This is kind of interesting. Let’s look at the scenario. JP Barlow, long associated with the Grateful Dead and the counter-culture is busted for pot! Go figure. More interesting to me is the revelation that he actually checks his luggage. What experienced traveller checks luggage nowadays? You use one of those plane-fitted bags along with an oversized computer case into which you stuff socks and shirts. And doesn’t he know that the TSA is rummaging through bags? Another friend of mine, guitarist Roger McGuinn is still steamed about a guitar he was travelling with getting busted up inside a metal shipping case. It’s as if they took the guitar out and smashed it for some reason.
Often bags never arrive until days later. During the early days after 9/11 I was twice caught off guard by various new luggage policies and both times and I had to check one bag. Thus my Samsonite rollaway hard case did not arrive at the destination and was delivered hours later. Twice in a row. I realized that my case had all sorts of screwball stickers from customs in China, Dubai, Turkey and all over. I’m sure they put it aside for a more thorough check and it missed the plane. I cleaned all the stickers off the bag and decided to travel lighter than ever. I’ve even learned how to fold a suit properly to stuff in the rolling hard case.
from Barlows Blog
On September 15, 2003, shortly after Burning Man, I was hauled off an airplane that was about to depart San Francisco for New York and charged with the misdemeanor possession of controlled substances that had allegedly been discovered during a search of my checked baggage.
I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to relate this event. Embarrassment certainly played no part. Generally, I like to be fully disclosed, no matter how far I may wander beyond the normative fringe. I suppose that, for legal reasons, I wanted to avoid any apparent admission of guilt, and only now do I realize that it’s possible to tell this tale without making one
Read the entire (recommended) Taste of the System here.
John, are you going to redo this poster when the Showtime production of “Reefer Madness — the Musical” is released?
Barlow, aside from being a Dead lyricist, at least was a Republican state representative from I think Wyoming.