COUNTERFEIT CANNABIS

Entrepreneur Hits a High by Rolling Faux Grass Business in With His
Pro-Pot Activism.

Greenfield, Mass. -- Joseph White's home office is like a modern-day
hippie hangout.

Books on Buddhism and yoga mingle with business planners and a laptop
computer. An acoustic guitar rests next to a shuffle of sheet music
for "Mr. Tambourine Man," just across the room from a fax machine.

And then there are the marijuana stalks. Towering six-footers.
Pint-sized plants for personal medical use. He even has a few ripe
buds kicking around on a desk, not far from his cell phone.

His stash is for sale, but it won't get you stoned. These lifelike
botanicals are made of silk and wood.

Behold, counterfeit cannabis.

During the past two years, White -- a trim 51-year-old with thinning
hair and a small stud in his left earlobe -- has rolled his pro-pot
activism and business savvy into New Image Plants, a startup company
that sells the make-believe marijuana online.

"The business name reflects exactly what I'm trying to do -- create a
new image for these plants," he said. "They're beautiful plants and
people should be able to enjoy them without fear of arrest."

White won't say whether he smokes pot or has in the past. But he began
pushing for marijuana legalization about seven years ago after talking
to one of his sons about anti-drug advertising.

He started a nonprofit group in 1999 called Change the Climate, which
advocates for the legalization and taxation of marijuana and better
education about the drug.

By getting his artificial plants into private residences and public
spaces, White is betting that more people will start appreciating the
natural beauty of the real thing's jagged, seven-point leaves, lithe
stems and robust buds instead of thinking of marijuana as an evil weed.

His early customers were people looking for gag gifts, party planners
in search of unique decorations and law enforcement agencies needing
replicas for training missions.

Then Hollywood came calling, and New Image Plants hit a financial
high.

In April, White received an order for 355 plants from "Weeds," the
Showtime cable television series about a single suburban soccer mom
who deals marijuana to support her family.

Although he isn't relying on New Image Plants as his main source of
income, White sees no competition in the mock marijuana market and
expects his sales to continue building from the interests of "the
hundreds of millions of people who smoke pot and the hundreds of
millions of people who have no problem with it."