“The great library of New York dope has been going up in smoke this month. I want it all smoked up by September One, when I clear out for good. Here,” he said, tossing me a Baggie full of grass. “Try some 1967”

“Blunts have made it fashionable to smoke pot again. Just about no­body in hip hop circles smokes crack or cocaine anymore.”

“Owing to the success of the Rea­gan-Bush crackdown, marijuana prices in New York City have doubled and tripled in recent years, with top-end product selling routinely for $500 an ounce, and up.”

“It’s no accident that many kids start taking drugs at about the same age when children in traditional societies are tossed into a terrifying rite of passage, often involving some freaked-out combination of blood, darkness, self-sufficiency, and secrets.”

“Let me tell you about the first time I got high. It was 1966, and I was a young reporter… There, sitting on the floor, were Cree­dence Clearwater Revival and Big Brother and the Holding Company. A huge spliff was passed around… ‘We shouldn’t be doing interviews,’ I shouted. ‘We should be friends.’ ”