Marijuana Nation: One Man's Chronicle of America Getting High; From Vietnam to Legalization

This memoir by an academic marijuana researcher, counselor, and legalization activist is unabashedly subjective—but distinctively unbiased. Roffman (social work, emeritus, Univ. of Washington), who first smoked pot as an army officer in Vietnam, headed Washington State's branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in the 1970s. Yet even after quitting pot and speaking out about the pitfalls of compulsive use he has continued to advocate for legalization. A skeptic on the motives behind the booming medical marijuana industry, he was an early proponent and enabler of cannabis consumption for cancer patients. Despite his evenhandedness and obvious self-awareness, this is not a gripping read. Nearly every page contains some superfluous anecdote, and curiously detailed, word-for-word dialog dating from the Sixties.