Customer Reviews

Cannabis Culture

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This is a balanced, sober and neutral book on the cannabis culutre, if there even is a culture, and if so how is it and which similarities does it have with other cultural subjects. When reading it I had a lot of "aha"-experiences, because the book is full on interesting facts and information, all backed up by footnotes telling you how to check up on the given information. Not a book for anyone who wants a book worshipping hemp, but defenately a book for the knowledge-wanting smoker (you're mentioned in the book more than once). The book also explains a lot of other cultures, and gives historical, scientific and legal information which can be very desired if you're interested in it. Not a book to read when you're influenced by the drug, but absolutely a book to talk about and refer to when you are.

Matthews does a good job with this book for the most part. He covers a lot of bases for a book that weighs in at 250 pages. Among other things chapters on medical Marijuana, Amsterdam, Hemp, hysterical Marijuana witchhunts and propaganda, profiles of Amsterdam breeders, an account of his trip to the biggest Hashish producing area in Morocco. The account of the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam was somewhat humorous with his observations about it almost seemed like a tribute to black American/Carribean culture with old hippies singing old blues songs, young hippy "Rastas" and white hip hoppers, but yet the attendees of the Cannabis Cup were virtually all white.

One not surprising thing exposed in this is the Partnership for a Drug Free America(they are the ones that put out the idiotic "public service" spots with the egg frying saying this is your brain on weed) gets millions of dollars from big Pharma companies, Dupont, Anheuser-Busch, big Tobacco and Whiskey makers. I was shocked to find that the billionaire scumbag banker funded a conference thats main purpose was not whether or not Marijuana should be legalized but what is the best way to go about legalizing it. Who knows what shady motivations Soros has for funding the conference.

The faults Cannabis Culture has are for whatever reason Matthews idioticly goes out of his way to attempt to debunk Jack Herers uncovering of the anti-Hemp conspiracy involving the Hearst media empire, Dupont Chemical, the Federal Treasury and high level law enforcement officials. Even though its only a few years old some of this book is a little outdated because things are moving so fast lately on the Marijuana front. Another fault is its too Britcentric (yeah I know he's a Brit and thats why, but still) Britain has never been the epicenter of Cannabis activity. It lags behind North America and the rest of Europe. The UK is full of garbage "soapbar" Hash and the average British stoner is a total tool. Referring to any strong weed as "Skunk", no matter what strain it happens to be. So yeah there are a few things I didn't like about this book but for the most part its a good, interesting and worthwhile read.

A new point of view about cannabis and his culture

This is a work in keeping with the best traditions of travel writing, objective, unbiased and fascinating in its simplicity. The reader is guided through the world of marijuana and allowed to arrive at his or her own conclusions, there are refreshingly few value judgements, and no school of thought is judged to be beyond the pail. Patrick Mathews deserves much credit for attempting to remain impartial, and it is that objectivity which is most engaging. Not all dope smokers are part of the murky sub class of criminals that might deserve imprisonment, equally not all those opposed to the legalisation lobby are foaming at the mouth reactionaries. The reason then that so many are able to disagree so fundamentally has more to do with a lack of informed and dispassionate discussion than it does peoples intrinsic ability to disagree, for that reason if for no other Mathews attempt to present facts over opinions is to be commended. I wonder how many from each camp were forced to reconsider their pre-conceptions as a result, I'm sure I was.

I found his handling of the various conspiracy theories, which allege that hemp was prohibited due to its competing with the other industries of the day, to be concise enough. Moreover they showed a flair for historic analysis of texts which would put many mainstream historians to shame. Mathews meets and introduces the readers to a whole host of fascinating characters, and tries to demystify a subject which is so commonly too charged by opinion to discuss properly, and does a thoroughly entertaining job of it. I enjoyed it immensely and can only recommend it.