Stoned Again: The High Times and Strange Life of a Drugs Correspondent

by Mike Sager

Overview

"In Stoned Again, Mike Sager refers to himself as a "drugs correspondent," but that's legitimately humble smoke that belies what's really going on here. While there's plenty of weed, heroin, ‘shrooms, and crack (not to mention plenty of Ricky James, bitch) in these pages, what is most evident on every page is the remarkable reporting, empathy, craftsmanship, and storytelling that have rightly placed Mike Sager among the journalistic legends of our time."
--Maximillian Potter, author, Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World’s Greatest Wine

From the brutal days and nights of life inside a crack gang in Los Angeles, to the artistic miseries of young heroin addicts on the ultra-hip lower east side of New York; from the Sonoran desert where Carlos Castaneda made his earliest shamanic discoveries, to the cell at Folsom Prison where the author first encountered the King of Funk, Rick James, to the modest headquarters of the Church of Realized Fantasies, where the Pope of Pot presided over the first highly organized marijuana delivery service, Stoned Again: The High Times and Strange Life of a Drugs Reporter takes you to places you didn’t necessarily want to go on your own. But with Sager as your guide, you can’t wait to head to the next destination.

Sager has been called “the Beat poet of American journalism, that rare reporter who can make literature out of shabby reality.” Nowhere is that skill more in evidence than when he writes about the seamier sides of life. Kirkus Reviews called him “Virgil in the modern American inferno.”

"Mike Sager is a journalistic icon and a literary force. A whole generation of writers has been shaped and guided by his work. This is a seminal collection by a master of the form."
--Wil S. Hylton, author, Vanished: The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of World War II

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780986267970
Publisher:	The Sager Group LLC
Publication date:	04/21/2015
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.52(d)

About the Author

Mike Sager is a bestselling author and award-winning reporter. He's been called "the Beat poet of American journalism." For more than nineteen years he has worked as a Writer-at-Large for Esquire magazine. In 2010 he won the American Society of Magazine Editors National Magazine award for profile writing. Eight of his articles have been optioned for or have inspired Hollywood feature films, including Boogie Nights. The author of more than a dozen books and eBooks,he is also the editor and publisher of The Sager Group LLC, a consortium of multi-media artists and writers. For more info, please see www.TheSagerGroup.net or www.MikeSager.com.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
1// Introduction
A man (or a woman) on a mission to score drugs is never a tourist, and neither is one who is passing a pipe.

9// When Should a Man Stop Smoking Weed?
Maybe never.

17 // Dab Artists
The craftsmen at the front (and illegal) edge of the marijuana-concentrate boom.

35 // The Rise and Fall of a Super Freak
Rick James, the King of Funk, was one of the biggest names in the music industry-until he discovered freebase cocaine. An interview at Folsom Prison leads to a friendship with the author that lasts until James' death in 2004.

59 // Generation H
At 28, Mark is bored with the whole poseur scene in the funky East Village of New York City. Only his ten-bag-a-day heroin habit is keeping life interesting.

77 // The Teachings of Don Carlos
Some say he was a breakthrough academic and a visionary shaman. Others say he was a sham. The mysterious life and impeccable death of Carlos Castaneda.

137 // Death in Venice
Life inside an LA crack gang.

155 // The High Life and Strange Times of the Pope of Pot
Meet the pioneer of pot delivery services, Mickey the Pope and his faithful followers at the Church of Realized Fantasies. Too bad the cops didn't think he was so amusing.
175 // The Real Rick Ross is Not a Rapper
Freeway Rick Ross didn't invent crack. But he probably did more than anyone else to cause its spread.

197 // Smoking: A Love Story
Cigarettes were my habit, my hobby, my love, my constant companion from birth. But cigarettes were slowly killing me. A smoker with long established habit says goodbye to his accursed legal drug of choice.

210 // Sources
211 // About the Author
212 // About the Publisher

Editorial Reviews

"Mike Sager is a journalistic icon and a literary force. A whole gener- ation of writers has been shaped and guided by his work. This is a seminal collection by a master of the form."
-Wil S. Hylton, New York Times Magazine contributor, author of Vanished: The Sixty-Year Search for the Missing Men of World War II

"In Stoned Again, Mike Sager refers to himself as a 'drugs correspondent,' but that's legitimately humble smoke that belies what's really going on here. While there's plenty of weed, heroin, shrooms, and crack (not to mention plenty of Ricky James, bitch) in these pages, what is most evi- dent on every page is the remarkable reporting, empathy, craftsmanship, and storytelling that have rightly placed Mike Sager among the journalistic legends of our time."
-Maximillian Potter, author of Shadows in the Vineyard: The True Story of the Plot to Poison the World's Greatest Wine

"An entertaining and absorbing collection from a leading voice on drugs in America."
-Nushin Rashidian, co-author of A New Leaf: The End of Cannabis Prohibition

"Sager's belief that marijuana expands one's perceptions mirrors my own experiences and beliefs. If you are a marijuana smoker, you'll find this book a good read."
-Keith Stroup, founder of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

From the Publisher