Customer Reviews

Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine

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Widely considered the "gold standard" of the medi-pot movement, the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, a co-op that distributes free cannabis to seriously ill people, provides the central focus of this book.

The activist founders of WAMM, Mike and Valerie Corral, have tirelessly challenged the federal prohibition of cannabis as medicine. WAMM members are stricken with AIDS, cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and other ailments, but lawmakers in Washington continue to insist that these patients are simply "potheads scamming the system." Against the backdrop of WAMM's struggles and successes, authors Wendy Chapkis and Richard J. Webb examine the history of cannabis and medicine in America, placing the current controversy in context.

Chapters examining scientific research and legal developments are packed with information, plus the book is interspersed with interviews of patients, caregivers, physicians, police and lawmakers that put a human perspective on the need for truly legal medicinal pot.

"Dying to Get High" addresses many important questions and contradictions in the Federal policy, effectively defusing government propaganda with common sense, scientific facts and the anecdotal evidence recorded by WAMM patients. Compassionate readers will be moved by the stories of suffering, and the book is so well-written and researched that even the most hard-hearted prohibitionist will be persuaded that the laws criminalizing the medicinal use of cannabis need to change.

Stories from the battle against patients and their medicine. Heart-felt and real. George and I are in it, so it's one of our favorites! :) Jean

This is an interesting book, with some great observations on the issues surrounding medical marijuana use. I was planning to use it as a reference, and bought the Kindle version, but it has no page numbers!! Why would you ever release a book by academics without including page numbers? I find that utterly ridiculous and now wish I'd simply bought a paperback version. Others may want to keep this in mind for this and any other Kindle purchases if it is intended for research purposes.

Dying to Get High for the most part concentrates on the story of a medical Marijuana collective in California. It more or less sickens me the harrassment these people went through for growing something that helps people who have serious illnesses and giving it away to them more or less for free. The therapeutic uses of Marijuana is something big Pharma is scared to death of. You have a "drug" that is helpful in many ways and no matter how hard they have tried over the years, they can't seem to find any health problems that arise from smoking Marijuana. However many if not most of the drugs that big Pharma pushes have serious side effects and absolutely will damage your health in both the long and short term. Besides that many Americans, mainly because of the influence of Christianity, have this idea that pleasure is evil and will do anything possible to keep people from feeling good. Most likely Marijuana will be decriminalized in California soon but I predict the criminal United States federal government/courts will step in and violate the constitution yet again.

I have spent the past 4 years helping out at the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana and in fact I am the current Webmaster for wamm.org. This book is worth reading if you are interested in any aspect of herbal remedies, cannabis, medicine, sociology, science, drugs, welfare, drug guides or pharmacology. The personal accounts are accurate and heartwarming. Many of the people who Chapkis and Webb interview have since passed. Its about time somebody told their story and exposed the injustice perpetrated upon this healing plant and upon WAMM in particular. Thank you again and again for a job well done. Buy this book and Chapkis/Webb have generously agreed that 30% of all sales will go directly back to WAMM. This book was a labor of love and it shows.

This book is extraordinarily readable and very engaging. The interviews with patients and caregivers are informative and moving, the analysis is right on target, and the many photos give the book an additional layer of texture. I thought I was already well-informed on this subject but I learned an enormous amount from reading this book.