I first met Robert Platshorn at the 2012 High Times Medical Cannabis Cup in Los Angeles. I had talked to him a handful of times via e-mail leading up to the event, and he always impressed me. After hearing him talk at the Cup, I was even more impressed. He has a way of capturing an audience like nothing I had seen up to that point or since. Robert Platshorn has the distinction of serving the longest prison sentence for marijuana – almost 30 years. And even after his release from prison, he was on a very restrictive parole, hindering his travels and making it nearly impossible to attend speaking engagements. I’m happy to say, that Robert Platshorn is finally a free man who can travel around the country spreading his invaluable message of reform. Per the New Times:
“It makes me feel good knowing that other people won’t have to go to prison like I did, and seniors with MS or Crohn’s or glaucoma will be able to get a safe and effective medicine that doesn’t cost them an arm and a leg and has absolutely no known side effects.”
Newly energized, he plans to embark on a campaign to get the senior vote out in favor of Amendment 2. But first, he plans to enjoy the hell out of Cannabis Cup.
“I don’t wanna look back and be miserable now that things are getting so much better,” he says. “You have no idea how good it feels to be free for the first time since September 1978.”
2013 was the first year we ever named TWB Award winners, and I gave Robert Platshorn the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award.’ It was an easy choice, as Robert Platshorn has done so much for the movement it’s hard to put into one article. Congratulations Bobby Tuna, you deserve your freedom, which is long overdue. I hope to run into you at an event soon, and I hope that every campaign, organization, and event has you come and speak. Kudos!!!
