The Marijuana Smokers

New York/ London: Basic Books, Inc, 1970. Hardcover. Good (ex-library with labels and stamps on spine, block, inside front and rear covers and title page verso. Light shelfwear overall. Taped repairs to interior hinges. Marginalia and underlining throughout.). Black cloth boards, black taped spine with silver lettering; x, 340 pp. " It seems clear today that our anti-marijuana laws must and will be changed. Indeed, something like two-thirds of the states have already either reduced penalties or have such reductions under consideration. A similar trend has appeared on the national scene. In the meantime the great debate on the subject, which is so skilfully dissected and probed by Professor Goode, rages on. On the one hand, the use of marijuana seems to be spreading in ever-widening circles, while, on the other, the debate itself seems to be intensifying and regressing to lower levels. What began some decades ago as a fairly dignified intellectual argument among relatively small numbers of scholars, scientists, and public officials has degenerated into something like a huge barroom brawl with nearly everyone getting into the act. The fact that changes in the laws now seem to be in the offing probably has less connection with the debate than with the fact that pot is now being smoked by so many sons and daughters and some adults of the affluent and influential classes that wield political power."- foreword.