from anywhere from $50 an ounce to $120 an ounce from what my clients tell me and from what I hear narcotics officers saying. The really strong stuff grown indoors with "trade names" like "Northern Lights," "Blueberry," "Bubblegum," and so on can cost as much as $120 per quarter ounce here but it doesn't appear that many people are buying it. I've seen an awful lot of pot brought to court by police in little clear evidence bags and it's almost always regular cheap Mexican, the compressed looking brownish buds with seeds, as opposed to fluffy seedless buds with a pungent smell that cost much more. I don't think most people are paying so much for pot. High earning executives might splurge on the high dollar stuff but the average Joe smokes cheapo Mexican for the most part.

The lion's share of the thousands of tons of marijuana seized in this country every year is cheap Mexican brickweed. Government estimates are that Mexican accounts for as much as 95% of the marijuana available on the market in this country. I'm on a major interstate highway and our public defender office gets several new drug mule cases every moth it seems. We handle several thousand pounds worth of these cases every year. For every load that gets popped you know several more are getting through. It's incredible how much pot is available on the streets. Government estimates say there may be over 20,000 metric tons available on the streets after they get done busting people and seizing what they are going to seize in a given year. The government will never stop the flow of pot in this country. They'd have more control over it if they just legalized it and regulated the industry.

[TKDietz]

"several new drug mule cases every moth it seems."

Should say: "several new drug mule cases every _month_ it seems."

[HIDEK6]

"It's an asset to the conceptualizing part of the business," Jim says. "It's a liability to the implementation part."

Seems to me the first time I heard this BS was 40 years ago.

Funny thing, I knew it was BS then, too.

[AppyPappy]

They'd have more control over it if they just legalized it and regulated the industry.

With tobacco being slowly outlawed, there is probably no chance of that happening. I'm not sure the government is capable of regulating marijuana as it wants.

[vikzilla]

Either you don't know addiction or it's still your best friend.

Rehab is for quitters!

Nobody likes a quitter:)

[stylecouncilor]

ping

[Dark Skies]

Heh heh...

I never had to go to rehab but I definitely had to kick an addiction. Best thing I ever did. It was totally liberating.

[Uriah]

Don't subject yourself to it!
Immediately seize all marijuana found and mail directly to me so I can turn it in to the proper authorities!


I will be happy to lend a hand.

[Uriah]

am a conservative and a vy high achiever...and a former pot addict.

If you can smoke or drink in moderation, God bless you.

But if pot dominates your daily life or nightly life...consider kicking it.

If you think being high is good, you won't believe how great sobriety is. If it is hard to quit...replace your addiction to dope with an addition to exercise.

I know that addicts are depressed about it...kick it and get back into living...start getting fresh air and working out...and get a spiritual life.

Don't become a zombie.


Fight the evil.




Attending all the meetings I see.

[dfwgator]

"Dude, where's my stock options?"