You're listening Ad Free on Amazon Music.

Craig Capitas had one of the most colorful beats in journalism.

He wrote about the illegal drug trade for High Times Magazine.

Dealers would search me out asking me to go to Latin America to write adventure stories about them.

One guy once opened up a Halliburton, little small Halliburton

suitcase. He had $1.5 million in cash in the damn thing. But Jesus, what are you doing with that?

That was in December 1977, in Washington, D.C. It was a big weekend for drugs in the nation's capital.

Everyone was coming to Washington.

Smugglers, adventurers, scientists, musicians, lawyers, farmers, dealers, global leaders.

And all of them were coming with some of the most rootin-tootin,

scientifically produced cavalcade of recreational

drugs you could imagine. And they were bringing it down in bulk.

The occasion was a weekend conference put on by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana

Laws, more commonly known as normal.

For normal and its allies, 1977 was an amazing year. Mississippi, New York, and North Carolina

all passed decriminalization laws. And the new man in the White House was pushing Congress to do

the same thing. President Carter today came out for an end to all federal criminal penalties for the possession

of up to one ounce of marijuana.

Growing, smoking, and possessing marijuana were still illegal pretty much everywhere in the

United States.

But by 1977, more than half of Americans under 30 had tried pot.

Norma's liberal drug agenda was winning.

...