Hi Maha.
Statements like that would only be made by somebody who doesn't really understand how HUGE the USA is, or they weren't old enough to be in the game when the period you are talking about went down here. Either that or they never really thought about the fact that their experience here back then was a tiny bubble in an ocean of bubbles.
It is just a massive incorrect generalization.
European countries are the size of American states, so it isn't surprising that this might not be obvious to someone not from the US. Of course, each city/state/region had it's own pipelines in the black market herb trade. Hell, a load could be brought in by one passionate adventurer that would never make it beyond a group of 50 or 100 people. And of course, individual weed lovers carried their best stuff with them when they traveled around, like dead shows, but on a micro scale. Seeds and quarter pounds came back to college campuses after christmas vacation every year, then spread around and traveled again, outward to the 4 corners of the country. Just one example of how things flowed and disappeared.
Basically, the "good stuff" was everywhere, all the time, and almost impossible to get (if that makes any sense.) Like catching lighting.
Even though it was MUCH easier to find commercial Mexican herb on the west coast of the US, and commercial Colombian dominated the east coast in the late 70s, it didn't mean that the obvious trade route bias wasn't crossed on a regular basis when there was demand and opportunity for profit.
Some places in the US are like magnets and attract the best black market goods to them from all over the world.
The SF Bay Area was one of those places, NYC of course. There are many others but I figure I had to list at least 2.
You can't discount the giant magnetic effect of the market in the Bay Area: the hippie culture which was born there and still raging, and the money that was always touching the lives of people who live in some of the most valuable real estate in the world.
The boys over the mountain down in Santa Cruz benefited from all that. They were in the center of the weed universe, and every corner of the planet was scoured for her flowering treasures and returned to that beautiful bosom of the Aquarian generation.
Dr. Purpur has a story of his visit to an exclusive cannabis house in SF run by none other than the Dennis Peron. He describes being admitted to the house by a doorman who confirmed he was OK (can't remember the details) walking through beaded curtains to a room with people sitting on pillows on the floor. The room was filled with baskets of buds from all over the world all there in one place, for sale as much as you wanted. This was his personal account. It's up here somewhere I think. Worth searching for.
His personal experience perfectly illustrates my point about the bay area back then.
My imagination may have added a bit of color and left out just as much, but he painted a great picture
Weed culture in the US could be completely different from one town to the next. Hell, even in a single town, some people might be smoking from red bud bales that came in on a small plane load of a 300 pounds. People a mile away might never know anything about it, and live a life never experiencing anything but bales of low grade seeded Mex.
It was literally that fragmented. Think of it as cells, and it was all about who you know. People kept shit very low key, Commercial was everywhere and anyone could get it, but getting into circles with the good stuff was not easy at all.
Every time I was lucky enough to get access to one of those special circles, I felt like the luckiest guy in the world. Weed thrust me into brushes with famous people several times. When I think about it, I still marvel at the luck I had. Not sure if luck is the right word. Maybe magic.
Anyway, just wanted to drop a bit time-capsuled experience on the speculation/assumptions there.
It was an amazing time to be alive, and I understand the fascination with it by people today, trying to imagine what it was like.
I wish we had time machines and we could all go back to visit it together.
It would be the best party ever.
Cheers !
