Longtime Dishheads will remember that rather extraordinary reader email thread that had to do with secret middle-class, mainstream marijuana use – for medical and non-medical reasons. The thread "The Cannabis Closet" began with one reader email in March 2009 and became one of the most talked-about cultural discussions on the question of marijuana legalization. Dishheads will also remember we promised, by popular demand, to compile them all into a book. We are massively over-stretched, but we have finally come through, thanks to Chris Bodenner's meticulous and back-breaking work. Drum roll please …
The book is a compilation of first-person pot use testimonials, from top executives to responsible parents, from entrepreneurs to A-students, from unwinding suburbanites to the very sick. In more than 120 personal stories, it demolishes every hoary "stoner" stereotype of the regular pot-user. It doesn't glide over the downsides of pot-use, but it does explain more graphically and powerfully how marijuana-use has become as American as, er, brownies and milk. It shows how responsible pot-use is already compatible with middle-class life and its obligations. Browse and buy it here.
Reading it as a whole is a totally different experience than reading it one email at a time. When I got Chris's first draft, I couldn't stop reading it, and couldn't help but be strangely moved by it all over again, even though I had read every single word of it before. There's something about the cumulative impact of so many heart-felt testimonials that does more to change the mind than any abstract argument, and Chris has shaped it into a compelling narrative – from shame and doubt to a form of liberation and success – that packs a real punch. It's a truly powerful way to persuade anyone of the rightness and sanity of this cause – created by the anonymity and free expression of new media, now re-purposed into the classic staple of old media: a simple, short, easily pocketed paperback.
We've also produced this book the way we did "The View From Your Window" – bypassing the publishing industry and created this book through the wonderful Blurb.com. You can buy it directly here.
More to the point: if you buy it before midnight tonight PST, shipping from Blurb is free (coupon code: FESTIVE). After tonight, we got a special shipping discount of $2.99 (DISH). Now for the even better news: this 120 page, top-quality paperback is yours for … $5.95. I repeat: $5.95. We've been able to get the price so low precisely because we have gone around the publishing industry, and because the content (from you) is free. So if you buy it today, it's under $6. If you buy it from tomorrow on, the price with shipping is under $10. If those T shirts were too expensive for you, this is an extremely affordable self-gift or gift to a friend or family member. It's just testimonies of real people, with a foreword by yours truly.
A special thanks to everyone at Blurb who assisted the project along the way, namely Leigh Haber, Brent Baker, and CEO Eileen Gittins. And I'd also like to thank personally the greatest book designer of our time, my old friend, Chip Kidd, who created the cover. This is a wonderful blend of old media and new media in the dissemination of stories and truths that were rarely covered before. And I hope it can play a role in ending Prohibition in this country and around the world.
Special discount details and holiday shipping deadlines after the jump:
Coupon Code: FESTIVE
Promotion: Free Shipping for Ground orders
Valid: Now through midnight Dec 10th PST
Details: Offer covers Ground shipping costs up to US $6.99 for up to three books in one order, shipped to one address. This offer is good for one-time use and cannot be combined with other promotional codes or used for adjustments on previous orders. This offer can, however, be combined with volume order discounts.
Coupon Code: DISH
Promotion: Daily Dish shipping discount
Valid: Now through 3/31/2011
Details: Discount of $2.99 applies to shipping costs in one order and shipped to one address. This offer cannot be combined with other promotional codes or used for adjustments on previous orders. However, this offer can be combined with volume order discounts.
Cut-off dates by ship method in order to receive by Christmas Eve
Ground: Sunday 12/12 midnight PST
Second Day Air: Wednesday 12/15 midnight PST
Next Day Air: Sunday 12/19 midnight PST
The Dish 