Product Description

To some it's anathema, to others it provides relief from crippling pain: to others still, it is a legal anomaly and should be decriminalized. Whatever the viewpoint, and by whatever name it is known, cannabis - or marijuana, hashish, dope, kif, weed, dagga, grass, ganga - incites debate at ever level and its impact on the world's cultures and economies is undeniable. Dating back to the Neolithic period, the history of cannabis is a tale of medical advance, religious enlightenment, political subterfuge and human rights; of law enforcement and customs officers, cunning smugglers, street pushers, gang warfare, writers, artists, musicians and happy-go-lucky hippies and pot-heads.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #614002 in Books
• Published on: 2003-06-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 339 pages

Review
The author of the definitive history of opium now turns his attention to the one drug that almost everyone has had first- or second-hand experience of (except in the book trade of course which is famously clean-living). So dense is Booth's research, so all-encompassing his information, one almost reels beneath it - as if stoned, one is tempted to add. Fascinating facts spiral out like circling smoke rings. For example, on the dangers of smoking cannabis, he notes research that suggests it would take 800 joints to kill, 'death coming from carbon monoxide rather than cannabinoid poisoning'. He is fascinating on the hounding of jazz musicians in a dope version of the McCarthy witch-hunts and concludes that the war on cannabis is not being fought due to a concern for public health or order. but for public morality.

Sunday Telegraph
'Even-handed, adult and good-humoured ... original and thought-provoking.'

Financial Times magazine
'Amazingly informative and riveting...quite intoxicating.'

Customer Reviews

It's heavy stuff man
A valuable look at the history of one of the oldest forms of human inebriation. Covering religious, industrial as well as cultural usage throughout the world. Famous writers, infamous celebrities and barking mad politicians who have been associated with this herb either pro or anti are mentioned. It is not a piece of pro-dope propaganda but a genuine study of its subject, although reading about US experts who testified to congress that they had smoked grass and turned into a bat does make you wonder at times.

Thorough and adequately sceptical
In their zeal to build a strong case for legalization, proponents of marijuana often accept any evidence to support their agenda, however questionable. At the same time, anti-drug abuse factions long been pushing fiction as fact (the latest being the "Truth: the Anti-Drug" propaganda campaign). Any text covering this controversial subject has to do a decent job of balancing its anecdotes with adequate scientific scepticism. Although I am only a short way into the book (4 chapters) at the time of writing this, I find it presents a refreshing, fact-based approach to cannabis and its prohibition while maintaining a readable prose that remains direct and lucid.

Comprehensive
Excellent book on the subject of Cannabis. Martin Booth looks at the subject from a common-sense angle, sadly lacking in the world of politics.

If you're a cannabis user then you already know the common-sense approach. If you're not a user and prefer to investigate topics rather than blindly accept the view of the political world then read this book.

Found it really helpful when completing a recent assignment on the effects that cannabis legalisation would have on UK society so there's lots in there to send academics off in search of gems as well!