Thai Stick: Surfers, Scammers, and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade
Now this is a curious book; a treatise on marijuana smuggling told in a scholarly manner. A novelty indeed, because despite the prevalence of marijuana in Western culture there's a dearth of serious literature on it. A few volumes of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and a lyric sheet to Cypress Hill is about all this reader has been exposed to, and the narrative style of each represents the common stereotypes surrounding marijuana: either overblown caricature or base self-aggrandisement.
So a 'serious' book on marijuana smuggling co-authored by an eminent historian and war crimes investigator, and a career smuggler? Thai Stick – subtitled Surfers, Scammers and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade - is both original and intriguing.
A chance surfing encounter in 1997 brought Peter Maguire (the historian) and Mike Ritter (the smuggler) together and with their combined skills realised they had the makings of a good book. A story that hadn't yet been told, though deserved to be.
Maguire and Ritter subsequently began to research and interview ex-smugglers before Maguire's university professor informed them they were heading into a legal grey area. They considered their options, manoeuvred themselves away from the thin blue line, then continued with the work.
The embarkation point for the story is America in the mid-60s and the tumultuous political and cultural events of those years – the Vietnam war and the burgeoning counterculture – cannot be separated from the story to come.
“We wanted our government to seek the moral high ground, said Mike Ritter. “We were convinced we were part of an imminent change of great proportions.” For a generation that had been taught to condemn the spineless Germans for failing to stand up to Hitler, Ritter, like many American's his age, felt honour bound to oppose America's role in the Vietnam War.
Opposition to the war involved a wholesale rejection of establishment values while embracing other, new accoutrements. Freedom and marijuana being just two of them and the combination led Ritter to Afghanistan and onto the Hippie Trail where smuggling – or 'scamming' as they called it – was the means to an end.
Maguire and Ritter go to great lengths applying historical context that urges the reader to judge the scammers on the values of the age. Most didn't consider smuggling marijuana wrong, just illegal because of an arbitrary law. The footloose hippies abided by their own codes and never resorted to violence - some didn't even lie. Most wouldn't traffic heroin or any other drug – they were spreading enlightenment not death.
As the pace increases and the 60s became the 70s the scammers began to look farther afield and found Thailand to be an ideal base; top-grade marijuana grew in abundance, there were hundreds of kilometres of unguarded coastline, and it was close to Bali for surf. Thai Sticks – five sticky buds stuck to a bamboo sliver and wrapped in fibre - became a prized drug and status symbol for surfers everywhere.
As both price and demand skyrocketed more people join the Thai smuggling trade. At the same time an alternative surfing history begins to emerge; Jeff Hakman, Bunker Spreckels, Grajagan pioneers Bill Boyum and Bob Laverty, plus Bill's brother Mike all make appearances. Mike Boyum, the outlaw hero of so many early surf tales, is heavily involved and his behaviour is distinctly at odds with the reverential tones usually reserved for him by the surf media.
As more people join the lucrative trade, the stakes are raised and the old hippy ethos begins to crumble. Cocaine enters the fray, so too does the US Drug Enforcement Agency, although it barely halts the Thai drug trade which has now moved from hollow surfboards to multi-tonne shipments in boats sailed across the Pacific. The dangers are many, and not just from the DEA; the Khmer Rouge patrol the Gulf Of Thailand, as do many other pirates in the wake of the wars in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Rip offs occur frequently, jail or death is a wrong move away, but the lure of Asia and the temptation of the scam is too strong for many to quit.
“As much as Thai Stick is a series of of stories about smuggling and a brief utopian moment in twentieth-century American life,” says Maguire, “it is also a business history that would make an excellent case study for any MBA program, because the main elements are supply and demand, and overcoming logistics and marketing obstacles.”
That may be so, although every narrator in Thai Stick – and there are many – eventually met their downfall. The 'legal manoeuvre' that allowed Maguire and Ritter to work on Thai Stick was to only publish accounts from convicted smugglers.
Just as Maguire and Ritter begin Thai Stick by ascribing marijuana use to the politics of the day, so to does their story end in a similar way. In 2002 Ritter himself was incarcerated after work on Thai Stick had begun and many years since he'd finished running scams. He was the victim of new, wide-reaching laws passed in the wake of 9/11.
Unlike the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers or Cypress Hill, readers needn't have (or had) to be marijuana smokers to appreciate and enjoy Thai Stick. The quality that elevates the book is the authors' extensive research in uncovering incredible tales while acknowledging the political and cultural circumstances that allowed them to happen.
'Thai Stick: Surfers, Scammers, and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade' is published by Columbia University Press. Visit the website.
Comments
I read a similar book several years ago called Mr Nice by a bloke named Howard Marks. He was another one of these counter culture 70's figures who hung out with and even co-wrote some of rock band Kiss biggest hits.
An Oxford educated scholar who got to know many of the future political and intelligence community (CIA, MI6) figures through his university days, he also dealt with the IRA and the Italian Mafia. Later in life these alliances helped him become the biggest hashish trafficker in the world.
At the same time that the DEA were tracking his every move the Western Government spy agencies were advising him of their tactics, warning him when his shipments had tracking devices placed on them etc.
Why you might ask?
Through his Afghan connections he helped finance the Muhajadeen Rebels
(including Osama Bin Laden) in their war against the Russians. The hash was even stamped with anti-communist slogans so patriotic American consumers knew that buying the stuff was helping to fight the Russians.
It makes you realise that at the top of the triangle all the same players are pulling the strings.
The DEA finally caught up with him and he did a few years jail but fuck all considering what he'd been doing.
It's another killer read if this subject interests you!
Yeah Mr Nice was a fantastic read.. Highly recommend it to everyone.
Didn't think much of his second book though ('Howard Marks' Book Of Dope Stories').
There's more info on HM here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Marks
Hmm any mention of the Brotherhood of enlightment,out of Laguna beach or Dana Point??
these were the real guys!!
The Brotherhood of Eternal Love? Yep, those guys feature heavily in the mix of scammers and surfers.
Yeah love the classic statement brothers are brothers business is business thats when good vibes ended
The assumption that pot smoking was picked up by surfers as part of the late sixties counter culture might be true to some extent but it is often forgotten that Australian surfers had been visiting South Africa well before that and had not only encountered pot there but were smuggling it back to Australua in their boards from very early on. This was reflected in a different culture of smoking in surfing communities compared to the mainstream; chillums vs joints and pipes.
I should also like to make it known that this information comes from thorough research rather than any personal experience!
How far do you want to go mate Morocco 1963 200 pounds of keef hashish Agadir to LA in a couple of combies Real waves real Peopls
I love smoking those chillums in restaurants. Met
these guys one night while smoking one (all the legal stuff of coarse) and ended up doing a film clip with them after a bender at stadium. Went to a few gigs as well. Good people. Good times. Brings back memories, there's a lot more to indo than surf.Jeez i look skinny in that clip.By the way the whole point of that scene was the zebra walking over white man at the crossing.
As a grommie i just caught the end of the thai stick scene , one of the crew at the time found a barrel full of sticks washed up on the beach , for years after me and my mates always checked out any containers washed up in the vain hope we would score as well, we never had the same luck . This got us thinking though, they had obviously come from a passing ship Our sleepy port had potential, the odd customs guy but no real security , we had played all over the tankers and warf as kids , we new every inch of the port , the what ifs started flowing ,one of the crew had a lightbulb moment lets just just ask the boaties if they had any smoke. So we did , i was offered every thing from watches to gold , what the fuck as a grommie would i do with that , one of the other guys asked some men of a boat from kenya and hit the bloody jackpot, Months passed waiting for the tanker s return, a midnight swim in black freezing water followed , everything just felli nto place, we were all young living in what was basically a party house and getting way way to loose . The raid happened early in the morning as they usually do , as i was being lead to the interview i had to laugh as i saw heaps of other faces i new in the cells , it seemed like every one in town got busted that day , we were far from alone .
Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett once said at one of his concerts "how come all the marijuana has disappeared off the streets of Sydney and all the heroin is really cheap I wonder?"
It wasn't like that in Adelaide in the 1980's, the city was awash with cheap imported weed and hash. And it was the cops who were the major suppliers!
There was this feral kid who lived by himself in his family home a couple of streets from my high school. His mum was dead and his dad was really old, suffering from dementia and had been placed into care. The kid was 15 and somehow slipped through the cracks in the system, turning up at school when he felt like it and generally running amok.
The place became drug dealing central, a hangout for various criminals as well as us local school kids, a great mix.
One night on the news was a story of a huge police bust of hash at Port Adelaide on a Pakistani ship. Within days the stuff was on the streets, stamped with a distinctive elephant logo of the source country. Everyone was smoking it.
It was obvious to anyone with any connection to street dealing that the cops were dodgy but it took a few years for the whole story to unravel.
One day a house brick sized block of hash was intercepted and the police thought it would be a useful tool to show new recruits what the drug looked like. The block was broken in half, with one half going to the police academy, and the other half going into the evidence warehouse.
Several months later the cops busted a dealer in Murray Bridge about an hour from Adelaide and found a perfectly broken half house brick sized block of hash?
The cops were suspicious and went to see the if the half stored at the warehouse was there but it was missing? When they went to the academy the second half was there, and when the two pieces were placed together, like a jigsaw the halfs perfectly matched!
It wasn't some young recruits doing the dodgy as they expected.
Surveillance cameras were set up in the evidence warehouse and the culprit was soon discovered. It was Barry Moyse the head of the Drug Squad!
He got 25 years and did his time in isolation at the Port Lincoln prison for his own safety as many of the criminals inside the states jails had been put there by him!
These days many of my friends who still smoke say its hard to get weed even in Adelaide but the city is awash with smack, coke and ice, as are all cities it seems?
Midnight Oil had a song with the chorus line "They say-That's Progress".......
Ah yes - Barry Moyse - forever immortalised in song by the Bearded Clams!
All time reference to SA mid coast / thrash / punk music scene....
Yeh, but he was really just the genuinely dangerous Creed's stooge. They all got out of their depth though, and the protection ground to a halt.
Hey Mike how is it going remember Staying at your house in sanur let alone all the other unmentionables. So your still alive... and trying to make a buck in literature. Good on ya we all should have quit when we where ahead . Have to have a read.. keep it honest bro
Has anyone seen the doco "Sea of Darkness" about a similar subject, from more of an Aussie perspective? If so, is it any good and where can I get a copy, it seems to be hard to track down?
SS,
I haven't seen it but there was talk of Sea Of Darkness on here recently. Think it was Udo that had seen it? I also remember it mentioned that there were two versions of the doco, a tell-all version and a censored version.
Anyone...?
I've seen it and really enjoyed it. Looked for a personal copy since 2012 but haven't been able to find one.
Someone on here got a copy recently and plenty of hands went up trying to get copies, including myself, don't think anything came of it though.
I got a copy of it, quite good and I think it is the uncut version as some of those guys say too much. I could probably throw in a free copy with every board cover I sell :-)
There you go Scottish Sponger, a copy of Sea Of Darkness and a bit of entrepreneurship as well!
Click on Crustt's sig.
The crew at postcode 2291 have secured a few copies. Some copies don't work. Interesting content.
Stu,why didn't sea of darkness get released...??
Just read Thai Stick.......probably one of the best written account of the times,its amazing Australia was so briefly touched on ,but maybe one day someone will cover the same era here....but as we don't have the statute of Limitations,probably not!
Not sure of that Brutus. Might ask around when I get a chance. Does anyone else here know..?
And yeah, Thai Stick is a great read. Would love to read an Australian version. Wonder who they'd approach for information...?
I heard that the producers got threatened with lawsuits and after watching I can see why, a few of the guys interviewed get carried away. One of the main guys in Sea of darkness Jeff Chitty lived on the Surf Coast for quite a few years in the 70's , wild bloke but good, looked out for us grommets. It's all believable stuff . Chitty apparently was infamous for having a punch out with a seppo pro at the Easter Bells comp, mid 70's ish.
Mike Tabling told me a few stories of how they made ends meet in the early days, a bit of a glossed over version was in a recent surfers journal.
pretty amazing when you think that all those characters that were in Bali in the early 70's,welcomed one of the first Aussie tours to Bali in 73 ....making a movie with Mex, Wayne/Nat...the RC, Torquay crew......
all of the guys mentioned in Thai Stick...were actually living there in comfort at the time..apparently there's some pretty amazing Stories from that Era...so they tell me hahahaha....
having said that.....as I have never seen Martin Daley's film...and there is mention of Mike B and one Abdul......plus petey......I wonder how it all stacks up??
Well, well, welll...Kelly Slater has just bought the TV and film options to this book. He's written a short justification/explanation on his Insta account:
https://instagram.com/p/0qkbFmzbFR/
#I don't smoke, KS.
Has anyone here watched the "SEA OF DARKNESS"?
I watched this a couple of months back, geez an awesome insight, wow those guys absolutely ripped the shit out of those waves on short single fins. Great film.
May I ask where you got it? I saw it at Cacho's down Padang Padang years ago but his tv was busted and had no sound. Been trying to track down a physical copy/download ever since.
now theres a worthy subject.....now I wonder where all those Thai sticks came from in Australia......and was there a connection between those seppo surfers and ....hehehe....actually writing a script about this time...and Oz surfers..uhoh.......change the names to protect the guilty....hehe
A segment from the ABC if not already posted elsewhere
The surfer smugglers of the 60s revealed -
Similar to those risk adverse surfers who profited on plants deemed illegal, when something has been banned for what 70 years, young folks susceptible to binge drinking go all hoody nuts when hay is legalized again.
Holy fuck -
Yep, that is just crazy!
anyone after the movie , i got a torrent copy yesterday .
\
filename sea_of_darkness.m4v
runtime is 1:35:05
i wonder if this is the uncut version ? appears to be a pre4view copy or screener of some kind ..
hit me up here if you still cant find it ..