UCLA alumnus champions right to free speech

Published: Monday, March 6, 1995

Pro-hemp shop owner challenges drug laws, 'illegal' words and the Constitutional right

By Allyssa Lee

As an undergraduate student at UCLA, Craig Rubin was not one to shy away from expressing his right to free speech.

"I checked out a microphone every Friday and stood at the podium at Meyerhoff Park," Rubin recalled. "It was about 20 of us from the free speech movement. We'd just talk about anything and everything that was on our minds."

Since his graduation in 1993 with a bachelor of arts in history, Rubin has not stopped pushing the boundaries of the Constitutional right.

Now the owner of 2000 B C, a Melrose-based hemp-product store, Rubin notices the oppression of free speech every day. 2000 B C, named for "the Stoned Age," sells various industrial hemp-made products including paper, soap, lip balm and clothing. The store also sells "bongs," a water pipe device that, according to Rubin, filters out carcinogenics, captures the heavy tar and allows a pleasant smoking experience.

"According to the L.A. police, you're not supposed to use the word 'bong' it's illegal. They prefer the word 'water pipe,'" Rubin said. "I painted 'bong' on my (storefront) window.

"(But) there's no such thing as an illegal word," Rubin insisted. "There are words that are offensive to people, but there's no words that are illegal."

Rubin's promotion of free speech was recently contested. On Oct. 20, 1994, he was charged and arrested for the possession of narcotics paraphernalia. His store merchandise was confiscated for four months.

"The detectives seized my merchandise and I was charged with health and safety code violations," Rubin said. "(The detectives said) you can't sell a bong."

But Rubin countered that it is only illegal to sell a bong to anyone under 18.

Rubin said he considers the charge irrelevant because it assumes the selling of pipes infers a possession of marijuana.

"We're very vocal for legalization (of marijuana), but we don't sell any marijuana out of the store," Rubin remarked.

The district attorney rejected the case two times because of a lack of sufficient information.

Eric Shevin, Rubin's attorney and a member of the Los Angeles office of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws said the case was significant for industrial hemp shop owners.

"It was a landmark," Shevin said. "No hemp shop in history has ever contested this case and gotten all its merchandise back. It's paramount. Detectives are beginning to see that it is useless to pursue these issues."

Rubin shared a similar sentiment.

"With everything, there's good and bad," Rubin stated. "Had it gone to the trial, we could have set a precedence (for other smoke accessory store owners). None of them carry hemp right now, and most of the shop owners are pro-hemp."

Growing up in a family of marijuana smokers, Rubin said he was unaware of the plant's illegality.

"It's so funny that it's illegal, because everyone around me did it," Rubin said. "I thought it was a normal part of the California culture."

Upon entering UCLA, Rubin's initial plans were to enter law school and eventually, to work for Philip Morris, a large cigarette manufacturer and "talk him into growing hemp."

An arrest in San Francisco marked Rubin's role as a free speech activist, he said.

"(The police) took me into jail for a phony needle charge and called me a long haired white nigger," Rubin said. "But when I got back to the UCLA campus to tell the (Daily) Bruin, they said their policy (didn't write about) white kids getting abused, only black kids.

"I was pissed so I checked out a mike and talked about it," Rubin continued. "I told my experience and people started to listen, and then others started (voicing their opinions). (The Bruin) made it seem that the rally was just a pot and marijuana rally."

Since then, Rubin said he has chosen to direct his free speech activism toward marijuana-related causes. He is actively working for Californians for Compassionate Use, a political campaign set up by the Cannabis Buyer's Club of San Francisco, lobbying to make marijuana legal for medicinal uses.

"The Cannabis Buyer's Club provides marijuana to terminally ill patients," Rubin said. "Marijuana controls nausea and stimulates appetite and causes them to eat."

Rubin discovered the medical effects of marijuana while caring for his terminally ill grandmother. He was introduced to the Cannabis Buyer's Club by a blind patient.

"I see that it's something I can believe in, and I wanted to do something positive for a change," Rubin said.