Marijuana: Not Guilty As Charged [Hardcover]

David R. Ford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2006

In Marijuana: Not Guilty As Charged, Ford definitely examines and debunks each myth about marijuana, presenting facts based on meticulous studies. In a candid and common-sense tone, this book informs readers on the current debate over marijuana: its medicinal value, as well as it recreational, creative, and other uses. Testimonials from people with cancer (including the author himself), AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, paraplegia, migraines, and other debilitating conditions offer convincing evidence of marijuana's medical relief. If marijuana is relatively harmless, why is it illegal? David Ford explains how the federal government created a systematic campaign of deception that began in the 1930's. Why were U.S. legislators, professionals and the public duped into outlawing this relatively harmless plant---along with hemp, it's versatile NON-INTOXICATING cousin? Why was marijuana placed in the same category as heroin: "too dangerous to prescribe by a physician"? Was it to protect multinational corporations from a plant that cannot be patented? From fifty years of research and interviews with hundreds of marijuana users, the author offers compelling arguments why marijuana should never have been illegal. The government is aware that marijuana never resulted in even one documented toxicity-related death and IS medicine. In 1966, the voters of California and Arizona saw through the malicious propaganda and approved marijuana for medical purposes. This has fanned the fire of controversy and incited the Drug Enforcement Administration to threaten legal action against doctors who recommend marijuana to ease the suffering of the ill and dying. Vivid accounts depict some of the atrocities, including death by law enforcement officers, the rape of inmates including mothers while in prison, and other injustices that accompany the counterproductive war on drugs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ford's MARIJUANA: NOT GUILTY AS CHARGED, interviews more than 300 marijuana users. Shows how the history of marijuana has been distorted. -- High Times magazine September 1997

"The only thing wrong with MARIJUANA: NOT GUILTY AS CHARGED, is that it is not written in German!" -- German magazine HANF July 1998

...a valuable and honest book...a "must read" for anyone who wants to know the truth. -- William Chapin, Author, Pulitzer Prize nominee for "Wasted"

MARIJUANA: NOT GUILTY AS CHARGED, well-researched, challenging. A much needed contribution to national debates with respect to the "drug war." -- Midwest Book Review, 12-7-98

From the Publisher

Marijuana: Not Guilty as Charged, is a reference book that has been sought internationally. It presents the history of cannabis throughout the world, and exposes the lies from the federal government that have continued for more than sixty years. They continue to charge that marijuana is too dangerous to prescribe. It is still a Schedule 1 drug with heroin.

Author David R. Ford interviewed more than 300 medical and social users of marijuana for the writing of this outstanding hard cover book. If the teens that he interviewed on his popular radio show, JUNIOR JAMBOREE, when he was in high school and college, the number would exceed thousands of young and adult users of this the worlds least harmful drug. Ford lived in Hawaii for 39 years. Many of them were working for the CBS television affiliate in Hawaii. There he interviewed nationally recognized celebrities, as well as users of marijuana. Dozen's of users stories are included in this easy to read book.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 253 pages
• Publisher: Good Press; Hardcover edition (September 12, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965593258
• ISBN-13: 978-0965593250
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,063,690 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignorance is no excuse for injustice!, November 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Marijuana: Not Guilty As Charged (Hardcover)

David Ford has provided the weapon of honesty, to reveal the politics and total hypocrisy of the war against the world's least harmful medicine, and high.

Ford's combination of comprehensive and chronological scientific, political and social facts laced with the stories of human tragedy is a powerful voice in the darkness. No one who reads this book with the motive of seeking true understanding of this modern witch hunt can ever view this outrage with indifference again.

If ignorance is no excuse for the law, then we must conclude, if we are to avoid a double standard, that ignorance is no excuse for injustice.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Someday the Truth Will Triumph, March 30, 2000

By 

M.K. (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marijuana: Not Guilty As Charged (Hardcover)

I am a disabled person who was overjoyed to read David Ford's wonderful exposè. My progressive condition should be causing unbearable pain and spasms at this point...and DOES without this great medicine. Someday the truth will triumph because of people such as Mr. Ford and books as bold as his. Someday this book will be a collector's item, like the Soviet flag, because of works like this. I have heard Mr. Ford on talk radio, as well. With his survivor's courage and enlightened convictions-having won his battle with cancer with a big help from marijuana-David Ford provides a wealth of knowledge and insight into the absolutely ridiculous and ineffective War On Drugs. This WOD, this total misuse of our money, is being promoted by alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical companies. Dirty politics? You bet! Marijuana is a superior product plain and simple, and more doctors would publicly agree if they could do so without negative consequences. After reading "Marijuana: Not Guilty As Charged," I would not be surprised if the future reveals some sort of conspiracy involving advocates for the gun industry and the DEA's War On Drugs...perhaps gun lobbyists pressing officials to pass WOD budgets to fuel more crime to increase the demand for firearms. In any event, the War On Drugs has achieved this: in every American city, illegal drugs are more readily available today than ever before. And not many consider the by-products of the WOD's destruction, the constant displacement of farmers in developing countries among them. CLEARLY, the War On Drugs has become an out-of-control habit supported by taxpayers coerced by ill-conceived laws. Mr. Ford's book has an easy style and light approach, but makes one think deeply...and hope for a sequel.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reader Review of: David R. Ford. "Marijuana: Not Guilty, July 16, 2000

By 

Gerry (Mississippi, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Marijuana: Not Guilty As Charged (Hardcover)

As a Caribbean person, who has lived most of my life in Guyana and Jamaica, I wish to highly recommend Dave Ford's timely book on the issue of marijuana use and persecution. Though Ford focuses on the problem in the USA he refers to other countries, and especially studies done outside of the USA which serve to support his thesis that marijuana is not guilty as charged. Ask the Rastafarians of Jamaica. He uses an impressive collection of facts to disclaim the various medical problems that are blamed on marijuana use. He shows how marijuana regulation got caught up in the attempt to deal with abuse of drugs such as cocaine and heroin and how the government bureaucracy for reasons which reasonable people can speculate on, refuses to correct. The noted Caribbean jurist, Aubrey Fraser, documented this same issue.

The hysteria surrounding the war on drugs creates a climate in which it is difficult for reasonable and workable approaches to drug use reduction and user rehabilitation to be implemented even though we have examples around the world of what works and what doesn't. A neglected aspect of the war on marijuana which Ford also discusses is how the war has drastically reduced the cultivation and use of hemp, one of the most useful plants known to man.

I would highly recommend Ford's book to anyone who is interested in the truth about marijuana and wants to be empowered to make an intelligent choice about what this relatively harmless intoxicant really is all about. It would be remiss if I did not also note that one of the things that is lost because of the irrational approach to marijuana use is the medical benefits of this plant. This has been the subject of study by scientists around the world, including specialists in Jamaica, the UK, and the USA and is one of the points Ford makes in his book.