Dale Jacquette 
Cannabis – Philosophy for Everyone 
What Were We Just Talking About?

The debate on the status and legality of cannabis continues to gain
momentum. Here, personal anecdotes combined with academic and
scientific reports combine to sharpen some of the fascinating
philosophical issues associated with cannabis use.

* A frank, professionally informed and playful discussion of
cannabis usage in relation to philosophical inquiry

* Considers the meaning of a ‘high’, the morality of
smoking marijuana for pleasure, the slippery slope to more
dangerous drugs, and the human drive to alter our
consciousness

* Not only incorporates contributions from philosophers,
psychologists, sociologists or legal, pharmacological, and medical
experts, but also non-academics associated with the cultivation,
distribution, and sale of cannabis

* Brings together an international team of writers from the
United States, Canada, UK, Finland, Switzerland, South Africa, and
New Zealand

Table of Content

Foreword xii
Richard Cusick

Preface xv
Dale Jacquette

Introduction: What is Cannabis and How Can We Get Some? 1
Dale Jacquette

Part I Cannabis Phenomenology 19

1 A Cannabis Odyssey 21
Lester Grinspoon

2 Seeing Snakes: On Delusion, Knowledge, and the Drug Experience 35
G. T. Roche

3 The Cannabis Experience: An Analysis of ‘Flow’ 50
Andrew D. Hathaway and Justin Sharpley

Part II Marijuana and Spiritual Enlightenment 63

4 Buzz, High, and Stoned: Metaphor, Meaning, and the Cannabis Experience 65
Michael Montagne

5 The Great Escape 77
Charles Taliaferro and Michel Le Gall

6 Cannabis and the Human Condition: ‘Something of the Kind is Indispensable’ 90
Brian R. Clack

Part III Creatively High 101

7 Hallucinatory Terror: The World of the Hashish Eater 103
Tommi Kakko

8 Marijuana and Creativity 114
Ryan E. Holt and James C. Kaufman

9 Navigating Creative Inner Space on the Innocent Pleasures of Hashish 121
Dale Jacquette

Part IV Psycho-Sociological Dimensions of Cannabis Culture 137

10 Cannabis and the Culture of Alienation 139
Mark Thorsby

11 Reefer Madness: Cannabis, the Individual, and Public Policy 149
Tuomas E. Tahko

12 Soft vs. Hard: Why Drugs are Not Like Eggs 162
Brian Penrose

Part V Cannabis Ethics and Politics 173

13 ‘Smoking Pot Doesn’t Hurt Anyone But Me!’ Why Adults Should be Allowed to Consume Cannabis 175
Jack Green Musselman, Russ Frohardt, and D. G. Lynch

14 Pot Politics: Prohibition and Morality 192
Mitch Earleywine

15 Cannabis and the Good Life: Needs, Capabilities, and Human Flourishing 214
Theodore Schick, Jr.

16 Weakness of Will: The Cannabis Connection 226
Michael Funke

Notes on Contributors 236

About the author

Editor
DALE JACQUETTE is Senior Professorial Chair in Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Bern, Switzerland.

Series Editor
FRITZ ALLHOFF is an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy Department at Western Michigan University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics.