FDL Book Salon Welcomes Steve Fox, Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?
Marijuana has become mainstream. Breathless stories about it in
TIME, Newsweek, and all major media outlets proclaim that it is either
a potential savior of the economy, the scourge of teen development, or
just a plant that happens to have a bad rap.
Regardless of the angle, weed has grown into the light of day and
the public has become more conscious of it than ever, often finding
that the current drug war set against it is cruel and unfair. A recent Gallup poll
found that 44% of the US population wants marijuana to be legalized,
the highest ever. Combine that with the explosion of the medical
marijuana marketplace harming Mexican drug cartels,
as well as the Obama administration offering a directive to stop
prosecuting legally recognized marijuana dispensaries, and there is the
potential for a dramatic sea change in the way the United States,
indeed the world, deals with the green stuff.
Part and parcel of this new paradigm is getting people information. Enter Marijuana is Safer
by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert; each one an integral
member of a drug policy reform organization, and their creds show. Part
social examination, history lesson, and reform presentation, Marijuana is Safer
makes the case for how different a world could be without the $60
billion a year drug war, most of which goes to eradicating marijuana
from our society.
Serving as introduction, education, and illumination, the book is
easy for anyone to jump into, whether you are a newcomer to drug policy
or a long-standing veteran. Particularly telling is the first section
contrasting the world’s favorite mind-altering substance -alcohol- and
marijuana, examining it from every prismic angle. While familiar to
those who have been engaged in the drug war fight for some time, it
still manages to illustrate new things, often in a way that had been
previously unexamined.
Tonight we welcome Steve Fox, co-author and the Director of State
Campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). I hope we’ll get a
lively discussion going and shine a light for the readers.
