Thai Stick: Surfers, Scammers, and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade

Thai Stick documents the underground marijuana trade centered in Thailand during the 1970s. Bangkok, located on the left bank of the Chao Phya River, had hosted smugglers and adventurers since the late eighteenth century. During this decade, it became a hub for a new generation of treasure seekers—surfers financing their travels, hippies, and former Vietnam War combatants—all drawn to the lucrative drug trade. Moving Thai marijuana from northeast Thailand farms to American consumers required navigating one of history's most complex smuggling channels. Until the mid-1970s, the vast majority of marijuana consumed in the United States was imported, with minimal domestic production. Authors Peter Maguire and Mike Ritter are the first historians to document this underground industry through hundreds of interviews with smugglers and law enforcement agents. They chronicle the purchase, delivery, voyage, and product offloading, capturing the personalities of those who transformed the Thai marijuana trade from a small-scale GI operation into a professionalized business handling one of the world's most valuable commodities. The account is told from the smugglers' perspective.