Pot Planet: Adventures in Global Marijuana Culture [Paperback]

Brian Preston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2002

Marijuana is cultivated in nearly every region of the world, from the jungles of Laos to the arid hills of northern California. It's smoked and enjoyed for medicinal, spiritual, and recreational purposes by an estimated 200 million people worldwide. In Pot Planet, journalist Brian Preston sets out on a global ganja safari to explore strange new cannabis cultures, to seek out new growers, activists, and other reefer revolutionaries ... and to boldly get baked with each of them. Preston's journeys take him across every strata of pot cultivation and enjoyment. In the Canadian Kootenays he meets hemp farmers struggling to harvest their crop on the fringes of legitimacy. In Cambodia and Morocco he explores the final frontiers of Third World weed enthusiasts. In northern California he takes a clear-eyed look at the medicinal marijuana movement, seeing both its promises and its problems. In England, Switzerland, and Spain he observes grudging governments catching up to public tolerance. And at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam he joins in the raucous multiday tasting competition and celebration at the international summit of the best breeders, growers, and connoisseurs in the world. Part investigative travelogue, part cultural history, part polemic for the unfettered enjoyment of nature's most perfect and pleasing herb, Pot Planet is an unforgettable odyssey into the multifaceted world of hemp, full of wit, insight, and inspiration.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For this adventurous travelogue, freelance journalist Preston (a contributor to Rolling Stone, Details and Vogue) literally smoked his way around the world, investigating marijuana culture in the U.S. and Europe as well as in places as far away as Nepal, Morocco, Australia and Southeast Asia. Although the idea of a journalist smoking himself across the globe might sound like the kind of lightweight assignment dreamed up at a High Times office party, the book, based mostly on Preston's extensive travels, is a marvelously entertaining, well-written and probing look at the world through marijuana, from the plant itself to the subculture of peoples who smoke it (an estimated 200 million worldwide), grow it, sell it and outlaw it. Throughout, Preston proves himself to be both an intrepid traveler and a fine storyteller. He effortlessly weaves tales humorous and harrowing, vividly rendering his environs and introducing readers to an array of fascinating characters, from growers in Vancouver to activists in London and a variety of guides and acquaintances in exotic locales. A copious researcher, he is equally at ease detailing plant science or the evolution of Amsterdam's drug policies. To his credit, Preston avoids introducing any sort of legalization polemic until a final, brief chapter, which is an unfortunate addition. His musings at the book's end only interfere with any conclusions readers themselves might be expected to draw. Still, for those who share an affinity with Preston's subject, this excellent book will be devoured like a tray of brownies.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In the late 1990s, freelance journalist Preston wrote an article for Rolling Stone on marijuana culture in Vancouver, where he was living. Inspired by the experience, he traveled to 11 countries, from Nepal to the United States, to investigate marijuana availability, quality, and devotees. Along the way, he smoked, ate, and drank a great deal of pot. Among the most fascinating aspects of his book, which is a mix of travelog, cultural history, and screed, are his investigations of the arcana of marijuana culture, especially the science of growing the plant and the different varieties of seeds available. Preston is clearly a proponent of legalization and sees the United States as a veritable dinosaur in this area. His book is a very entertaining read, informally written. Recommended for most libraries. A.O. Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, IN
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press (April 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802138977
• ISBN-13: 978-0802138972
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #542,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a Big Stoned World Out There, July 23, 2002

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pot Planet: Adventures in Global Marijuana Culture (Paperback)

Thirty years ago, there were plenty of late night delirious conversations about how someday soon you could buy grass at your local supermarket. But pot somehow is a much bigger deal than anyone had thought, a world-wide obsession over a simple weed that millions find fun or useful, and others find perilous. So Brian Preston, a Canadian journalist, decided he would do a worldwide survey of the international marijuana scene. It was a perfect self-assignment: he likes vagabonding, and he likes getting stoned. The result, _Pot Planet: Adventures in Global Marijuana Culture_ (Grove Press) is a hilarious travelogue through smoke filled rooms, with a subtly serious message: "What's more likely to destroy the earth, pot or pollution? And there's a war on pot?"

Preston is a dedicated journalist, or at least he loves his subject so much that he is happy to go to enormous lengths to investigate it. "For much of the research and most of the writing of this book, I was high on marijuana. Now then - it can't be _that_ amotivating." He becomes a judge of the Cannabis Culture Cup, with the difficult task of rating all these strains, and more, in the categories of appearance, fragrance, texture, taste, aftertaste, and stone (and he remarks on the difficulties of evaluating that last category after you have already judged other entrants; he can't, like a wine taster, just spit it out). He has funny stories from all over. "If you want to score anywhere in Asia," Preston advises, "just find a place where they're playing Bob Marley music." In the town of Nimbin, Australia, there are "grass palaces," houses paid for by pot cultivation: "They were hippies; now they're middle class." One wants to franchise pot restaurants in the shape of a giant bong, the Big Bong Burger Bar. In Switzerland, searching out contacts, Preston asks a city employee, a tourist helper, "Do you know where I could by _hemp_ products around here? Like clothing and stuff?" She thinks a minute. "Hmmm. Hemp clothing... No... But we have three stores where you can buy grass!" In Morocco a shady tourist guide assures him about purportedly fine hashish, "Half a kilo, Brian! Very easy to hide in a suitcase for the flight home!" In Canada, backwoods growers have given death threats to those who wish to introduce hemp production for fiber, because of the fear that the low-stoning hemp will cross pollinate and ruin the intoxicant varieties.

In every chapter, Preston shows that American politics have affected global marijuana in ways that not even the most rabidly anti-pot politician would favor. Naturally, Preston knows just what the US and the world ought to do with marijuana laws, but he usually withholds proselytization on the issue. He is an amusing writer with clever comparisons; a stoner holds in his toke so deeply that he eventually disgorges "a cloud of smoke huge and heavy enough to show up on a satellite weather shot." He withholds most of his serious arguments until his last chapter, which is quite accurately titled "Pot Polemic." And he has graceful ambivalence about what legality might bring, having seen a bit of it in Amsterdam, pushed like booze and tobacco: "Is this what legalization would be like? Would pot become just another consumer product, marketed like any other line of goods in Babylon?" Maybe there would be disadvantages, yes, but this book is indispensable for anyone who wants an amusing survey of the current world marijuana situation. Americans, especially, would do well to catch this bigger picture.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great guide to global ganja, September 13, 2002

By 

Dana Larsen (Cannabis Culture Magazine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pot Planet: Adventures in Global Marijuana Culture (Paperback)

Brian Preston documents his travels as he encounters the people, places and events that make up the core of the world's modern cannabis culture.

Preston's flobal ganja voyage begins in BC, at the first Cannabis Culture Cup in February 2000, held at Marc Emery's home on the Sunshine Coast. From there, Preston travels the world's weedy hotspots, sampling buds and meeting the locals in Nepal, Southeast Asia, Australia, England, Amsterdam, Morocco, BC, and the USA.

Cannabis Culture readers will recognize many of the people who Preston encounters on his travels. In Amsterdam he tokes with Sensi Seeds founder Ben Dronkers, in Australia he hangs at the Nimbin Hemp Embassy and attends their annual Mardi Grass, In California he discusses DEA raids with med-pot icon Dennis Peron. In Vancouver he gets high on buds from Marc Emery, and discusses activism with locals like David Malmo-Levine.

Pot Planet is a perfect snapshot of the people, places and events that make up the global ganja culture during the dawn of the new millennium. The book is written in a friendly, conversational style. It's an easy and enlightening read, and will be enjoyed by both chronic and non-toker alike.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun read on a wild world marijuana tour., October 27, 2009

By 

William Ratcliff (Davenport Iowa) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pot Planet: Adventures in Global Marijuana Culture (Paperback)

It's fun to follow the author as he tours the world seeking the best grass to be found. He doesn't shrink from trying all the types to give his opinion on the quality of the various findings. Fun read that's well written, although I don't know quite how he does it with all the stuff he has consumed.