Mr. Nice

"Nothing in the world raises prices like an excess of demand over supply."

---Howard Marks---

Sometimes I think of what am I going to tell people when I leave Wales; the weather = shit, the scenery = somewhat good but the weather makes it shit, pubs = Endland has better shit, the universities = nice but who gives a shit?!...so I think...and I think...

Voila!

The skunk, the hash, the legendary Howard Marks a.k.a Mr. Nice!!! Wales is the shit!!

You could take over any dinner conversation.

I heard somewhere that a biography is a little man paying tribute to a bigger man. Such views do not hold me down as I pay tribute to Mr. Howard Marks. His best-selling book has taught me a lot of things in THE business and though my career as a pusher is no where close to his own own mindboggling heights, it gives me some comfort every time I zip up bags that like me, Mr. Nice too had humble beginnings.

You see, if you are equally into your drugs and your drug movies...you tend to draw a parallel between yourself and characters from movies such as SCARFACE and BLOW. You wonder what made this guy so special that he went through life shaking hands in alleys, counting millions and getting gorgeous girls who were far from stoned witches. Well, for most of them, it was all about the connection. They were at the right place at the right time and go on to exploit this fate for as long as they can. But not Howard Marks.

Howard Marks was not merely at the right place at the right time; he also had the right attitude and the right mind. He wasn't destined to be just a drug pusher, he was quite a clever man and this was what eventually paved the way forward. Born in modest living conditions in Kenfig Hill (my mate took to near his place as he had a spliff in Porth Crawl), he got a scholorship to Oxford where he studies physics and philosophy.

However, due to financial needs and the fact that he was quite popular at Ballilol college; Howard soon started selling weed and this start saw no end thorugh the sixties and seventies. He got into big-time smuggling, shipping consignments of upto thirty tons a week from Bangkok and Bangkok. Of course, he made a lot of money and of course, he got arrested by the police like they all do in the end...but...what makes Howard Marks synonomous with cannabis culture is his intelligence which is an exception in people in his line of work, his nice-guy persona that helped him in the business and the innumerable stories he has to tell of these wonder years. Escapes, fake passports, driving in from Amsterdam, smoking in Pakistan, fraud in Bangkok, survival in prisons; Mr. Nice has it all.

Various Howard Marks on an album cover for the Super Furry Animals

But what it has more than others is the charm that Howard Marks drops onto the reader. Showing him that even in the worst of businesses, as long as one is nice...one can get by. He was released from prison even with his famous smuggling quantities and now is a speaker for legalizing marijuana so much so that he even ran for the Welsh Assembly with that aim in mind. He is a best-selling author, a happily married man with enough money and a spot-on spot in popular culture and in history.

Whoever said "Nice guys finish last" was probably stoned.

And chances are...that weed came from Mr. Nice himself.