Pot Politics

Marijuana use continues to attract interest and fuel controversy. Big, green pot leaves have adorned the covers of Time, National Review, and Forbes. Almost 100 million Americans have tried marijuana at least once. Groups such as The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana (NORML) and The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) have tens of thousands of members. Polls suggest that 70-80% of Americans support medical marijuana. At least 11 US states have experimented with decriminalisation and medical marijuana laws, with new initiatives appearing each year. Meanwhile, other groups such as Partnership for a Drug Free America and Mothers Against Drugs protest legalisation. Clearly, debate about marijuana policy shows no sign of abating.
In his earlier book, Understanding Marijuana, Mitch Earlywine forced researchers, policy makers, and citizens to avoid oversimplification, separate empirical findings from their interpretations, and understand that some things may be neither good nor evil. Pot Politics continues with these same themes, showing multiple perspectives from a variety of experts on an important problem with vast implications. The volume presents ethical, religious, economic, psychological, and political arguments for cannabis policies that range from prohibition to unrestricted legalisation. By presenting a unique perspective on overlapping issues, each chapter demonstrates how even recognised experts draw markedly different conclusions from the same data. Some contributors evaluate policy by weighing the costs and benefits of control while others eschew policy by presenting moral arguments against our attempts at control.

Foreword
1: Mitch Earleywine: Thinking Clearly about Marijuana Policy
Section I: Costs of Use and Control
2: Daniel Egan and Jeffrey A. Miron: The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition
3: Sara Smucker Barnwell and Mitch Earleywine: Is Drug Testing in the Workplace Worthwhile?
4: Anthony Liguori: Marijuana and Driving: Trends, Design Issues and Future Recommendations
Section II: Views from Abroad
5: Wayne Hall: A Cautious Case for Cannabis Depenalization
6: Craig Reinarman and Peter Cohen: Law, Culture, and Cannabis: Comparing Use Patterns in Amsterdam and San Francisco
Section III: Depictions of Addictions
7: Bruce Mirken: Marijuana and the Media: Science, Propaganda and Sloppy Reporting in the US News Media
8: Roger A. Roffman and Anne Nicholl: Disseminating Accurate and Balanced Marijuana Education: An Opportunity for the Policy Reform Movement
9: Robert Gore and Mitch Earleywine: Marijuana's Perceived Addictiveness: A Survey of Clinicians and Researchers
Section IV: Ethical and Religious Perspectives
10: Douglas Husak: Do Marijuana Offenders Deserve Punishment?
11: Elliot N. Dorff: Judaism and Marijuana
12: Charles Thomas: How in God's Name Do We Reform Our Marijuana Laws?
13: Charles Thomas: Detailed Analyses of Religious Groups' Divergent Positions on Marijuana
Section V: What About the Children?
14: Mary Ann Pentz and Steve Sussman: Marijuana Abuse Prevention
15: Rodney Skager: Revisioning Youth Policy on Marijuana and Other Drug Use: Alternatives to Zero Tolerance
Section VI: Support for Prohibitions
16: Kevin Sabet: The (Often Unheard) Case Against Marijuana Leniency
Section VII: A Call to Action
17: Mitch Earleywine: Values and the Marijuana Debate