Bobby Gosh

Songwriter Bobby Gosh's memoir Confessions of a Marijuana Eater is part biography, popular music history, personal philosophy, and of course, public acknowledgement of his career-spanning use of marijuana/cannabis. By 1952, when Gosh started touring, using marijuana was not something one publicized. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics called it the "devil weed and intended to round up musicians who played "bad" music - jazz - on marijuana charges; the exploitative film "Reefer Madness" was on the circuit through the 1940s and '50s, and cannabis use was criminalized and mandatory minimum sentences established. Needless to say, Bobby Gosh's concern about "coming out" as a marijuana user was well justified. It is only now in his 2016 memoir Confessions of a Marijuana Eater: A Songwriter's Memoir that Gosh makes public his life story, successful musical career, and advocacy for cannabis policy reform.