Alex Grand & Joshua S. Berman

Hashman is a multiple award-winning graphic novel about Joey Berkowitz, a criminal-turned-psychologist with a complicated past. His life has taken him through the East Coast mobs, the psychedelic 1960s, the New York celebrity drug culture, the Berkeley Peace movement, the Paris riots, Altamont, Woodstock, money laundering in Southeast Asia, and meditation courses in Tibet. He has managed to escape prosecution time and time again, and has ultimately become a renowned shrink in Seattle. There, he has become a central figure in the worldwide cannabis legalization scene as its most notorious authorizing doctor, dispensary financier, and industry stalwart. Hashman is important because it offers a true snapshot of life as a hustler in the late 20th century American pop culture landscape. It also shows how the underground world of cannabis has evolved over the past 5 decades, from its seedy roots to a sterile and legalized corporate venture. The graphic novel also explores the dark side of success, showing how the massive need for security, rooted in childhood trauma, can mix with greed and an obsession for vice to eventually lead to one's personal destruction. The graphic novel is based on a series of interviews with eyewitnesses, court reports, and newspaper articles. These sources have been carefully used to construct an authentic and visually visceral ride through the life of a well-connected cannabis pioneer.