(Originally Published 2012, Paperback Edition 403 pages)
Before I write this brief review, it would be good for the reader to
know that I'm a 53-year-old father of two teenagers and has been happily
married for over 30 years. I've tried marijuana four times in my life: a
few tokes off a joint in my late teens; two incidences when I
unknowingly ate pot-laced pastries during my college years; and once
getting seriously baked from unintentionally inhaling second-hand smoke
at an Aerosmith concert in the early 1980s. At the last example, I wound
up eating an entire bucket of Dunkin' Donut munchkins in my dorm room. I
maybe will have a beer or two per year and do not take nor have ever
taken illicit drugs beyond the examples above. In other words, no one
will mistake me for Charlie Sheen.
With that said, after reading numerous respectable pieces about marijuana, I was at a loss as to why our federal government was freaking out about weed? A mountain of scientific reports over the past hundred years or so have repeatedly shown that it isn't a gateway drug, addictive, NO ONE has ever O.D. on the stuff, it has numerous medicinal benefits, and cannabis has many uses such as petroleum, food, clothing and paper. Mr. Lee's 'Smoke Signals' presents a very thorough history of hippie lettuce. Our laws demonizing it began because of racism towards Mexicans and blacks as well as religious zealotry then snowballed into a federal bureaucratic cash cow and political tool. The author repeatedly shows through heavily annotated examples that marijuana's reputation was and is tarnished due to moral and ideological attitudes. There is plenty of interesting trivia between these pages such as Sears & Roebuck used to sell it. Mr. Lee's work also covers the key individuals who have been waging the battles to either make cannabis legal or maintain its status as an illicit drug even more dangerous than cocaine* or heroin* (*Oh pleeeeease, give me a friggin' break.) He also compares the United States government's attitude and actions to other more sensible-minded countries.
'Smoke Signals' is a highly informative, entertaining and correct history of marijuana. The only thing that irked me about his work is that Mr. Lee's allegiances are pretty darned obvious after only reading the first few pages. By the end of the book, I could practically see his spittle splattered all over the text because of his anger at the federal government's actions having caused hundreds of thousands of people a great deal of unnecessary harm. I sure can't blame him. After reading this excellent work, you may need some cannabis to calm you down.
With that said, after reading numerous respectable pieces about marijuana, I was at a loss as to why our federal government was freaking out about weed? A mountain of scientific reports over the past hundred years or so have repeatedly shown that it isn't a gateway drug, addictive, NO ONE has ever O.D. on the stuff, it has numerous medicinal benefits, and cannabis has many uses such as petroleum, food, clothing and paper. Mr. Lee's 'Smoke Signals' presents a very thorough history of hippie lettuce. Our laws demonizing it began because of racism towards Mexicans and blacks as well as religious zealotry then snowballed into a federal bureaucratic cash cow and political tool. The author repeatedly shows through heavily annotated examples that marijuana's reputation was and is tarnished due to moral and ideological attitudes. There is plenty of interesting trivia between these pages such as Sears & Roebuck used to sell it. Mr. Lee's work also covers the key individuals who have been waging the battles to either make cannabis legal or maintain its status as an illicit drug even more dangerous than cocaine* or heroin* (*Oh pleeeeease, give me a friggin' break.) He also compares the United States government's attitude and actions to other more sensible-minded countries.
'Smoke Signals' is a highly informative, entertaining and correct history of marijuana. The only thing that irked me about his work is that Mr. Lee's allegiances are pretty darned obvious after only reading the first few pages. By the end of the book, I could practically see his spittle splattered all over the text because of his anger at the federal government's actions having caused hundreds of thousands of people a great deal of unnecessary harm. I sure can't blame him. After reading this excellent work, you may need some cannabis to calm you down.
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