LES ROOTS, ANARCHIST HEART
Micky Cesar arrived on the Lower East Side in 1979 with no money but a mission: to make cannabis accessible to everyone. Flamboyant, Jewish, and fiercely anti-authoritarian, he positioned weed as both sacrament and civil right. His vision was as much about cultural theater as it was about commerce.
AMSTERDAM DAYS
Before New York, Micky was “Da Paus Maus” in Amsterdam, living on a houseboat and running a wholesale network under the label “hennep producten.” At his peak, he was moving 7 kilograms a day to clubs like Paradiso. He ran staff on payroll, offered benefits, and even enjoyed tacit city tolerance—until Dutch authorities deported him back to the United States
CHURCH AS THEATER
Back in Manhattan, he founded the Church of Realized Fantasies, a yellow-painted storefront at 13th & Hudson. Plants filled the windows, community gathered inside, and Micky, dressed in a papal miter adorned with a 9-inch cannabis leaf and a polka-dot ribbon, played high priest. At May Day, Wigstock, and ACT-UP rallies, he handed out joints, punctuating sermons with his trademark “ah-ha-ha-ha!” laugh.
800-WANT-POT
Micky built one of the earliest weed delivery systems—decades before DoorDash or Uber Eats. Customers called his hotline, operators dispatched couriers via pagers, and strict 40-minute delivery windows kept things efficient. During the 1990s drought, he was handling 100–200 calls daily, a logistical feat that set the blueprint for modern cannabis delivery services.
OPS & BENEFITS
His operation sprawled across two apartments, two offices, and the church. Couriers rode day-only routes to avoid night robberies, settled books each evening, and were fed and cared for by Micky, who even covered dental and medical costs. That mix of loyalty and patronage made his messengers fiercely protective of their boss.
MID-’80s CROSSFIRE
Defiance came at a price. In the mid-1980s, a Puerto Rican hitmen club tried to extort him. When Micky refused, they shot him six times with a .22. Miraculously, the bullets lodged in fat, and he walked away, unshaken and even more defiant.
FAME & CROSSHAIRS
A bold newspaper ad earned him a live call-in from Howard Stern, where he first embraced the nickname “Pope of Pot.” That fame also drew police attention. Undercover buys in September and October 1990 led to a Halloween handoff that sealed his fate. On November 14, police raided his operation—seizing pounds, arresting couriers, and parading Micky before cameras.
COST OF DEFIANCE
Even after the bust, he remained unbowed. He filed complaints about police underreporting his seized weight, demanding transparency. But reality set in—mob-connected rivals cut his lines, fake cops robbed couriers, and his health declined as diabetes worsened. The once-booming 800-WANT-POT collapsed, leaving landlords and lawyers circling.
LEGACY & BLUEPRINT
Though his empire fell, his vision endured. Today’s cannabis delivery apps echo his model: centralized intake, rapid dispatch, courier loyalty, and brand identity built on story and spectacle. Whether hailed as a pioneer or dismissed as a provocateur, Micky Cesar proved that logistics and culture could outlast even the harshest crackdowns.
YOUTUBE VIDEO
Presented by Nugg Notes
sources:
• Sager, Mike. “The High Life and the Strange Times of the Pope of Pot.” Rolling Stone, 13 June 1991.
@therealsager 
• Haden-Guest, Anthony. “Inside Dope.” The New Yorker, 19 Sept. 1994.

• Curtis, Ric, et al. We Deliver: The Gentrification of Drug Markets on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. National Institute of Justice, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 2003. 
• “Marketing: From One Joint to Another.” Time, 26 Nov. 1990. 
• “Greenwich Village’s ‘Pope of Pot’ Busted Again.” UPI Archives, 4 Aug. 1993.

• Bryant, Jacqueline. “‘The Pope of Pot’ Details a Long Career Reporting on Cannabis…” Forbes, 20 Apr. 2022.

• “Documentary About Mickey—The Pope of Dope—Cesar Is Joyful and Leaves Us Wanting More.” Cannabis Culture, 11 Jan. 2021. 
• “The Pope of Pot (Live at the Brooklyn Podcast Festival).” Great Moments in Weed History (podcast), 19 Mar. 2020.

• “The High Life and the Strange Times of the Pope of Pot.” Mary Ellen Mark Archive (Rolling Stone tear sheet), 1991.
0 comments