We Live in the Shadow: Inner City Kids Tell Their Stories through Photographs
ing how medical marijuana providers often combatted both state and federal legal troubles by standing up for the rights of the sick and ill while courting public opinion, which was increasingly on their side. Chapter Ten is about political operations on both sides of the ultimately unsuccessful Proposition 19 that would have legalized recreational marijuana if passed by California voters. This chapter highlights how pot changed state politics as unions saw marijuana legalization as a way to expand their ranks; economically, local governments hoped to balance their budgets with taxes on recreational pot. In Chapter Ten, Hecht details how fractures emerged among supporters of marijuana and the movements they participated in throughout the Proposition 19 campaigns. Many medical advocates opposed both those who wanted to use marijuana recreationally and those who wanted to make money from that recreational use. Hecht moves east in Chapter Eleven, detailing how, much to the dismay of those who advocated pot for medicinal purposes, Colorado built upon California's legalized medical marijuana model but opted for a stricter production and distribution system seemingly designed more to benefit state economics and entrepreneurs as opposed to sick patients. Returning again to California, Chapter Twelve details how the federal government pushed back on marijuana producers working on the fringes of the medical market and making large sums of money doing so. Chapter Thirteen describes how federal intervention slowly crept up on more legitimate operators, many of whom local governments supported. In the concluding chapter, Hecht takes readers 'Back to the Garden, or back to the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana years after the federal raid. He describes that while California and even the rest of the country experienced massive shifts in the culture, politics, and economics of marijuana (including expanded medicinal use across many states, the legalization of recreational use of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, and polls showing majority support for legalization among U.S. citizens) this mountain refuge remains largely unchanged in providing medicine to the sick and dying. If you are looking for a book that stokes the worst fears about marijuana legitimization, you will not find it here. If you are hoping to read a text that celebrates marijuana as a wonder medicine and decriminalization as the first step towards balanced state budgets and a more promising future, this book is not for you. In other words, you will need to look elsewhere if you seek a book to explain the issue of marijuana legitimation from your perspective or a book you can criticize in the comments section of an online retailer. The primary strength of Weed Land is how the author does not force conclusions upon the reader. For example, Hecht does not take a Marxist perspective and claim individuals with a profit motive were more adamant and supportive of marijuana decriminalization, but you can find examples of these capitalist entrepreneurs in the book and make that assessment for yourself. Also, Hecht does not draw upon the collective action literature to explain the different and often conflicting goals of the medical and recreational marijuana movements, but you are given the information to make that assessment on your own by setting your sociological imagination free.