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

by Fox, Steve; Armentano, Paul; Tvert, Mason

• ISBN13: 9781603581448
• ISBN10: 1603581448
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-15
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Pub Co

Summary

When the city of Lisbon, Portugal, was gearing up for a potentially raucous soccer tournament, public safety officials did something shocking. To try to mitigate fan violence, the police announced that soccer fans would not be arrested for smoking marijuana prior to a big match between England and France. Much to everyone’s satisfaction, the match went off without incident. Later that night, however, after fans left the stadium and made their way to local pubs, violence erupted, and several hundred citizens were arrested. Could that evening’s violence have been avoided if the rules of the stadium had applied to society as a whole? Yes, say nationally recognized marijuana-policy experts Mason Tvert and Paul Armentano. Tvert and Armentano compare and contrast the relative harms and legal status of the two most popular recreational substances in the world—marijuana and alcohol. They argue that current laws and social norms steer people toward alcohol, even though it is, by any objective measure, the more dangerous of the two substances. Marijuana Is Saferreaches for a broad audience, including people who have never used marijuana and may be skeptical about the authors’ claims. The book includes a detailed introduction to the plant and its effects on the user, and it debunks some of the government’s most frequently cited marijuana myths. For current and aspiring advocates of marijuana-law reform, as well as anyone else who is interested in what is becoming a major political battle at all levels of government, the authors spell out why the message that marijuana is safer than alcohol must be a prominent part of the public debate over legalization. Most importantly, for the millions of Americans who want to help advance the cause of marijuana-policy reform—or simply want to defend their own personal safer” choice—this book supplies the talking points and detailed information needed to make persuasive arguments to friends, family, coworkers, and elected officials. Written in a reader-friendly style, but loaded with facts and insightful analysis about the war on marijuana” and the drive to end it,Marijuana Is Saferis the perfect book for anyone who has—or has not yet—ever wondered, Why are we driving people to drink?”

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. xiii
The Choice: Marijuana vs. Alcohol
The Big Two:The Popular Acceptance and Use of Marijuana and Alcohol	p. 3
Pot 101: Understanding Marijuana	p. 15
Removing the "Toxic" from Intoxication: An Objective Comparison of the Effects of Alcohol and Marijuana	p. 27
Choice, Interrupted
"Reefer Madness" and All That Jazz: The Origins of Pot Prohibition	p. 47
Reality Check: The Truth Behind Common Marijuana Myths	p. 59
How Society Is Systematically Driving Us to Drink	p. 74
The Real-World Ramifications of Our Pro-Alcohol Culture	p. 93
Freedom of Choice
You Would Think This Would Be Enough: Traditional Arguments Against Marijuana Prohibition	p. 111
Not Adding a Vice but Providing an Alternative	p. 121
From Theory to Practice: "Safer" to Safer	p. 135
Toward a Tipping Point: Creating a Buzz-and Sparking Change	p. 145
Our Vision of the Future	p. 156
Appendix: Spreading the "Marijuana Is Safer" Message	p. 173
Acknowledgments	p. 183
Notes	p. 185
Index	p. 201
About the Authors	p. 210
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