Marijuana Nation: From Vietnam to Legalization

By: Roger Roffman

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Synopsis: For Roger Roffman, a retired university professor, there's nothing academic in the stories told in his memoir. It was personal when Roffman struggled with his own compulsive pot use and when he lost his younger brother to a drug overdose. It's personal when he challenges those who say marijuana is harmless. It's personal when he asks: If criminal penalties have been ineffective in protecting young people and the public's health and safety, might a well-designed and well-regulated legal market do better? For 45 years, Roffman has worn a multitude of hats, all related to his fascination with marijuana: the first to survey soldiers about their pot use in Vietnam, activist working to reform the laws, federally-funded marijuana dependence researcher, addiction therapist, drug educator, and - for a while - even a dealer who helped cancer patients learn about pot. It began in Vietnam where, as an Army officer in 1967, he questioned the prison terms meted out to soldiers who got high, while at every military base in the country booze was cheap and readily available. Roffman has experienced the layered and complex relationship Americans have with marijuana first-hand. His stories offer all too rare balanced insights about a drug that directly or indirectly has affected virtually all of us living in Marijuana Nation.