Who Is Cannabis Journalist Benjamin M. Adams?
Benjamin M. Adams has worked as a staff writer at High Times magazine for six years, beginning in 2018. Before that, he worked full-time at Culture magazine based in Corona, California. He’s freelanced for many other platforms, writing about cannabis for Snoop Dogg’s website Merry Jane as well as Cannabis Now, Dope magazine, Forbes, Treating Yourself, and others. He’s also written for Vice, HuffPost, Salt Lake City Weekly, and The Advocate.
Recently, Adams has spoken at a handful of panels and appeared on public radio to support medical cannabis advocacy. He’s written about judging Cannabis Cup flower entries. He has also written the introduction to a book, Deadlines, featuring the cannabis poster art of Melbourne, Australia-based artist Trog.
Adams uses his middle initial to distinguish himself from other men named “Benjamin Adams” in the cannabis industry. He has also used the pseudonym “Richard Saunders,” which was used by Benjamin Franklin. Adams has been a card-holding medical cannabis patient in two states since 2011. He continues to help spread the word about the miracles of medical cannabis.
Benjamin M. Adams's Comix-Inspired Weedsday Playlist: Hail To The Freak Brothers!
“These songs were released long before I was born,” Adams says of his Weedsday Playlist selections. “I’m drawn to these songs because they embody a rebellious spirit of the times that is difficult to reproduce. It was a time when cannabis was a fringe topic, and most Americans lumped it together with other street drugs. Besides collecting issues of cannabis magazines, I also collect the comic books that preceded them. This playlist is deep cuts, made for hippies, of songs inspired by underground magazines, comics, and other forms of media.
Comic books created for adults—called comix—paved the way for cannabis publications and thrived beginning in the 1960s. Illustrations showed how to hold in cannabis hits and how to use psychedelics effectively. They were the predecessor to the first issue of High Times in 1974.
Gilbert Shelton created The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers in the summer of 1968. It followed three hippies, The Freak Brothers. It was eventually adapted into a cartoon series on Tubi starring the voices of Pete Davidson as Phineas, Woody Harrelson as Franklin, John Goodman as Fat Freddy, and Tiffany Haddish as Kitty. I attended The Freak Brothers premiere in Los Angeles in 2021, where Goodman told me that he used to ‘leaf’ through his Freak Brothers comics in the 1970s.”
Shelton is now 85 at the time of writing, and his son Gavin runs his father’s estate along with his character Poddy Passumquoddy. “‘Strike A Match’ by Cat Mother and the All-Night Newsboys was a weed-related song that Gilbert liked,” Gavin tells Honeysuckle. “He illustrated the lyrics and that artwork is in the exhibition. This appeared in Freak Brothers #0, published by Rip Off as Underground Classics #1. It featured older strips that had appeared in various publications but were not previously considered for reprinting.” A Shelton exhibition was recently held at the Galerie de la Bande Dessinée in Brussels, Belgium.
“One of my all-time favorite comic strips by Shelton was the back side of Feds N Heads, also released in 1968. It depicts the progressive stages of a peyote trip, showing a couple watching a TV that is off. I treasure collecting rare publications like this. The following old-school songs were inspired by counterculture publications dating back decades.”
Cat Mother and the All-Night Newsboys - “Strike A Match and Light Another”
Cat Mother’s first album was produced by Jimi Hendrix, for whom they frequently opened, along with The Doors. This song is off their second album. It was a jam among underground cartoonists of yesteryear. While forming in New York, the band members eventually made their way to Mendocino County, California. Matches went out of fashion many years ago, but the idea is the same.
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Shel Silverstein - “I Got Stoned and I Missed It”
Long before becoming a cartoonist and writing iconic children’s books, Shel Silverstein’s rhymes were an edgy form of comedy music focusing on pot and other drugs. It was akin to what you’d expect from Cheech & Chong. Silverstein’s 1972 album Freakin' at the Freakers Ball was drenched in hippie undertones. His other song, “The Smoke Off,” was about the “laid-back” town of San Rafael, California. One prevailing theory is that the term “420” originated at San Rafael High School in 1971, just before this song was released.
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Bob Dylan - "It Ain't Me Babe"
It Ain't Me, Babe Comix is an underground comic book published in 1970, created entirely by women and focused on women’s liberation. In a fascinating twist, the creators used Dylan’s lyrics to explain how women felt at the time. It was created by Trina Robbins and Barbara "Willy" Mendes, and published by Last Gasp. Bob Dylan recorded this song in 1964. The Turtles and Johnny Cash also recorded this song.
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John Lennon - “John Sinclair”
The Beatles provided plenty of abstract references to pot, but one solo song in particular stands out as an explicit rebuke of cannabis laws in Michigan. John Sinclair, a member of the White Panther Party, an anti-racist political collective, was singled out by the federal government as a radical activist and slapped with a 10-year sentence for two joints’ worth of cannabis, spurring a national debate and a John Lennon song. By luck of good fortune, I got to interview Sinclair and his ex-wife before he passed away. He told me he started advocating for the legalization of marijuana in Michigan in January 1965, becoming friends with Allen Ginsberg. Sinclair wrote for the underground publication Fifth Estate as well as several publications focused on militant revolution and anarchy. Sinclair died April 2, 2024.
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*Editor's Note: Did you know? Cannabis coach Bradley King chose The Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun" for his Weedsday Playlist. Check out his full list here. Journalist and author Iris Dorbian chose The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" for her Weedsday Playlist. Check out her full list here.
Eddie Kendricks - “Keep on Truckin’”
The original song using similar lyrics is the Blind Boy Fuller song "Truckin' My Blues Away" from 1936. The hit song, “Keep on Truckin',” however, was released by Eddie Kendricks, from The Temptations, in 1973. This obscure song inspired an iconic 1968 one-page cartoon from Robert Crumb. It depicts men walking in a sort of Monty Python-like walk. As a bumper sticker, mud flap, or button, it became a widely known cartoon image.
Click here to play on Spotify!
For more about Benjamin M. Adams, follow @bybenjaminadams on Instagram or Facebook.
What are your favorite Weedsday tracks? Tell us about them - reach out at @honeysucklemagazine on Instagram!
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Featured image: (C) Benjamin M. Adams
