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MEL FRANK

MEL FRANK is the pen name of James J. Goodwin, an author, grower and activist who has championed the therapeutic effects of Cannabis for his entire adult life.

nown affectionately as the ‘godfather of marijuana growers,’ Frank helped to popularize both indoor and outdoor growing methods during a time in the 1970s when little information about the process was available.

Prior to his time writing about and growing Cannabis, Frank was a shipboard electronics technician in the U.S. Navy in the mid-60s. In 1968, upon leaving the Navy and moving to New York City, he started growing Cannabis inside his apartment. His first published piece appeared in the New York flyer of Rolling Stone magazine in 1971. By 1974, he was one of the first writers for the burgeoning magazine High Times.

By the mid-70s, Frank was working with his collaborator Ed Rosenthal on a large-scale grow - by the standards of the time. Frank began collecting seeds from all around the world (many of which became the landraces of today).

It was around this time that he also published his most popular book, “The Marijuana Grower’s Guide,” which would go on to become something like the Bible to the clandestine indoor and outdoor growers of the 1970s, 80s and 90s. The book became so popular that it put Frank and Rosenthal on the map of Cannabis culture in the late 70s and 80s, and their grow operation in Oakland continued to expand in size.

While Frank doesn’t consider himself to be an activist in regard to Cannabis prohibition, he certainly has been a fixture of the Cannabis legalization and cultivation movement.

In the 80s, he took a sort of ‘Johnny Appleseed’ approach to getting his landrace Cannabis seeds distributed around the country. It’s very likely that the Cannabis you’re smoking right now came from this stock.

Nowadays, Frank is still living in California and still helping people to grow the best Cannabis they can. It can be hard to fathom in these days of easy Cannabis access and statewide legalization what a risk he was taking in the simple act of writing about a plant. He survived the Reagan era, the Bush era - and even the strange era we’re currently living through. For all of that hard work and passion, we all owe Mel Frank a tremendous amount of gratitude.

In addition to all of this, Frank is still out there making great content.

His Instagram feed (@melfrank420) is a particularly good follow, consisting of over 40 years of photographs spanning the golden era of clandestine Cannabis cultivation and culture. K IT CAN BE HARD TO FATHOM IN THESE DAYS OF EASY CANNABIS ACCESS AND STATEWIDE LEGALIZATION WHAT A RISK HE WAS TAKING IN THE SIMPLE ACT OF WRITING ABOUT A PLANT.

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