This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, January 9th, 2018. I'm Caleb Brown.

Johnny Bone is a living folk hero in Kentucky, having been involved in at least one of the largest marijuana busts in American history and then after a time

in prison upon being caught again went on the run for eight years.

But now Boone is in federal custody.

Last week I spoke with Jim Higgton author of the Cornbread Mafia, about Johnny

Boone's escapades.

We spoke just before Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his plans to allow U.S. attorneys

to be more aggressive in prosecuting marijuana cases.

You and I are both from Kentucky.

You wrote a book called The Cornbread Mafia, largely about a guy named Johnny Boone.

Who is Johnny Boone?

So Johnny Boone is this career marijuana grower from Central Kentucky.

He was arrested twice by federal authorities, once in 82 when he was caught

smuggling about 500 pounds out of Belize into Louisville and the second time in 87 when

he and 20 Kentuckyans were caught in Minnesota with what Minnesota authorities says was 90 tons of marijuana.

He did the better part of 15 years in federal prison for that.

And then in 2008 he got caught with 2,000 seedlings and flower pots and that made

him become a fugitive because that would have been his third federal strike.

So he was while he was a fugitive, my book was published. I finished

my book and published it. And so he became, you know, in marijuana circles kind of well known for being this the last of the marijuana

outlaws who was on the run.

So and I hate this comparison but it's I think it's worth pointing out in terms of the

...