Top ten lists of all sorts are getting released and we here at NCC will try to keep you apprised of cannabis-related lists so you don’t miss out on any of the important marijuana events of 2012. A lot of historic occurrences went down in 2012, but some important items may have missed your attention as our 24-7 information age bombards us with a massive amount of information. One list just put out is the top marijuana non-fiction books of 2012 by The San Francisco Chronicle.
At the top of the list is Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know. The Chronicle states that, “Parents, educators, law enforcement and politicians – everyone, really – should read ‘Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know’. Assembled by the best policy analysts of our time, yet readable at the 6th grade level.”
Also included on the list is a book that should appeal to the cannabis community as well as music fans as Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings from the Road by Willie Nelson should be sure to please. Wille Nelson has become an icon in so many ways to many, many people. Very few activists and musicians can appeal to people across genres and generations, but Willie certainly pulls it off. ”A tour diary from outlaw country music legend Willie Nelson is heavy on jokes, tokes, and wisdom. With a foreword by Kinky Friedman,” states The San Francisco Chronicle. I will definitely be checking this book out myself and I have a couple of cannabis and music aficionados I know that just may be getting this book as a gift.
I was not surprised, but very pleased, to see Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution by my friend Doug Fine on the list. Too High is a favorite of our’s here at NCC, even before we got to know Doug, but after meeting the man and witnessing his media and public appearances, it is safe to say that he is one of the most important cannabis activists today. Doug weaves a great story based upon true events that will make you care about the real-life characters in the book while you get a crash course in the Mendocino County cannabis culture. Within a great story of heroes growing medical cannabis for all of the right reasons, enlightened local law enforcement officials who came to realize that regulating cannabis is good for the community and villains from the federal government, are the economic realities of Mendocino County that Doug reveals to the masses in a way that appeals to people across the political and cultural spectrum. This economic reality is widespread across the country, and Mendocino was a place trying to do it the right way—sensibly regulating medical cannabis that improved the local economy, deprived cartels of their prohibition profits and improved the public safety of their neighborhoods. Unfortunately, this story is still ongoing as, for some reason, agents of the federal government are still threatening participants of this successful medical cannabis program.
Also, making the list: The Official High Times Cannabis Cookbook; Home Grown: Marijuana and the Origins of Mexico’s War on Drugs; Legalized It!; Marijuana: Gateway to Health; Cannabis Indica: The Essential Guide to the World’s Finest Marijuana Strains; Cannabis Sativa; Heart of Darkness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers, and the Race for the Cannabis Cup; Pot, Inc.: Inside Medical Marijuana, America’s Most Outlaw Industry; and Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana—Medical Recreational and Scientific. Looks like I have a lot of reading to do in 2013!
Of course, information about cannabis is readily available on the internet and our cause is covered by the mainstream media more and more, but sometimes nothing is better than a good book to fully immerse yourself in the subject matter. So you may want to check some of these books out in the new year and it would behoove all of us to snag a book like Too High to Fail or Marijuana Legalization for our friends and family members who may be uncertain about the movement to end cannabis prohibition. Knowledge is power my friends, and the more that you know about cannabis prohibition and the cannabis plant, the less appealing prohibition becomes.
Article originally appeared on National Cannabis Coalition and republished with special permission
