New Books In Public Policy

John Hudak‘s book Marijuana: A Short History (Brookings Institutions Press, 2016) is an accessible and informative dive into marijuana on a number of levels and from a variety of perspectives. Hudak unpacks and explains the historical place of marijuana in the United States, and the way that marijuana is situated within the criminal justice system, and how it is understood within our cultural vernacular and moral perspectives of what is right and wrong, legal and illegal. As marijuana now seems to be on a journey towards decriminalization or legalization in a number of states in the U.S., Hudak explores the way in which marijuana became an illegal substance, and how it is connected to the demonization of others–most specifically Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, African-Americans, and the American counter-culture of earlier decades. The history of marijuana is fascinating because it highlights the evolution of various forms of regulation in the United States; and, as marijuanas classification in some states is cha