The Biblio-Files: 7 Books That Should be in Every Smokers Library

1. “Hemp Bound: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Next Agricultural Revolution”

Doug Fine, author of “Farewell my Subaru, An Epic Adventure in Local Living” brings us “Hemp Bound” and asks us to get ready for the nation’s next billion-dollar industry.

Our country, unknown to many, is steeped in the history of hemp production. America’s first flag was sewn using hemp fabric and the Declaration of Independence was penned on hemp paper, yet the United States consented to outlaw it for nearly a century. In this brave-new-world style journey, Fine meets the pioneers of the industry as he explores the 21st century world of hemp product and innovation.

2. “Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution”

While Doug Fine teaches us about the world of industrial hemp history and production in “Hemp Bound” Fine uses an intelligent and sensible yet humorous writing style to pull us through “Too High to Fail”.

An overview of the green industry as it emerges on the world’s stage, “Too High to Fail” engages and assists the reader, particularly those unsure of marijuana and their feelings about it, to understand the cannabis community as a whole. The book creates an unbiased view to emphatically make a case for America’s new cash crop. This is a great read for those interested in the culture, but inhibited enough to do no more than read a book.

3. “The Emperor Wears No Clothes: Hemp and the Marijuana Conspiracy”

While on the subject of hemp, no one has (perhaps more-famously) studied the possible effects of hemp on the economy than Jack Herer. The famous American cannabis activist, outlines hemp’s myriad of uses.

Filled with charts and illustrations, this is a great book for those who feel bogged down with too much text.

4. “Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine”

Written by two celebrated researchers Lester Grinspoon and Dr. James B. Bakalar, “Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine” explores the case for medical marijuana using testimonials from patients using it to treat the effects of cancer, AIDS, MS, glaucoma and epilepsy.

Grinspoon, began research cannabis in the ’60s with the plan on creating a scientific basis for the negative effects of marijuana, so often touted to America’s youth. However, after much study, found “little empirical evidence” to support such claims and was convinced that marijuana must be much less harmful than previously believed.

Written in 1993 and revised in 1997, this tome remains timely and uses scientific understanding of the plant’s benefits to make a case for marijuana’s use in the world of mainstream medicine.

5. “The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World”

One of the greatest authors in the world of the contemporary food revolution, Michael Pollen, was working in his garden, when the thought came upon him “Do plants use humans as much as we use them?” “The Botany of Desire” explores this question by focusing on the relationship between humans and four domesticated plants: apples, tulips, marijuana and potatoes. Armed with the belief that plants have manipulated their surroundings to survive throughout the passing years, Pollen expands on his theory by tracing the timeline of these plants to see the mutual benefit found on both sides.

“Cannabis—more commonly known as marijuana—seems to have long ago adopted a strategy of tying its fortunes to humans, appealing in particular to our innate desire to alter consciousness, a desire that spans nearly every culture and historical period,” Pollen writes. “In exchange, humans have gone to extraordinary lengths, often at their own peril, to help the plant grow and reproduce.”

6. “Super-Charged: How Outlaws, Hippies, and Scientists Reinvented Marijuana”

“Super-Charged” begins in the 1930s in the United States, marijuana had been made illegal, yet those willing to go underground, not only helped the plant survive in prohibition, but actually increased its variety and availability over the next 80 years.

Jim Rendon gets close to the some of the big names in the recently illegal industry to learn how they have transformed the plant, and the country’s view of it. “Super-Charged” takes readers through the world of cannabis to understand its cultivation throughout the years and, looking ahead, the industries that want to turn it into the next pharmacological super drug.

7. “Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers, and the Race for the Cannabis Cup”

Where “Super-Charged” brings the reader up to speed on the current economic and political landscape of marijuana from prohibition into the theoretical future, “Heart of Dankness” reaches even further into the world of high-end cultivation, to find those with an unrelenting passion for creating the best cannabis in the world.

Reporting for the Los Angeles Times, Mark Haskell Smith traveled to Amsterdam for the Cannabis Cup and sampled a variety of marijuana from the all over the globe.

Coming home with a new understanding of just how high quality, marijuana can be grown, Smith journeys across California with a medical marijuana recommendation to explore the world of “underground botanists, outlaw farmers, and renegade strain hunters who pursue excellence and diversity in marijuana, defying the law to find new flavors, tastes, and effects.”

Are you a reader? Which of these books sounds the most interesting to you? Tell us in the comments.