Carolyn Fath
Jeff Kundert, president of the American Cannabis Society, thanks you for pot smoking.
The classic American pothead has evolved over the last 30 years from Jeff Spicoli — the stoner-dude archetype played by Sean Penn in 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High — to Jeff Kundert, real-life wellness expert, athlete and president of the American Cannabis Society.
“Me and my buddies are super-accomplished guys,” says the 66-year-old Madison native. “We get together, smoke a little herb, then we go home to the houses we pay mortgages on and mow our lawns.”
Kundert and his brotherhood of achievement stoners see themselves as freedom fighters on a mission to overturn nearly a century of federal marijuana prohibition. Their crusade to “free the herb” isn’t so people can get high — which they do in spite of the law — but to have peace of mind while doing so.
“The point,” Kundert explains, “is that no one is going to put me or anybody else in jail for enjoying and sharing this sacred herb.”
Kundert uses his finger to underscore each of the five words printed on his T-shirt. “I. Am. Not. A. Criminal,” he reads.
Wisconsin lawmakers disagree. They are resisting the growing national movement to allow medicinal or recreational marijuana.
In April, Pennsylvania became the 24th state to approve marijuana for medicinal use. Voters in Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, with those in Alaska and Oregon following suit.
And with a record number of marijuana-related initiatives to be decided by voters in November, the future smells skunky in several other states.
“This year is going to be a historic year for recreational marijuana,” says Chris Walsh, managing editor of the Colorado-based Marijuana Business Daily. “The train is moving, and it is moving quickly.”
Kundert isn’t waiting for Wisconsin lawmakers to climb on board. In 2010, he began rebranding the American Cannabis Society, which was founded in Madison in 1978 by his late father, Bob Kundert.
At its peak, says Kundert, the group boasted more than 10,000 card-carrying members. Its iconic catchphrase, “Thank you for pot smoking!” has adorned countless automobile bumpers and T-shirts.
“When Dad started using cannabis he was 60 and [I was] 25,” says Kundert, “He smoked throughout the ’70s and became a youthful man.”
But unlike his father, who promoted the etiquette around smoking and sharing marijuana, Kundert envisions for the group a more dialectic role in the nation’s emerging legal marijuana economy.
“Dad was just like, ‘Free the herb! Free the herb,’” he recalls. “We’re going to bring cannabis to the households with our ‘Grow, Use, Share’ legislation.”
Because Wisconsin doesn’t allow statewide citizen-initiated ballot measures, the group has partnered with the Wisconsin chapter of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) in lobbying Dane County communities to reduce municipal fines for marijuana possession to $1.
“I want to ring Madison with $1 fines and then 421 laws,” he says, referring to legislation he hopes the lawmakers will someday pass allowing residents to grow four plants, possess two ounces and to share one ounce.
“Every household in America should have this option,” he says. “Scott Walker better stay out of this.”
Walker notwithstanding, momentum in Wisconsin is not on proponents’ side. Marijuana Business Daily’s Walsh notes that no state has legalized recreational marijuana without first legalizing its medicinal use. This doesn’t bode well for Wisconsin pot advocates.
Many sitting Republican lawmakers have helped kill prior medical marijuana proposals. Their rigidity was evident in March, when the Senate failed to relax rules around a marijuana compound used to treat chronic seizures in children because it contains trace amounts of THC, the plant’s psychoactive element.
“They just went home without passing it,” says state Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha). “It is so unfair to those children who desperately need this to prevent having seizures.”
But the bill did have support from the Assembly, including Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester). Also during the most recent session, state Rep. Melissa Sargent (D-Madison) introduced legislation that would have legalized recreational marijuana, but it never received a hearing.
“When you go to school you’re taught that pot is a bad thing — in fact, many drugs are a bad thing — but what we’re talking about here is a plant,” says Sargent. “The most dangerous thing about marijuana is that it is illegal.”
One certainty about marijuana prohibition is that enforcement is expensive. A 2013 report by Americans for Safe Access found that the federal government, under President Barack Obama, has spent nearly $80 million a year — $200,000 a day — enforcing marijuana prohibition in states where medical marijuana is legal.
But earlier this month, federal prosecutors made an about-face in abandoning a four-year effort to shutter California’s largest marijuana dispensary.
Prosecutors cited a 2014 spending bill passed by Congress that included an amendment prohibiting the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from using federal money to prevent the implementation of medical marijuana laws.
“That was a big win for the industry,” says Walsh. “It is a positive sign that federal drug enforcement agencies are backing away and moving toward a hands-off approach.”
A recent study by the Marijuana Business Daily showed that legal marijuana sales spiked from $4.6 billion in 2014 to $5.4 billion in 2015. It predicts sales this year will be more than $7 billion. And a study by the Tax Foundation this month found legal pot could generate $28 billion annually in tax revenue.
“Wisconsin is missing out on lots of jobs, business opportunities and tax dollars by not legalizing medical or recreational marijuana,” says Walsh. “The industry is at a tipping point right now, but we can clearly see the direction things are going.”
Had Sargent’s bill become law, state analysts estimated recreational marijuana would generate nearly $68 million in revenue, $5.3 million in sales tax and another $440,000 in fees.
Estimates also showed the bill would have saved Wisconsin taxpayers millions of dollars spent each year prosecuting marijuana-related offenses. In 2014, 36 residents were imprisoned on marijuana-related charges, with another 1,596 put on probation, bringing the total number of marijuana offenders to 108 inmates and 2,432 on probation.
“Not a lot of legislation brings in revenue,” says Sargent. “This is a lot of money we could use to address the heroin epidemic or invest in our public schools.”
Barca doesn’t foresee economic arguments swaying Republicans. “They could’ve taken the $300 million to expand BadgerCare,” he says. “They act like they care about Wisconsin residents, but they don’t.”
Some say the key to convincing lawmakers of marijuana’s virtues is finding achievement stoners like Kundert to publicly advocate on marijuana’s behalf.
“It’s tough to find people brave enough to say, ‘I drive my kids to soccer, I pay my mortgage, I go to church on Sundays, but I use marijuana as well,’” says Sargent, who adds that she doesn’t use it.
Sargent, who is up for re-election, says she will reintroduce her bill in January if she holds on to her Assembly seat.
Legalize Wisconsin helped organize a pro-pot rally in Milwaukee earlier this month where roughly 200 people marched in support of legalization. Group founder Megan Olson says it is difficult getting people to speak out against prohibition.
“Fewer people are willing to stand up for marijuana, because they’re afraid to lose jobs or get in trouble with the law,” says the 30-year-old Madison resident.
However, more people are speaking out on users’ behalf, believing that legalization can offset cuts to public education and provide a healthier alternative to prescription narcotics.
Olson became active in the movement after her father replaced the narcotics he was prescribed following a back injury with cannabis. Olson also worked for nine years as a home healthcare provider and “saw firsthand how cannabis helped people sleep at night or reduce their anxiety.”
Recalling how marijuana was maligned in the ’80s, as the War on Drugs ramped up during the Reagan years, Kundert says that in this world there are negative forces as well as positive ones.
“There were some real battles over marijuana,” he says. “But people who were sentient and forward-thinking, like my dad, challenged the status quo. Now it’s up to us to change it.”
