BOOK LISTS HIGHS OF PRESCRIPTION POT

In "Prescription Pot: A Leading Advocate's Heroic Battle to Legalize
Medical Marijuana," George McMahon and Christopher Largen provide an
informative and intriguing book about the medical benefits of marijuana.
McMahon, a long time sufferer of Nail Patella Syndrome and one of six
patients legally allowed to use marijuana, takes the reader on his road to
becoming a patient legally using medical marijuana.

It is legal to prescribe marijuana in nine states, yet it is illegal by
Federal law for anyone not in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug
Program to use marijuana. There are only six people in the Compassionate
IND Program. By increasing public awareness of these problems and the
medical uses of marijuana, McMahon and Largen hope to one day give patients
what McMahon and five other people in the United States have -- the ability
to legally use marijuana for its health benefits.

McMahon easily keeps the reader's attention with his anecdotes about his
months in the hospital, the discovery of the benefits of marijuana, the
numerous encounters he has had with law enforcement officials and his
activism across the country to educate people on the medical benefits of
marijuana. These anecdotes are set to the background of McMahon traveling
across the country educating the public, as well as government officials,
about the benefits of marijuana as medicine and how marijuana has helped
him. Interspersed among the anecdotes of McMahon's life is information
about the medical benefits of marijuana that McMahon has come across and
researched in his quest to educate people on marijuana as medicine.

The anecdotes are not only highly interesting, but also informative.
Through McMahon's interaction with doctors, law enforcement officials and
patients illegally using marijuana for its medical benefits, the reader
learns about the conflicts created by an indecisive government and society.
Doctors are afraid of prescribing patients marijuana in the nine states in
which it is legal, due to medical marijuana still being considered illegal
by the federal government. Doctors in the other forty-one states can,
obviously, lose their license for suggesting that a patient use marijuana,
yet some find the benefits of marijuana for their patients outweigh the risk.

McMahon's experience with the police has been mixed. The anecdotes he tells
show the problems and challenges he often faces due to misunderstandings
regarding his legal medical marijuana. Law enforcement officials are often
unaware of the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program through which
McMahon receives his marijuana. While McMahon does try to inform the law
enforcement in the area prior to his visit, misunderstandings still often
arise.

While the simple, common language makes this book easily read and
understood by a large audience, the relaxed language runs the risk of
readers dismissing the book as being trivial and makes the book difficult
to take seriously. Language, such as referring to the farm where government
marijuana is grown as "Uncle Sam's marijuana garden," gives the reader the
impression that "Prescription Pot" takes a more flippant attitude towards
the medical use of marijuana. As is evident by the content of the book,
McMahon and Largen are extremely serious about legalizing marijuana as
medicine. The frequent reference to marijuana as "pot" also makes the book
appear less scholarly. The laid back attitude of "Prescription Pot" does,
however, make it more accessible to the general public. And for those
seeking the jargon of medical texts and studies, you are in luck. The last
fifty-five pages are appendixes that cover a study on the effects of
marijuana on long time users and the legal aspects of medical marijuana.

"Prescription Pot" is a must read for anyone interested in the medical
marijuana debate. It provides an interesting, personal perspective while
informing readers on basic issues surrounding this debate.