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A review by annmeyer
Brave New Weed: Adventures into the Uncharted World of Cannabis by Joe Dolce
5.0
Having been born and raised in Humboldt County, I've had many opportunities for education about and exposure to cannabis.
I think that being in California generally places me in a pretty unique cultural and social bubble, but Humboldt specifically compounds the distance between me and much of the rest of the country. Almost everyone has an opinion about the plant, but here the opinion tends to be much more positive than many, if not most, other places.
Joe Dolce's Brave New Weed takes a look at those varying opinions, and he does so in a very nuanced way. Even without considering the subject material he covers, his strengths as a storyteller, an investigator, and an interviewer are both clear and numerous. This book is incredibly pleasurable to read and there is never a dull moment; everything is engaging and woven together neatly, creating stories within stories that tumble together and are almost all meaningful and powerful.
But his coverage of such a complicated topic is even more impressive to me. I have a decent amount of existing knowledge and experience with cannabis firsthand and through other media (tv shows, documentaries, etc), but this taught me so much more than I'd ever expected.
Dolce draws in such a wide variety of threads that it's hard to not be impressed by how interconnected subjects related to cannabis are with so much else.
For simplicity's sake, I'll list out some of the most interesting or important subjects which Dolce incorporates:
- the history of criminalization in the United States, emphasis on the War on Drugs and the presidencies of Reagan, Nixon, and the first Bush
- government propaganda and funding through popular media (TV networks) and anti-drug organizations
- criminalization and its connections to institutionalized racism and the prison industry (looking at how such a system works in a capitalist society motivated by filling cells and making money)
- the science of cannabinoids and ECS, particularly in regards to medicine and health care (e.g. treatment of pain, cancer, degenerative illnesses, PTSD, trauma)
- Israel's place at the forefront of state-run research and investment (interviews w/ doctors and scientists are particularly interesting)
- the history of cannabis in San Francisco
- Colorado as a model and example of state regulations and economic shifts following legalization
- the impacts post-prohibition will have on regulation, sales, safety, scientific research, culture, etc (perhaps one of the most central points of the book)
- good ol' Big Pharma and the roadblocks built into the ideals of Western medicine, focusing on the strictness of research and studies vs hundreds of years of cultural/historical knowledge and countless patient experiences and testimonies
- many spotlights on and interviews with scientists, activists, businesspeople, people with chronic illnesses and pain
- connections between cannabis use and brain stimulation/experience of the world, drawing especially on the work and writing of Carl Sagan (probably one of the most impressive people of the past century in my eyes)
- and much, much more...
I think that everyone should read this book, honestly. I think there's something here that everyone can learn, not just about cannabis, but about how the world works, how governments make decisions and spend money, and how power and capitalism influence society from misinformation to health care.
I think that being in California generally places me in a pretty unique cultural and social bubble, but Humboldt specifically compounds the distance between me and much of the rest of the country. Almost everyone has an opinion about the plant, but here the opinion tends to be much more positive than many, if not most, other places.
Joe Dolce's Brave New Weed takes a look at those varying opinions, and he does so in a very nuanced way. Even without considering the subject material he covers, his strengths as a storyteller, an investigator, and an interviewer are both clear and numerous. This book is incredibly pleasurable to read and there is never a dull moment; everything is engaging and woven together neatly, creating stories within stories that tumble together and are almost all meaningful and powerful.
But his coverage of such a complicated topic is even more impressive to me. I have a decent amount of existing knowledge and experience with cannabis firsthand and through other media (tv shows, documentaries, etc), but this taught me so much more than I'd ever expected.
Dolce draws in such a wide variety of threads that it's hard to not be impressed by how interconnected subjects related to cannabis are with so much else.
For simplicity's sake, I'll list out some of the most interesting or important subjects which Dolce incorporates:
- the history of criminalization in the United States, emphasis on the War on Drugs and the presidencies of Reagan, Nixon, and the first Bush
- government propaganda and funding through popular media (TV networks) and anti-drug organizations
- criminalization and its connections to institutionalized racism and the prison industry (looking at how such a system works in a capitalist society motivated by filling cells and making money)
- the science of cannabinoids and ECS, particularly in regards to medicine and health care (e.g. treatment of pain, cancer, degenerative illnesses, PTSD, trauma)
- Israel's place at the forefront of state-run research and investment (interviews w/ doctors and scientists are particularly interesting)
- the history of cannabis in San Francisco
- Colorado as a model and example of state regulations and economic shifts following legalization
- the impacts post-prohibition will have on regulation, sales, safety, scientific research, culture, etc (perhaps one of the most central points of the book)
- good ol' Big Pharma and the roadblocks built into the ideals of Western medicine, focusing on the strictness of research and studies vs hundreds of years of cultural/historical knowledge and countless patient experiences and testimonies
- many spotlights on and interviews with scientists, activists, businesspeople, people with chronic illnesses and pain
- connections between cannabis use and brain stimulation/experience of the world, drawing especially on the work and writing of Carl Sagan (probably one of the most impressive people of the past century in my eyes)
- and much, much more...
I think that everyone should read this book, honestly. I think there's something here that everyone can learn, not just about cannabis, but about how the world works, how governments make decisions and spend money, and how power and capitalism influence society from misinformation to health care.