Customer Reviews

Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of the best books on marijuana I have read in a long time. And it has come out at the best time possible. I encourage everyone to read this book! It's about time that a truly serious discussion is brought up about marijuana, and "Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?", provides enough evidence to oppose any prohibition supporter arguments. Prohibition is losing, and it should be...it's about time!

I read the review that someone wrote and gave this book 1 star... sure it is gonna be biased... sure a lot of headies drink... but that's not the point of the book... the point of the book is to get out and educate the mass of people that think pot is some kind of demon that will tear out your soul and leave you an empty shell of a person... a person that will go out and rape, steal, and do whatever it is to get the herb... which.. if you know any pot smoker is entirely false... sure pot isn't perfect... and it's not totally safe... but you CANNOT tell me it's not safer than drinking... I just hope people will read this book and understand that people are going to prison, losing their lives, breaking up families, tearing this nation apart for something that is FAR less harmful than alcohol... give peace a chance!

This book is Absolutely Fantastic! This should be a real eye opener for anyone who is still hypnotized by "Reefer Madness". This book Exposes the Lies, Racism and false propaganda that is responsible for much of today's crime and gang problems, responsible for the extreme petroleum era damage to our earth, and the ruining or ending the lives of 100's of Millions of People Worldwide.
This book is a MUST Read for Everyone in America!

Disclaimer: I personally don't use marijuana, and I'm not exceptionally liberal in my political viewpoints. I use alcohol in moderation, and my experience is likely similar to what a "normal" American would have after reading this book.

I found the premise of this book very interesting. For a while the "war" on marijuana has seemed increasingly more nonsensical when I look at it from a rational standpoint. Unfortunately advocates for legalization are typically dismissed as druggies and useless members of society. Marijuana is Safer presents the arguments against marijuana in a very intellectual and scientific way, by comparing it to alcohol and the differences in handling of the two substances.

The first few chapters compare marijuana directly to alcohol. Alcohol use is legal above a certain age in this country, while marijuana is banned at all ages (with the exception of medical use in some states). Yet alcohol use is strongly correlated with violence, crime, and general aggressive behavior, while marijuana hasn't be linked definitively to any of these. Alcohol in excess leads to significant health problems over time and overconsumption can kill, while the worst marijuana in excess can do is put the user to sleep. Alcohol is also highly addictive, while claims that pot are addictive have been highly exaggerated. In fact, Fox and his co-authors present a very good case, backed up by multiple studies, that alcohol is significantly more dangerous than marijuana. They do not downplay the risks of marijuana use, but present it as a reasonable alternative to alcohol.

The next few chapters focus on the history of Marijuana prohibition. Key individuals and industries profited and have continued to profit from the banning of marijuana usage. The alcohol industry itself spends millions on anti-marijuana campaigns, while ensuring that anti-underage alcohol consumption ads are limited. Marijuana has to go up against plenty of political and social opposition as well, much of it based on inaccurate information.

The remaining chapters focus on arguments and reasoning to use when discussing marijuana, and how to get involved. Overall I found this to be a very enlightening book, with plenty of reasonable information. It has changed the way I feel about marijuana, especially when compared to alcohol. I highly recommend that any American read this book, and I wish lawmakers were required to.

Paul Armentano and colleagues have written an excellent and highly informative book that does what has need to be done for some time now, i.e.; compare the pros and cons of marijuana and alcohol. The book does a great job of clearly delineating the relative risk, both medical and legal of these two popular recreational substances. After doing this, they then address the elephant in the room and tackle why our society continues to punish responsible adults who make the rational, safer choice of using marijuana instead of alcohol. Through an objective examination of the two drugs, the book shows that only real valid argument against marijuana is ingrained social prejudice. Howver that is a ridiculous way to run public policy. Yet the reality is that, given our ongoing economic crisis, marijuana may be one of our ways out. Legalizing marijuana would allow the government to tax it and raise billions of dollars in revenue. Given that tobacco companies face ever growing restrictions, marijuana may be their next cash crop, not to mention the money that could be made with hemp products in general, including fiber for clothing, oils and grains for nutrition (and maybe even green energy). This book is hopefully a big step in educating the public and the government so that may be one day reason will prevail and our government will adopt a common sense, rationally driven policy regarding marijuana.

I highly recommend reading "Marijuana is Safer...". It is the right book, published at the right time. Kudos to these authors.

"Marijuana is safer" is a well-timed and needed book with information that more of the American public should be aware of. I don't smoke, but know many people that do of different ages, nationalities, and professional backgrounds. With Marijuana being so common around the world, I've often wondered why the US government makes such a concerted effort to quash not only Marijuana, but also hemp. Both have many medicinal, practical and environmental uses.

"Marijuana is safer," by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, Mason Tvert, and Norm Stamper (a former Police Chief), compares and contrasts the effects of pot and alcohol and honestly asks why our society and legal system treats these substances so differently. Alcohol has been statistically proven decade after decade to be a factor in serious crimes such as rape, assault, fatal car accidents, murder, and manslaughter.

Not only does US government anti-marijuana propaganda campaign promote false information on the dangers of pot, it also neglects to report the positive scientific and medical studies about Marijuana in regards to debilitating and life-threatening diseases.

Although Marijuana has been used for thousands of years, the history of the government's campaign began approximately 80 years ago.
The American government began a propaganda campaign in the 1930s with the government produced "Reefer Madness" films. Misinformation in these propaganda films were also placed on banners and leaflets in major cities: the false war against Marijuana began, and lasted until just a couple of years ago.

The American public education system also contributed to the myths, draconian laws, and false hysteria about this substance. Although awareness and truth has started to spread among certain circles in the US in recent times, the over-all public sentiment and government sentiment is mostly negative from a law enforcement perspective: The federal government would usurp state marijuana laws, until only recently with the change in administrations.

Violence and gang turf warfare over profits: much of the illicit drug trade and drug gang wars crossing the border involve Marijuana. De-criminalizing it will likely reduce the profits and therefore the risks and acts of violence that has risen recently, as it has now spread deeper into US borders.


NEW THINKING and POLICY:

The federal and state governments are changing their tune on Marijuana. "It's not so bad after all," they claim. What is the motive of the government politicians and bureaucrats? For some of the them, it's honesty, but for the most part it is once again about ---> $$$$. The states need revenue badly. With so many Marijuana smokers in the United States, they want to de-criminalize and collect taxes from it.

How interesting how the government politicians, bureaucrats, and law enforcement Czars ("masters") change their position when it's about: money.

I disagree that there is a "Marijuana lobby," as is noted by one reviewer. It's not a lobby, but millions of people involved in *advocacy.*
The agenda is not about profit, as it is with the alcohol associations and pharmaceutical lobby.

"Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?" is full of facts and promotes honest awareness. Society can benefit from being objectively aware.

I don't know what Amazon's been smoking ... they invited me to review this book, even though it hasn't been released yet. I certainly have not received my copy, but I'm quite certain that it tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Every freakishly conservative, backward, prohibitionist American should read it. I ordered one to be sent to our glorious president, and you should too.

Reefer Madness?

"If this book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But, for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides, if we choose."
Thomas Jefferson


If you are like most people reading this column, there's a good chance you have been under the influence of either alcohol or marijuana at some time in your life. Don't worry; I'm not going to tell anyone. Inhaling is the point, isn't it? In fact, many experts believe it is an inherent, biological drive to alter one's consciousness through the use of intoxicants. Drug use is universal. Every culture in history has used at least one psychoactive drug. Yes, drug-taking is so common that it appears to be a basic human activity.

According to a 2008 World Health Organization study, more than 90 percent of Americans have consumed alcohol during their lives, and almost 45 percent have used marijuana. Although both drugs are woven into the fabric of popular culture, booze and pot are portrayed in different ways. Alcohol is openly celebrated, often glamorized, aggressively marketed, and legal. Marijuana is commonly portrayed as highly addictive, causing permanent mental illness, being a dangerous "gateway" drug, and is illegal.

One book that encourages reassessing the way you think about these two drugs is Marijuana is Safer: So why are we driving people to drink?, written by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert. When I picked up this book, I was surprised to read a foreword written by a former chief of police. After all, regardless of how you view current marijuana laws, it is still illegal. Norm Stamper, former Chief of the Seattle Police Department, has decades of law enforcement experience, and he agrees that it's very rare to have a night go by without an alcohol-related incident, usually several.

Stamper's answer isn't unique. Ask any police officer the last time he had to fight someone under the influence of marijuana alone - usually he will pause to think, and respond, "never." Ask the same question regarding alcohol, and he will look at his watch to see how many hours ago he wrestled with "beer muscles". Alcohol can fuel violent behavior where marijuana does not. Alcohol is a major contributing factor in crimes like homicide (not to mention vehicular manslaughter), sexual assault, and domestic violence.

The fact that marijuana does little social harm is the reason that most law reformers give as the primary reason to legalize marijuana; however, as the authors of this book demonstrate, by prohibiting marijuana, we are driving people toward a drug that far too many people abuse already, alcohol. But can marijuana be abused?

Of course, but if everything you learned about "Mary Jane" was in a high school health class or a government-sponsored pamphlet, then this book is required reading. There is ample scientific evidence contradicting many of the government's most popular marijuana myths - such as the new "super potent" pot, and the use of cannabis leading to harder drugs.

If marijuana poses so little legitimate harm, then why does federal government spend tens of millions on campaigns designed to maintain the criminal prohibition of cannabis? Is it a moral crusade? Part of a larger cultural battle? Or does protection of corporate profits come into play? Marijuana has only been illegal since 1937. It's not a recently discovered plant. Its known use dates back to 7,000 B.C., and can be used for textiles, rope, paper and much more. In fact, you could have been jailed for not growing hemp between 1763 and 1767 in the United States, and you could even pay your taxes with hemp. I wouldn't advise trying that today.

Why marijuana is illegal is beyond the scope of Marijuana is Safer, but I delved deeper into the events that led to the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Hemp fiber threatened DuPont's monopoly on the necessary chemicals for paper from trees, and patented Nylon, a synthetic fiber, the same year hemp was made illegal. Andrew Mellon, the primary financial backer of DuPont, was also the Secretary of the Treasury. He appointed Harry Anslinger, his nephew-in-law, to director of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the predecessor of the Drug Enforcement Agency of today.

Anslinger was an ambitious man. He realized that cocaine and opiates wouldn't be enough to build the agency. He was determined to make marijuana illegal at the federal level. He drew upon themes of violence and racism to draw national attention. Marijuana at the time was mostly used by Mexicans, and black Jazz musicians. He received additional help from William Randolph Hearst.

Hearst was the owner of a huge chain of newspapers, and had several reasons of his own to help. He was heavily invested in the timber industry to support his newspaper empire, and didn't want to see the development of hemp paper. One acre of hemp can produce the equivalent of three acres of timber. Hearst used yellow journalism, and his known hatred of Mexicans, to spread lies about "loco weed". Anslinger then brought his plan to Congress, even with the opposition of the American Medical Association. Do your history homework and draw your own conclusions.

Does punishing adults who make the decision to consume a less harmful substance than alcohol make legal sense? By legalizing marijuana, the authors conclude that we would not be adding another vice, but rather offering adults a safer alternative for relaxation and recreation. I personally believe it's about freedom of choice. You ask, "Why marijuana should be legalized?". I ask, "Why should marijuana be illegal?"

[...]

"Cannabis has been described--by an administrative law judge at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, no less--as `one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man' "* "So," the authors ask in their subtitle, "Why are we driving people to drink?"

The main thesis of this book is that, alcohol being demonstrably more dangerous and having demonstrably caused orders of magnitude more harm to public health and safety, it is unreasonable and in fact harmful to the people that possession and use of marijuana is illegal, and subject to draconian punishments including even life imprisonment (in Oklahoma), while possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages is legal in all states.

The twelve highly readable chapters of this book provide a comprehensive discussion of marijuana vs. alcohol, with ample evidence that marijuana is safer than alcohol. The authors make their point very well, despite largely ignoring the fact that marijuana is also much safer than tobacco. They do mention briefly the positive health benefits of marijuana use, such as preventing the advance of glaucoma and delaying or possibly warding off the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Besides the fact that marijuana is safer, the authors list seven other very good reasons for ending the `war' against it (I have rearranged the order to better show logical connections):

. 1. Enforcement annually does irreparable harm to the lives of up to nearly a million otherwise law-abiding citizens.
. 2. Wasting law enforcement resources on marijuana reduces their availability to protect citizens from real crime.
. 3. Marijuana enforcement is racially discriminatory.
. 4. It is marijuana prohibition, not its use, which produces the `gateway' to other drugs, because:
. 5. Drug dealers don't card, so kids can buy, and the same dealers often deal other drugs.
. 6. Legalizing and regulating quality and purity, and requiring labeling for potency, would benefit consumers, and would permit:
. 7. Taxing marijuana, which would provide significant government revenue.

The biggest obstacles to rationalization of marijuana laws are:
. 1. The very real danger that whatever legislators propose it will be attacked by political opponents as `soft on crime,' and
. 2. The puritanical `haunting fear that someone, somewhere might be having a good time.'

* U.S. DOJ, DEA In the matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition (Docket No. 86-22): Opinion and Recommended Ruling, Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Decision of Administrative Law Judge Francis L. Young, Washington, D.C., September 6, 1988. (quoted in SAFER, page xv.)

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I mainly read this book because while I'm not a 'user' of either drugs, cigarettes, or alcohol, I do have an interest in the debate about the 'drug war', the history of prohibition (not only in the US), and I believe the majority have seen how the US has turned against the wishes of those who smoke (no more smoking restaurants was a big deal in NYC, high prices for cigarettes, etc). With that being said, for most of my life I lived in an atmosphere where smoking and drugs were not allowed but drinking was a regularity, so much so that we couldn't find enough places for all the bottles we'd accumulated throughout our trips overseas (coming home we had bottles of alcohol serve as souvenirs). Reading this book I had to force myself to go against the grain in agreeing with the suggestion that just as alcohol affects our brains so does marijuana, and since one is legal there is little to no reason to believe the other should not be as well. Just because one is prevalent throughout so many activities that people undertake (from simply having dinner (wine) to going out with friends for a birthday (any alcohol you can think of) does not and should not preclude a drug like marijuana from being viewed/judged by the same standards that we view and judge alcohol. Going further, this book gives you insight into the benefits of smoking marijuana for those with a variety of diseases as well as the harm that alcohol causes (both physically and mentally). But ignoring all of the above, we have to remember that we live (or should be living) in a society that caters to the individual, as long as that individual does not abuse the rights of others. If you want to drink at home, go ahead, if you want to smoke cigarettes at home, go ahead, and if you want to use marijuana in the comfort of your home you should have the same right and privilege. I don't think anyone should have the hubris to think that the rules they live their lives by should apply to everyone, but, sadly, that's what we have today.