Cannabis - Philosophy for Everyone

The debate on the status and legality of cannabis continues to gain momentum. Here, personal anecdotes combined with academic and scientific reports combine to sharpen some of the fascinating philosophical issues associated with cannabis use.  A frank, professionally informed and playful discussion of cannabis usage in relation to philosophical inquiry Considers the meaning of a ‘high’, the morality of smoking marijuana for pleasure, the slippery slope to more dangerous drugs, and the human drive to alter our consciousness Not only incorporates contributions from philosophers, psychologists, sociologists or legal, pharmacological, and medical experts, but also non-academics associated with the cultivation, distribution, and sale of cannabis Brings together an international team of writers from the United States, Canada, UK, Finland, Switzerland, South Africa, and New Zealand

Foreword xii Richard Cusick Preface xv Dale Jacquette Introduction: What is Cannabis and How Can We Get Some? 1 Dale Jacquette Part I Cannabis Phenomenology 19 1 A Cannabis Odyssey 21 Lester Grinspoon 2 Seeing Snakes: On Delusion, Knowledge, and the Drug Experience 35 G. T. Roche 3 The Cannabis Experience: An Analysis of “Flow” 50 Andrew D. Hathaway and Justin Sharpley Part II Marijuana and Spiritual Enlightenment 63 4 Buzz, High, and Stoned: Metaphor, Meaning, and the Cannabis Experience 65 Michael Montagne 5 The Great Escape 77 Charles Taliaferro and Michel Le Gall 6 Cannabis and the Human Condition: “Something of the Kind is Indispensable” 90 Brian R. Clack Part III Creatively High 101 7 Hallucinatory Terror: The World of the Hashish Eater 103 Tommi Kakko 8 Marijuana and Creativity 114 Ryan E. Holt and James C. Kaufman 9 Navigating Creative Inner Space on the Innocent Pleasures of Hashish 121 Dale Jacquette Part IV Psycho-Sociological Dimensions of Cannabis Culture 137 10 Cannabis and the Culture of Alienation 139 Mark Thorsby 11 Reefer Madness: Cannabis, the Individual, and Public Policy 149 Tuomas E. Tahko 12 Soft vs. Hard: Why Drugs are Not Like Eggs 162 Brian Penrose Part V Cannabis Ethics and Politics 173 13 “Smoking Pot Doesn’t Hurt Anyone But Me!” Why Adults Should be Allowed to Consume Cannabis 175 Jack Green Musselman, Russ Frohardt, and D. G. Lynch 14 Pot Politics: Prohibition and Morality 192 Mitch Earleywine 15 Cannabis and the Good Life: Needs, Capabilities, and Human Flourishing 214 Theodore Schick, Jr. 16 Weakness of Will: The Cannabis Connection 226 Michael Funke Notes on Contributors 236