Meet 70’s Pot Smuggler Skip Steele
An Original 1970’s Cannabis Entrepreneur
A Passionate Pothead
In the mid-60’s and early 70’s one question defined where you stood in society’s young generation; “Are you a Head?”
With this question, lines were drawn. Were you a member of the pot-friendly revolution or were you a square?
Skip has always been a proud and passionate lover of the gift that is cannabis. For Skip, his love for cannabis sparked a life of adventure and international intrigue that now serves as a reminder of the powerful positive effects of marijuana.
Surfer
Many early 1970’s cannabis entrepreneurs had one common interest that revolved around a passion for surfing. Skip grew up on the beach and quickly established himself as a part of the inner-circle of an infamous crew of early smugglers known as the “Beach Boys“.
The experiences shared while surfing in heavy situations in the ocean forged bonds that solidified a level of trust shared by few.
The trust forged between young surfers in the water evolved into a code of honor that facilitated the growth of cannabis smuggling throughout the Caribbean.
Waterman
While other crews were establishing airplane smuggling gigs, Skip and his cannabis crew turned to their strengths to import massive amounts of beautiful herb to the United States.
Growing up on or near the ocean, the members of the crew were seasoned watermen and they applied the skills learned from countless hours on the sea to create a new brand of international 1970’s pot smuggler.
Bred and born on boats, Skip and his crew relied on the bounty of the ocean to provide the means for scaleable smuggling success in the early 1970’s.
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CANNABIS CREW
Ganja Outpost is the home of the stories of Skip Steele, an original pioneer from the early days of Caribbean Cannabis Smuggling. Skip is a native Floridian, raised in the sun and oceans along Florida’s East and West Coast.
The Son of a Professor, and Grandson of a depression-era bareknuckle fighter and Veteran of six major WWI battles, Skip cut his teeth in the canals, estuaries and waterways of the Gulf Coast. He became a waterman and adventurer who combined his love of cannabis with lessons learned from experiences as a surfer to create one of the largest cannabis smuggling operations into America throughout the 1970’s.
Skip’s closest friends were the first to make a journey in a 24′ Lafitte Skiff to Jamaica to load up with beautiful Ganja. This early Jamaican Cannabis was the spark that lead to the exploration and eventual smuggling operations in other parts of the Caribbean, Morocco and eventually parts in Asia. These early watermen risked life and limb, putting everything on the line to introduce the highest quality marijuana, ever seen at that point, to coastal beachtowns up and down Florida, the Gulf Coast and along the East Coast.
A magical time and space…
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While Skip and his original surfing crew of friends from the beach were fine crafting the import of small loads of cannabis and the local distribution of this beautiful commodity in beach towns throughout the Southeast, some of Skip’s family were immersed in battle in the jungles of Vietnam.
While Skip’s crew was attending anti-war rallies and smoking & selling herb on the beach, Skip’s brother and fellow officers from the Air Force Academy were busy with life and death military operations in one of America’s most controversial wars.
After being completely disillusioned by the horrors of war, these patriots returned to society in search of the adventure that they became accustomed to during their time in South East Asia.
As fate would have it, Skip became the critical component in merging two unique groups of very talented cannabis entrepreneurs. As the younger brother of an Air Force Officer and best friends with an emerging group of talented Caribbean smugglers, Skip introduced these two groups, blending a highly trained crew of military-trained thrill seekers with cannabis passionate surfers and hippies who, together, would shape the early cannabis smuggling efforts in America.
After a journey that has spanned nearly four decades, Skip is now sharing his tales exclusively with Ganja Outpost.
As Buffett so elegantly states, “It’s a semi-true story…believe it or not…I’ve made up a few things and there’s some I forgot…But the life and the talent are all real to me….a semi-true story…”
The following tales cover the path of one young Cannabis Smuggler from his perspective from the early days in the 1960’s until the time of Skip’s retirement in the early 80’s.
We hope you enjoy these tales of life as a talented, passionate cannabis smuggler in the 1970’s and 80’s.
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Explore the Tales of Skip’s Cannabis Crew
Browse our 1970’s cannabis smuggling tales.
