The Politics of Pot

My last column on the rally to legalize marijuana gets me thinking about drugs, so late on a Friday afternoon I call Graffix--the company best-known for its designer bongs--hoping to catch someone off guard, or better yet, stoned. But when a young guy picks up the phone and I tell him I'm a Crimson editorialist, his laughter is remarkably sober.

What fascinates me about Graffix is that while (by my best guess) it stays in business by selling its bongs to pot smokers, it is able to skirt drug paraphernalia laws by maintaining that the glass tubes are tobacco delivery systems. Caught in a vice between the pressures of the market and those of the law, Graffix faces some very sticky questions: How should it respond to the fact that it helps customers get high? Should it push for legalization? Might political activism provoke a backlash that drives it out of business?

I'm hoping for some interesting answers, but when I ask to speak to a press person, the guy on the phone responds, "You're talking to him." I ask him for his name and title, but he replies, "my name is unimportant in the realm of things." Then our conversation takes a turn for the bizarre. He immediately volunteers that the "water pipes" are made in an "undisclosed location in Arizona" but cautions that Graffix is no longer "stressing" them. "It's a very lowkey deal," he assures me and he'd just as soon not talk about the pipes. I pepper him with questions about the company's history, ballpark production figures, etc. But he won't budge.

Summoning my meager journalistic talents, I throw him a few softballs to loosen him up, and surprisingly, it works--except now he's sending me wildly conflicting messages. He tells me that the pipes aren't intended for illicit drug consumption, but that what people do in their homes is their business. When I ask if the company is endorsing a presidential candidate, he says Graffix has no political agenda. On the other hand, he clarifies, the election is "something we're monitoring." When he asserts that Graffix doesn't "recommend" smoking tobacco, I press him on the point, inquiring why, then, it makes the pipes at all. This sends him into a mumbling frenzy. Eventually he offers that "They make pretty nice flower pots." Besides, he argues, Graffix doesn't even make that many; most of the ones you see are knock-offs.

On Saturday afternoon I stroll over to the Pit, looking for a probable pot smoker, but the brisk weather has sent the alternateens indoors. I circle the area twice and suddenly, I spot one. He's a high-schooler right out of an Urban Outfitters catalog. Sitting on a skateboard and smoking a cigarette, he has the shrewd look of a punk-rock star plastered across his face. His brown hair, shaved on the sides and the back, has enough red streaks in it to piss off any parent.

I introduce myself expecting to be laughed at, but he is respectful and sincere. His name is Dave, he's 15, from Somerville. I ask him about politics and his answers are coherent but indifferent. Trying to tease something out of him, I lay out a scenario: Dole wants to crack down on marijuana, making it harder to get and more risky to possess. Clinton, on the other hand, sounds like he's going to do his damnedest to take cigarettes out of the hands of kids. I tell Dave people like him need to pick their poison, so to speak. It's pot or cigarettes, Dole or Clinton.

But Dave shrugs off the question. "I stay away from drugs," he says, and for a moment I'm stunned by the stupidity of my assumption. I recover to ask him if that means he favors Dole but he's still unmoved. "I don't buy cigarettes," he explains, "I just bum 'em off friends. I'm trying to cut down, actually." He shakes his head at the ground, tossing his wild hair back and forth. "I've got to run track in the spring."

Monday morning, Lucy, the press person at the Boston Beer Company returns my call within an hour. The brewers of Samuel Adams don't want to take a position in the upcoming presidential election, she tells me, sounding like a mother afraid of favoring one of her children. The company also has no strategy in place to fight future prohibition efforts. I guess drafting one would be a waste of time.

Dan S. Aibel's column appears on alternate Wednesdays.