Cannabis - Philosophy for Everyone

CANNABIS PHILOSOPHY FOR EVERYONE A hazy student phase? A harmless way to relax? An effective form of pain relief? Or a dangerous and addictive narcotic? The debate on the status and legality of cannabis continues to rage on. Here, personal anecdotes, combined with academic and scientific reports, wrestle with some of the fascinating issues associated with cannabis use. In these pages, philosophers, psychologists, and medical experts (some of whom may even enjoy the occasional spliff) try to understand: - What exactly does it mean to get high? - Is it immoral to smoke marijuana for pleasure? - Is cannabis the start of the slippery road to other, more dangerous drugs? - Is altering our consciousness a basic human need? - What is the morality or immorality of cannabis prohibition laws? Cannabis – Philosophy for Everyone offers frank, professionally informed, and often humorous discussions on the gourmandise and ethical, social, and political dimensions of this psychoactive and outlawed drug.

Editor DALE JACQUETTE is Senior Professorial Chair in Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Series Editor FRITZ ALLHOFF is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Western Michigan University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University's Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.

Foreword xii
Richard Cusick Preface xv
Dale Jacquette Introduction: What is Cannabis and How Can We Get Some? 1
Dale Jacquette Part I Cannabis Phenomenology 19 1 A Cannabis Odyssey 21
Lester Grinspoon 2 Seeing Snakes: On Delusion, Knowledge, and the Drug Experience 35
G. T. Roche 3 The Cannabis Experience: An Analysis of "Flow" 50
Andrew D. Hathaway and Justin Sharpley Part II Marijuana and Spiritual Enlightenment 63 4 Buzz, High, and Stoned: Metaphor, Meaning, and the Cannabis Experience 65
Michael Montagne 5 The Great Escape 77
Charles Taliaferro and Michel Le Gall 6 Cannabis and the Human Condition: "Something of the Kind is Indispensable" 90
Brian R. Clack Part III Creatively High 101 7 Hallucinatory Terror: The World of the Hashish Eater 103
Tommi Kakko 8 Marijuana and Creativity 114
Ryan E. Holt and James C. Kaufman 9 Navigating Creative Inner Space on the Innocent Pleasures of Hashish 121
Dale Jacquette Part IV Psycho-Sociological Dimensions of Cannabis Culture 137 10 Cannabis and the Culture of Alienation 139
Mark Thorsby 11 Reefer Madness: Cannabis, the Individual, and Public Policy 149
Tuomas E. Tahko 12 Soft vs. Hard: Why Drugs are Not Like Eggs 162
Brian Penrose Part V Cannabis Ethics and Politics 173 13 "Smoking Pot Doesn't Hurt Anyone But Me!" Why Adults Should be Allowed to Consume Cannabis 175
Jack Green Musselman, Russ Frohardt, and D. G. Lynch 14 Pot Politics: Prohibition and Morality 192
Mitch Earleywine 15 Cannabis and the Good Life: Needs, Capabilities, and Human Flourishing 214
Theodore Schick, Jr. 16 Weakness of Will: The Cannabis Connection 226
Michael Funke Notes on Contributors 236