Marijuana Nation

February 3, 2014
In this nuanced book, Roffman’s personal story intertwines with the raucous, contradictory history of cannabis since the 1960s. As a young social work officer in Vietnam, he counsels war-traumatized, self-medicating soldiers; challenges the military’s hard line against mental health issues and marijuana; smokes his first joint; and conducts studies on soldier drug use, a study commissioned and then suppressed by the army. As a graduate student at U.C.-Berkeley, he experiences the transcendent sensuality of getting high, develops a decriminalization policy, and questions his beliefs when confronted with skeptical recovering heroin addicts and his brother’s drug abuse. And throughout his career as an academic in Seattle (he is a professor emeritus of social work at the University of Washington), as he becomes a prominent promoter of decriminalization and an illicit marijuana provider to cancer patients, gives up pot-smoking, and sets up a counseling program for marijuana dependence, Roffman struggles to simultaneously raise awareness of potential dangers while advocating for a saner legal response. Despite a bland prose style, Roffman depicts a personal history as tumultuous as the history of the herb that’s been his lifelong focus, and his refreshing insistence on acknowledging the complicated truth about marijuana may provoke both pot-lovers and prohibitionists to question their assumptions. 16 pages of images. Agent: Peter Riva, International Transactions.

March 15, 2014

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. VERDICT In relating an intrinsically punchy story, Roffman, and his editor, would have served its telling better through brevity. This work may become a valuable source for future historians of social movements, but the casual reader interested in pot odysseys will not be stimulated.--Scott H. Silverman, Dresden, ME

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