Cannabiz - Softcover

Geluardi, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0982417195 ISBN 13: 9780982417195

Publisher: Routledge, 2010

Synopsis

Cannabiz tells one the most important political and business stories of our generation: the transformation of a counterculture movement into a growth industry with staggering potential. Charting the rise of medical marijuana in California and 14 other states, award-winning journalist John Geluardi vividly recounts the movement’s early activism, its legal challenges and victories, and its emergence as a commercial and political force.

Tracing the history of marijuana in the United States, Cannabiz also reports on the industry’s key players, political allies and opponents, internal strife, and audacious aspirations―including a 2010 ballot initiative to legalize the adult use of marijuana in California. Along the way, Geluardi describes local efforts to regulate dispensaries, ranging from workable ordinances in some cities to bureaucratic paralysis in Los Angeles, where dispensaries came to outnumber McDonalds franchises. He also reports on efforts in Humboldt County, the heartland of marijuana cultivation, to keep pot illegal―and prices high.

Adroitly profiling this unique industry, Cannabiz tells a distinctively American story―one whose colorful characters and fascinating details evoke Prohibition and the Gold Rush.

About this title

About the Author

John Geluardi

Reviews

The advent of the medical marijuana movement in California and other states represents a sea change for American drug policy and will shape the debate for decades to come. In this detailed exploration of the movement, Geluardi looks at the history of marijuana law in the U.S., the research into the medicinal effects of the drug, the growth of the movement, the controversial push for overt legalization in several states, and the case both for and against. Throughout, he offers a comprehensively researched look at history, economics, health, and the politics of the movement; compassionate and objective, the author refuses to demonize patients and eagerly investigates dispensary operators and individuals involved in all aspects of the trade. Readers from all sides of the political spectrum will benefit from his analysis of a growing movement.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Despite the often harsh sentences still meted out for marijuana’s sale and possession, the mind-altering herb’s reputation has come a long way since Reefer Madness days. From once being vilified in the 1938 exploitation film as a catalyst for psychosis and sexual deviance, the drug has more recently been embraced by popular culture, and inspired laws in California and 14 other states regulating the drug as a medicinal aid. After devoting a few cursory chapters to its early history and later demonization by the U.S. government, noted Bay Area reporter Geluardi tracks marijuana’s explosive growth in the last decade both as a recreational drug and an apparent boon for people in ill health. Some of the players Geluardi focuses on, among cannabis’ increasingly entangled commercial and political interests, include the plant’s growers and sellers, multiplying drug dispensaries, and lobbyists favoring complete legalization. While Geluardi’s workmanlike prose is sometimes overburdened with facts and statistics, the story he tells about cannabis culture’s sudden ascendance from notoriety to mainstream acceptance is both informative and compelling. --Carl Hays

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0982417195
• ISBN 13: 9780982417195
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 202