Weed Rules: Blazing the Way to a Just & Joyful Marijuana Policy

Jay Wexler is a law professor and writer with a diverse repertoire. He has written judicial humor, non-Christian religions, environmental law, intelligent design, and marijuana policy. He has taught about it for almost ten years. He is also an exuberant consumer of pot.

He is open about his use and ends his book with a comment about planning to "load to bowl." His goal is a "careful exuberance" policy as compared to a "grudging tolerance." One advocate of the latter was the blogger Mark Kleiman, whose blog (The Reality-Based Community) I read at times. I do vaguely recall being annoyed at his negativity on that front. 

After a brief look at the history of marijuana prohibition, Jay Wexler examines ten often competing criteria used when applying marijuana policy. The ten criteria are equity (fairness, especially to historically discriminated groups), public health, ease of access, revenue, environmental protection, rationalism, market freedom, reduction of the illegal market, local control, and normalization (acceptance). 

Then, he explains forth four paradigms (models) used for policy proposals. These are public health, market freedom, equity, and statist or state control. He supports equity, public safety, liberty, and public goods (to reframe things a bit) in that order. He overall supports careful exuberance, strongly supporting the joyful aspects of marijuana use. 

He grants there are some safety concerns, but such is the case for many things we consume. For instance, it is more dangerous for teens. For a small group, it can become habit-forming. It is in some small ways associated with mental health problems. We do not know, however, if these individuals are harmed by marijuana itself or if there is some correlation.  

More so than some other things, any harm is self-inflicted. Freedom warrants trusting the people in that context. Plus, criminalization will not, at the end of the day, further public health or safety as compared to legalization. Marijuana does have health and recreational value. Criminalization brings harm, especially to minority groups. 

The book then examines various ways current legalization policies have a wrongful "grudging tolerance." This includes limits on advertising, marketing, and promotion; absence of employee protections, limits on social consumption (public areas), local discretion leading to bans, and search and seizure policies that do not recognize legalization limits police discretion. Lack of places to use it, including for people living in places where they cannot partake, is alone a serious concern. 

Jay Wexler is exuberant about the usage of marijuana. I personally am not someone who uses marijuana. I do think it should be legal. I think in fact it should be considered constitutionally protected as part of the right to privacy. Also, criminalization in practice violates constitutional values. 

(It is not covered here but our drug policy is such that even use of hemp -- which has many useful functions -- has been severely limited. I have had hemp products, which are not drug-related, including cereal. They are tasty. It also is not covered as such, but I think marijuana has a spiritual and religious aspect, which has religious liberty issues.)

Wexler covers a lot of ground in around two hundred pages. Some people might be a bit overwhelmed at times. No pictures. Overall, I thought it was a well-done summary covering most of the bases. It is about time for the federal government to let states legalize. A policy since the Obama Administration (revoked in name, though apparently not in deed, by Trump) to let states legalize even if marijuana is still illegal under federal law is nice. It still causes a lot of problems, including in financial ways.

Weed: Cannabis Culture in the Americas, a book for teenage readers, is also recommended. It uses various profiles (this time with pictures!) to cover a range of topics, including a Latin American country that legalized marijuana. 

Check that out as well.