Marijuanamerica: One Man's Quest to Understand America's Dysfunctional Love Affair with Weed - Hardcover

Opening with a highly dubious cross country journey in a car filled with pot, Nerz embarks on a gonzo trip worthy of Hunter S. Thompson to immerse himself deeply (maybe too much so) in the subject. He enrolls at Oaksterdam University in California and takes classes on a variety of topics from Legal 101 to Methods of Ingestion and learns the secrets to tasty and profitable baking from a professor named Miss Bliss. (Shortly thereafter, the school was raided.) Ryan scores an easy prescription for pot on the boardwalks of LA, spends time with a D.A.R.E. founder turned medical marijuana advocate, and interviews Steve D'Angelo, the pig tailed head of the nation's largest medical dispensary. Eventually, Nerz finds himself in Northern California, where he really goes down the rabbit hole and ends up apprenticing with "Buddha Cheese," one of the largest growers in the country, alongside a very colourful cast of characters. In exceptionally entertaining prose, the intrepid Nerz tells this very timely story and tries to answer some big questions: Is there such a thing as a marijuana addict? Is he one? Are Americans really more addicted than ever? Why? Are we dependent on marijuana spiritually, creatively, financially? Should we legalise it? Does he need to quit?

A writer for National Public Radio, Ryan Nerz is also a freelance journalist whose pieces have appeared in Esquire, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, ym, and The History Channel. In addition, he has produced four television shows on Spike TV and the A&E Bio channel.