Weed: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler

by Jerry Kamstra

Book by Kamstra, Jerry

267 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1974

Reviews

[Tcherek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another book written by my father. I may be biased however this book is a must read!

[Karl Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eventually, I wrote a song about this book.

It's interesting, because it has some lessons in it, but at the end, it's unclear if he learned anything.

Good to read during college.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, an anecdote: I bought this book--in apparently unread condition--at a thrift shop for $.50 well over a decade ago. When doing a culling of my bookshelves around the dawn of the new year, I set aside a few dozen unread volumes that I wanted to prioritize a) reading and then b) getting rid of, and Weed was among them. Just a few weeks after I separated it out into a "must read" pile, I was in a cramped subway car (far too crowded to endeavor the minimum amount of elbow room required for reading), jammed up against a young woman who had a paperback in her hand. I could only see the author's photo on the back of the book, but I thought I recognized it so I asked, "Is that book called Weed?" Her eyes lit up in amusement and amazement and declared "Oh my god, yes, I just saw it at a bookshop and thought it looked interesting" as she flipped it over to reveal the verdant mountain greenery on the cover. I told her my little tale, and we both marveled that we would be in possession of copies of a relatively unknown softcover printed in 1974. I asked how she liked it and she was somewhat noncommital, just saying that it was kind fun and interesting.

I finally got around to reading my copy last month, and overall, I concur with her middling review. I thought it started out on a high note (pun intended), with an adventurous run for (and then from) the border, but before long it devolved into a rather plodding combination of travel recollections, cultural observations (some of them dripping with so much stereotyping that I sometimes found myself saying out loud, "You can't say that about ALL Mexicans!"), and--what I liked best--a lot of insider information about the dope industry from the 1950s through the 1970s.

At times Kamstra's narrative becomes repetitive and is often self-indulgent, both of which tend to slow things down considerably, but I could put as much of this fault on the book's editor for not streamlining things and keeping the narrative flow a little more fluid rather than the herky-jerky callbacks to unrelated situations or repetition of information already recounted in earlier pages. One of my favorite things about his writing, though, is the preponderance of now-outdated '60s and '70s lingo, which is sometimes absolutely hilarious and sometimes just interesting to note how things have changed (i.e.; capitalizing "Blacks" when discussing race but not capitalizing "beats" when discussing the poetry movement, which in today's language is usually reversed). And then there are the moments that are just awkward, given how dated they seem, such as the previously mentioned slang, the over-explanation of Spanish words which were probably uncommon then but are well understood in today's vernacular (including a glossary of terms at the end which is largely rendered unnecessary in the U.S. of 2018), the cultural and racial stereo/archetypes he often leans on, and--particularly weird to read in today's climate--a strange passage referencing a bathing nine year old girl in terms that are now seen as a little beyond the border of creepy (along with an awkward reference to her two year old brother's erection). But hey, times were a HECK of a lot different then than they are today, so one can only guess that he would have made some different choices (or at least that his editor would have).

Ultimately, I thought it started very strong and ended slightly less strong, with a rather mixed bag in the middle, but I would still recommend it to anyone who has an interest in exploring that era of the underground marijuana industry and of smuggling product across the US-Mexico border over those decades.

[Robert Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book I inherited from my late Uncle Joe which is strange since he always said he was never a part of “that drug culture” though an ex-hippie. The very small portion I kept of his books are still piled all over my library floor. Back to the review, the first chapter was off and running with a nervous roll to the border heading into the U.S. and a thrilling (non)escape from authorities. It came in at a scant 35 pages, within the average bounds of a standard chapter. I foolishly expected this trend would continue throughout but each of the other three chapters comes in just over a hundred pages! A definite pet peeve of mine, I hate over-long chapters! The latter three chapters could have easily been divided into 3 or 4 chapters each. Some of these monsters even have what appears to be breaks in the text every now and again, though that just could be bad layout.

Otherwise, I did enjoy the book aside from the too-long chapters. The excursion into the mountains in the chapter titled The Mountains reminded me distinctly of Runes of the North by Sigurd F. Olson. A specific passage relating a very similar mystical experience through connection with nature found in Olson’s works reads thus:

The mountains themselves take on a prehistoric quality, and I found myself drifting off into vague reveries about “first man.” Occasionally I got separated from the rest of the party by a half-hour or so, and when that happened a strange feeling crept over me. I wasn’t frightened; in fact, the feeling was quite nice. But I had never felt more alone. The ridges above me and the valleys below me took on an abstract quality, a tentativeness that brought my whole existence into question. … . I could feel myself becoming amorphous, drifting out over the ridges and mountain tops. When that happened I spurred my mule to catch up with the rest of the group.

I also enjoyed this bit on page 236:

I flashed that I was going to be riding down a narrow trail at night while I was stoned out of my mind. The thought was both appealing and frightening. I was frightened because my experience with mules was minimal and the path was narrow and dangerous. The idea was appealing though, because I knew that whenever I got stoned and tried something, it inevitably worked out fine.

I took it as humorous even if the author didn’t intend it, it is still a little funny. I also enjoyed the boomer lingo that was on full display here. Of course, given the span of time from when this book was written till now, there are a few collar-tuggers here. The biggest one is a passage that is an admiration of a little girl bathing naked which though I do not believe it was intended to come off as creepy, maybe it didn’t then, but it does big time now especially when he comments on her little brother’s penis as he runs by. Another troubling aspect of the book is that the author seems to view everyone as a classification slash stereotype, particularly racial stereotypes. There is also a homophobic slur near the very end which is of course cringy. Other than those negatives though, I really enjoyed this book (I would’ve enjoyed it better if it was properly chaptered). I did not mind the multiple sidetracks the author took pretty consistently. I did enjoy looking through his eyes with his love of Mexico though his attitudes towards the people seem mixed at best.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes travel-lit, which this invariably is. It is a book about a single trip taken by a marijuana smuggler sometime in the 1970s framed by an incident where he was busted earlier on in his smuggling career. There is some very interesting information about the weed trade and its illegalities at the time as well. All-in-all it was a good book. I dug it.

[Johnny · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wildly racist and sexist with a dash of homophobia and an alarming paragraph about a 9 year old female’s body. It proves that hippies who claimed enlightenment were just a bad as every other baby boomer of the time.

But the information about the drug trade and Mexico is fascinating and the only thing that got me through the book.

He obviously has an extreme love for the country of Mexico and a healthy amount of contempt for the people too. Real confusing.

And the ending? What ending?

[Janie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kind of an amusing throw away for me but I enjoyed it.