[.ca] It's Just a Plant: A Children's Story of Marijuana (ISBN 0976011727)

interesting:
the plot behind this book is basically stated in the title, it's attempting to get rid of the boogeyman stories surrounding marijuana because it's just a plant. this little girl goes around and learns about marijuana, what it is, where it comes from (a plant, grown by a farmer like other plants), a history about it, a doctor's perspective and so on. it isn't promoting marijuana or encouraging children to use it, as i would suppose would be one of the first suppositions to pop into one's head when they hear about a book like this, in fact there's even a part in the book where some guys get arrested for using marijuana. it's purpose is to help educate children on just what marijuana is. i think this book is beneficial because people fear what they are ignorant of and people abuse the forbidden. as an example, when i was younger, probably around 5 or 6, my nonno would put a few drops of wine in my sprite at dinner time. alcohol was never forbidden to me and if i wanted some all i had to do was ask (of course i wasn't given a whole lot, but it's the principle that's important). as a result of this alcohol was never a big deal to me as it was to some of my friends and while they were getting pissed drunk at 13, i would drink an appropriate amount so as to not even get dizzy or abstain all together. the point of the story is that the forbidden is very attractive, and while we all know this, this knowledge isn't put to good use very often. of course there must be forbidden things, that comes with having even an inkling of some sort of morality, which even the most 'amoral' person is guilty of possessing, but to make forbidden something that need not be so is foolish in my eyes. marijuana is less harmful than a lot of glorified substances in society that are much more harmful to a person's health. people fear marijuana for reasons that aren't true, or for no other reason than someone told them it was bad, without any basis. don't get me wrong, this isn't some tirade of how 'marijuana's so great' or 'kids should all be smoking marijuana' or similar such lines of thought. i believe that all children should have the power of education to help them assess the world and that that education is important is because all children will come into contact with marijuana at one point or another in their lives (some much earlier than others), and i would prefer that they not see it as a big deal. marijuana is just a plant, a very misunderstood plant, and we should be able to see marijuana as just that, a plant, like corn and tomatoes, not through the jaded perception of society that would have us believe it's some scary boogeyman. you can get more info on the book's website