Five minutes to two. The secretary calls, saying that my two o’clock appointment has arrived. I pick up the relevant file and go to the consultation room.

Seated before me is mister Silver Haze. Not a stranger to me. After a short business conversation about a demand for a confiscation order he suddenly says: ‘I’ve written a book.’

Now I may expect just about everything from my clients, but writing a book? I have a lot of clients, some of which can’t read or write, let alone write a whole book. Talking, on the other hand, is something they’re all very good at, actually. ‘

Have you? What did you write about?’ I ask. ‘About what I used to carry with me in the past’, he answers. I become curious. ‘Do you mean about your romantic joys and sorrows or about your successful and failed cannabis plantations (which, by the way, as a lawyer, is where you get your clients from).  ‘Weed’, he says. ‘Do you suppose that’s a very smart move?’ As a lawyer, you immediately think in terms of criminal proceedings, a couple of years jail-time, demands for confiscations, etcetera. ‘Nobody has ever written about it and I think people will enjoy it’, Silver Haze responds.

The fact is, in the southern parts of the Netherlands whole hordes of people make a living out of cannabis and a lot of businesses would go broke, if the illegal plantations were to cease operating. Unfortunately, it so happens that people also die in this business (and rather often as well). There are huge investments involved, a great deal of tension before the eventual harvesting. There’s a lot going on in cannabis and a lot of people are involved either directly (growers, cutters and such) or else indirectly (police, legal practitioners, etc.)

‘I’d like for you to read it. Maybe you could write something of a foreword or something like that?’ I didn’t need to think too long about that. If I felt it was rubbish, I would just say no.

The first version was e-mailed to me. ‘Print it out and schedule time to read’, I thought to myself. Well, this turned out rather well. Once I had started, I read it from cover to cover in one spell. Silver Haze’s stories are realistic, they are fun and easy to read. Those who have ever had something going on in the weed business will recognise a bit of themselves in it.