Grass Roots

The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America

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By Emily Dufton

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$16.99

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$21.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around December 5, 2017. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

How earnest hippies, frightened parents, suffering patients, and other ordinary Americans went to war over marijuana

In the last five years, eight states have legalized recreational marijuana. To many, continued progress seems certain. But pot was on a similar trajectory forty years ago, only to encounter a fierce backlash. In Grass Roots, historian Emily Dufton tells the remarkable story of marijuana’s crooked path from acceptance to demonization and back again, and of the thousands of grassroots activists who made changing marijuana laws their life’s work.

During the 1970s, pro-pot campaigners with roots in the counterculture secured the drug’s decriminalization in a dozen states. Soon, though, concerned parents began to mobilize; finding a champion in Nancy Reagan, they transformed pot into a national scourge and helped to pave the way for an aggressive war on drugs. Chastened marijuana advocates retooled their message, promoting pot as a medical necessity and eventually declaring legalization a matter of racial justice. For the moment, these activists are succeeding — but marijuana’s history suggests how swiftly another counterrevolution could unfold.
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On Sale
Dec 5, 2017
Page Count
320 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780465096176

Emily Dufton

About the Author

Emily Dufton holds a PhD in American Studies from George Washington University. She lives outside of Washington, DC.

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