For those of you who care about marijuana policy reform, there is something in the air. And it is smelling mighty sweet. It is the aroma of progress.
After decades of marijuana myths and propaganda, the walls of marijuana prohibition are starting to crumble. You see it on television, where stations from CBS to CNN to MSNBC and CNBC have focused on the growth of the medical marijuana industry in California. And you see it when publications like the Wall Street Journal talk about "supply chains" and "vertical integration" among medical marijuana distributors.
Riding this wave of momentum is a new book entitled, Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink? One of the book’s co-authors, Steve Fox, will be talking about the book at the upcoming Netroots Nation conference on Friday -- at 4:20, of course!
But the real purpose of this diary is to let you know about The Great Marijuana Book Bomb taking place on August 20.
The authors of Marijuana is Safer have organized this Book Bomb in an effort to drive the book to the top of the Amazon.com rankings. By doing so, they will draw further attention to the "marijuana is safer than alcohol" message. Why is this message so important you might ask? Well, let me tell you.
You see, despite all of the rational arguments against marijuana prohibition, many people still oppose liberalizing marijuana laws based on their understanding of how widespread alcohol-related problems are in our society. They fear that legal marijuana would produce similar problems. The main purpose of this book is to help people understand that making marijuana legal for adults would not be "adding another vice;" rather, it would provide adults with a less harmful recreational alternative. In other words, making marijuana legal could reduce alcohol-related problems in our society. This is a theme echoed in the foreword to the book, written by Norm Stamper, former chief of the Seattle Police Department.
From a political perspective, polling has demonstrated that support for ending marijuana prohibition increases dramatically once people recognize that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol. You may be thinking that marijuana is obviously less harmful than alcohol, but a third of the public considers marijuana to be more harmful and another third considers them about equally harmful. We must educate the two-thirds who don’t currently consider marijuana less harmful if we hope to change our laws.
That is why we want to spread the "marijuana is safer than alcohol" message. And that is why we hope you will help us push Marijuana is Safer to the top of the Amazon rankings next Thursday, August 20.
If you want more to see more information about the book, including endorsements from people like David Sirota, Barbara Ehrenreich and Nadine Strossen, or if you want to sign up to participate in the Book Bomb, please visit the site set up specifically for this effort -- http://www.marijuanabookbomb.com
Thanks for considering being part of this campaign.