Understanding Prohibition

Read the social history first, then compare activist history, policy analysis, and a broader criminal-justice perspective.

1. Start with a social history
   • Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana - Medical, Recreational and Scientific
     Paperback · 2013 · ISBN 9781439102619

   Martin A. Lee follows cannabis through American medicine, counterculture, activism, and prohibition.

2. Follow changing reform movements
   • Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America
     Hardcover · 2017 · ISBN 9780465096169

   Emily Dufton traces changing American movements for marijuana legalization, decriminalization, and prohibition.

3. Compare policy choices
   • Marijuana Legalization: What Everyone Needs to Know®
     Paperback · 2016 · ISBN 9780190262402

   Jonathan P. Caulkins, Beau Kilmer, and Mark A. R. Kleiman examine alternatives to prohibition and the possible consequences of different regulatory models.

4. Add a wider criminal-justice perspective
   • The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
     Paperback · 2020 · ISBN 9781620971932

   Michelle Alexander examines mass incarceration and racial inequality in the United States. Its broader criminal-justice focus provides context for drug-policy reading.

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