Reefer Madness: A History of Marijuana [Paperback]

Larry "Ratso" Sloman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1998

Reefer Madness, a classic in the annals of hemp literature, is the popular social history of marijuana use in America. Beginning with the hemp farming if George Washington, author Larry "Ratso" Sloman traces the fascinating story of our nation's love-hate relationship with the resilient weed we know as marijuana.

Herein we find antiheroes such as Allen Ginsberg, Robert Mitchum (the first Hollywood actor busted for pot), Louis Armstrong (who smoked pot every day), the Beatles, and more rapscallions standing up for, supporting, smoking, and politicizing the bounties of marijuana.

With a new afterword by Michael Simmons, who has written for Rolling Stone, LA Weekly, and High Times, on the progress of the hemp movement and the importance of medical marijuana, Reefer Madness is a classic that goes on.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Reefer Madness expertly and entertainingly charts the course of the killer weed from Colonial hemp crops to the present proliferation of pot as the biggest underground industry since bootleg booze."—Playboy

"Everything you always wanted to know about the history of grass in America--but were too stoned to ask." --Gene Schoenfeld, M.D. ("Dr. Hip"), author of Dear Dr. Hippocrates

"Ounce of ounce, Reefer Madness packs more highs than a pound of sinsemilla."—Frank Fioramonti, NORML board of directors

"The most objective, definitive book ever written on pot."—Pitt News

From the Publisher

Praise for Reefer Madness:

"Reefer Madness expertly and entertainingly charts the course of the killer weed from Colonial hemp crops to the present proliferation of pot as the biggest underground industry since bootleg booze." --Playboy

"Everything you always wanted to know about the history of grass in America--but were too stoned to ask." --Gene Schoenfeld, M.D. ("Dr. Hip"), author of Dear Dr. Hippocrates

"Ounce of ounce, Reefer Madness packs more highs than a pound of sinsemilla." --Frank Fioramonti, NORML board of directors

"The most objective, definitive book ever written on pot." --Pitt News

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 472 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1st edition (November 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312195230
• ISBN-13: 978-0312195236
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #711,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tell your children, indeed, March 19, 2000

By 

George Schaefer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reefer Madness: A History of Marijuana (Paperback)

That is a pun based on the movie Reefer Madness which was originally called Tell your children. Now we have a book by Larry Sloman called Reefer Madness which documents the history of marijuana in the United States. Larry Sloman was once editor in chief at High Times magazine so it goes without say where he stands on the issue of the marijuana laws. There are points when his bias does show through a bit but overall he does mainly stick to the facts in the history of reefer. This is a very informative book with a lot of facts that many Americans do not know. I learned a lot about the origins of a lot of laws in this country. There are times he speculates on what various politicians are thinking when they meet or pass certain laws. This I do not like because he wasnt there and cant really know. I think the facts on their own speak loudly enough without this added feature. I do respect that he humanizes Harry Anslinger and discusses Anslingers dedication to an ailing wife and his fervent belief in his cause. I agree that Anslinger is responsible for one of the stupidest and most unconstitutional laws in this countrys history but he was still human. I also like that Sloman brings up the racial aspect of the dope laws which is still a major factor in the War on Some Drugs today. The ONDPC and DARE may not want you to read this book but it is probably closer to the truth than most of the propoganda they are shovelling.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EVERYONE Should Read This Book, November 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Reefer Madness: A History of Marijuana (Paperback)

Any person who believes that the U.S. government's official policy on marijuana is ridiculous and founded on myth rather than fact should read this book. It provides a meticulous review of the history of this drug in the USA, detailing in incredible detail the progression of the U.S. government's official position on the legal status of the drug. I found it to be very interesting, and easy to read. Any person who wants to know the true FACTS about this drug -- from initial movements by governmental officials to categorize it as a hazardous and illegal substance, to the examination of it's widespread use among a variety of subgroups in American society -- should read this book if they want to develop an effective, and accurate, argument on the subject.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Truly Madness, April 30, 2009

By 

Elliott Bignell (Sargans, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reefer Madness: A History of Marijuana (Paperback)

This is an entertaining but also truly enraging piece of American history. Sloman has been admirably thorough in detailing the recent history of this fascinating herb and the culture and law that has accrued to it. It cannot in all fairness be said that he has remained truly "objective" as he clearly has a position of his own. However, it can be said that he appears to present facts fairly and has researched the documentation and interviewed the survivors where possible.

It is entertaining because Sloman is a fairly witty writer with a measured sense of self-deprecation. I found myself liking him.

It will enrage many because of the sheer, obstinate, blood-minded nature of the establishment's determination not to see anything in cannabis that might shake its institutional prejudices and because of the catastrophic human costs to which this has led. The USA has a massively disproportionate number of the world's prison population, and most of them are in, often for shockingly long sentences, because their country chooses to criminalise their private use of psychoactive herbs.

The word "fascist" has been heavily over-used, but in that fascism inheres in the suspension of freedoms justified by manufactured fear, US drug policy and Anslinger as an individual agent quite definitely qualify. The entire history of the establishment relationship with cannabis, not just in the USA but more widely in the Western world, has been one of creating inflated and selective accounts of harm associated with cannabis use in order to confabulate an agenda for criminalisation. It seems to come down to sociological prejudice against the Yippie and Hippie movements which Sloman describes, racial prejudice against black jazz culture and a simple unwillingness to let go of an unprofitable position in which so much has already been invested. Sloman's account of this will have libertarians spitting nails. Most infuriating is that these pious suits seem to regard the law as a mere tool to engineer society the way they want it; court rulings that endorse legitimate uses of cannabis are regarded as obstacles to be got around. The legalistic piety evaporates as soon as the law itself contradicts their true agenda. These are not people that hold the law to be supreme, these are people who regard the law as a stick with which to beat a lower class of people, and if it breaks in their hand they will grab another.

Sloman drew to my attention one important detail of US Constitutional law of which I was only dimly aware. There is a hindrance to unilateral legalisation in that the USA is party to international treaties regulating traffic in certain substances. Very much to the contrary of the "we're independent and can do what we want" talk that was flying about prior to the Iraq war, Article 6 of the Constitution establishes that international treaties to which the USA is signatory are the Law of the Land, entrenched on a comparable footing to the Constitution itself. This is a major obstacle to formal legalisation of which Sloman for the first time made me, not being from the USA, aware.

I must say, as a non-American, I would have preferred a work with a less parochial remit. In all fairness, though, it does come right out and say that it covers the American history of cannabis, so I have no grounds for complaint. The later section on medical cannabis alone, and the dirty tricks campaign mounted by the state to try and get around legal rulings sanctioning it, would justify reading this book.