It’s easy to forget that weed is a subculture, and a rather inaccessible one for most people. While your Republican grandma in Arizona might want to smoke weed now that she can get a medical marijuana card for her arthritis, she probably has no clue how to actually do it, how it will feel, what snacks she should buy, or what to put on the tube. Seattle writer David Schmader, who spent a decade and a half at The Stranger aggregating the world’s worst and weirdest news into a surprisingly uplifting column called Last Days, wrote a book to clue her in. It’s called Weed: The User’s Guide. Buy her this book.
Buy everyone this book. The information inside is absolutely indispensable for stoners and novices alike. Schmader tackles all the basics of bud, plus plenty of esoteric but equally important stuff. It’s got everything from the ancient history of pot (where he considers the all-important question “Was Jesus a stoner?”) to a compound-by-compound breakdown of all the chemicals that make pot pot. While it’s extremely useful and educational, it’s also just really fun to read, which is no surprise coming from Schmader…