Available From UC Press

With full legalization seeming inevitable, it's time to shift the conversation—from whether recreational cannabis should be legalized to how.
 
Weed Rules argues that it's time for states to abandon their "grudging tolerance" approach to legal weed and to embrace "careful exuberance." In this thorough and witty book, law professor Jay Wexler invites policy makers to responsibly embrace the enormous benefits of cannabis, including the joy and euphoria it brings to those who use it.
 
The "grudging tolerance" approach has led to restrictions that are too strict in some cases—limiting how and where cannabis can be used, cultivated, marketed, and sold—and far too loose in others, allowing employers and police to discriminate against users. This book shows how focusing on joy and community can lead us to an equitable marijuana policy in which minority communities, most harmed by the war on drugs, play a leading role in the industry. Centering pleasure and fun as legitimate policy goals, Weed Rules puts forth specific policies to advocate for a more just, sensible, and joyous post-legalization society.

Jay Wexler is Professor of Law at Boston University, a former law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the United States Supreme Court, and author of six previous books, including Our Non-Christian Nation, The Odd Clauses, and the novel Tuttle in the Balance.

"Weed Rules is a highly entertaining and user-friendly guide to the complex world of cannabis policy. Jay Wexler combines compelling stories with data and legal analysis to make a persuasive case the way only a marijuana-law professor could. This book will change the cannabis debate."—Shaleen Title, former Commissioner, Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, and founder, Parabola Center for Law and Policy

"Weed Rules is an engaging, thoughtful, and accessible guide for anyone interested in reshaping marijuana policy."—Robert A. Mikos, author of Marijuana Law, Policy, and Authority

"Wexler believes deeply in the potential of legal weed to improve the human condition—but he's also a keen realist about how legalization, if implemented wrong, can easily fail to achieve its central justice and welfare goals. This book casts light on several key policy flaws that have often been baked into legalization bills around America and helped keep legal weed from blossoming as hoped. Wexler proposes and enthusiastically defends a set of clear, practical policy alternatives that could help state and federal legalization achieve their higher goals of reducing human suffering and increasing human joy."—Robin Goldstein, coauthor of Can Legal Weed Win?: The Blunt Realities of Cannabis Economics