Joint Ventures: Inside America's Almost Legal Marijuana Industry

by Trish Regan

CNBC anchor Trish Regan takes you behind the scenes of America's thriving pot industry, to show readers things only drug dealers know about this secret world. Forget amber waves of grain. Today, it's marijuana plants that blanket the nation from sea to shining sea in homes, in backyards, and even in our national parks. In Joint Ventures, Trish Regan takes you behind the scenes to explore every aspect of this flourishing underground economy. Her focus is the so-called Emerald Triangle Northern California's Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties where many small-time, part-time marijuana growers contribute to a trade that generates roughly a billion dollars a year.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

First published March 8, 2011

Reviews

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but it needs a better editor. There were some egregious mistakes that should have been prevented, the mistakes unfortunately cast doubt on the rest of the work. Otherwise it was a very readable and enjoyable overview of the nascent medical marijuana industry in America. The author visits California, Colorado and New Hampshire. She visits growers and dispensary owners. For comparative purposes she visits Portugal which has decriminalized all drugs and is treating drug abuse as a medical issue rather than a criminal one. She reports that in all areas where drugs have been decriminalized the usage rate among young people falls. A good book to read if you would like to participate in the discussion of where to go after the failed 'war on drugs'.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A timely and well-researched book on the state of marijuana in the U.S. that unfortunately suffers from extremely poor editing -- not just the organization of the content and main topics (didn't she already say that in Chapter 2?), but obvious copy-editing mistakes that I found really distracting at times. It's a shame, because the author knows her stuff, but the poor editing takes away from the overall quality of the book. I still recommend it for those interested in up-to-date pot politics and law.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joint Ventures: Inside America's Almost Legal Marijuana Industry by Trish Regan (John Wiley & Sons Inc. 2011) (338.1) is an interesting overview of another huge business poised to take off - and it is already happening in California, Washington, Colorado, Michigan, and on and on. Thank god and the libertarians that common sense is taking charge over fear and ignorance. My rating: 7/10, finished 4/17/14.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only a small portion of this book is dedicated to the marijuana industry in the United States, perhaps a third. The rest is dedicated to the cultural history of every drug worldwide, and the author's sense of moral superiority over every person she interviews (prohibitionists and legalizers alike). All information contained can be found in the History Channel's series on illegal drugs in America.