Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution

by Doug Fine

The first in-depth look at the burgeoning legal cannabis industry and how the “new green economy” is shaping our countryThe nation’s economy is in trouble, but there’s one cash crop that has the potential to turn it cannabis (also known as marijuana and hemp).  According to Time, the legal medicinal cannabis economy already generates $200 million annually in taxable proceeds from a mere two hundred thousand registered medical users in just fourteen states.But, thanks to Nixon and the War on Drugs, cannabis is still synonymous with heroin on the federal level even though it has won mainstream acceptance nationwide.ABC News reports that underground cannabis’s $35.8 billion annual revenues already exceed the combined value of corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.5 billion). Considering the economic impact of Prohibition—and its repeal—Too High to Fail isn’t a commune-dweller’s utopian rant, it’s an objectively (if humorously) reported account of how one plant can drastically change the shape of our country, culturally, politically, and economically.Too High to Fail covers everything from a brief history of hemp to an insider’s perspective on a growing season in Mendocino County, where cannabis drives 80 percent of the economy (to the tune of $6 billion annually). Investigative journalist Doug Fine follows one plant from seed to patient in the first American county to fully legalize and regulate cannabis farming. He profiles an issue of critical importance to lawmakers, media pundits, and ordinary Americans—whether or not they inhale. It’s a wild ride that includes swooping helicopters, college tuitions paid with cash, cannabis-friendly sheriffs, and never-before-gained access to the world of the emerging legitimate, taxpaying “ganjaprenneur.”

Genres: Nonfiction, Economics, Politics, Business, Health, Drugs

382 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 2, 2012

About the author

After graduating from Stanford, Doug Fine strapped on a backpack and traveled to five continents, reporting from remote perches in Burma, Rwanda, Laos, Guatemala and Tajikistan. He is a correspondent for NPR and PRI. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Wired, Salon, US News and World Report, Christian Science Monitor, and Outside Magazine. A native of Long Island, Fine now lives in an obscure valley in Southern New Mexico alongside many goats and a few coyotes.

Reviews

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

to anyone that has been paying attention for the past few decades (or can recall the lessons of alcohol prohibition), it is rather evident that the war on drugs has been not only a dismal failure, but also a tremendous waste of lives and resources. this counterproductive debacle has cost us some one trillion dollars, swelled our prisons (we now have the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world), enabled cartels, disrupted lives, ruined families - all while having a most negligible effect on supply, demand, availability, and consumption. doug fine's too high to fail takes aim at this national travesty, especially the ongoing focus on cannabis, in a well-researched, intriguing, and often infuriating exposé.

fine and his family moved from their home in new mexico to what is perhaps ground zero of the ever-burgeoning movement to restore sense and logic to our local, state, and federal drug policies - mendocino county, situated within california's famed emerald triangle. known for progressive attitudes towards cannabis, medical marijuana, and the cultivation thereof, fine uses mendocino as a litmus test or springboard from which the rest of the nation may learn and soon follow suit. fine spent a year amongst growers, local law enforcement, and other citizens to gauge how well their permissive experiment is going - focusing often on crime, revenue, sustainability, and quality of life issues.

while fine's argument is not a new or unique one, it adds a compelling voice to the chorus of americans (judges, sheriffs, moms, farmers, academics, conservatives, liberals, and other fans of logic and reason) whom overwhelmingly now favor access to medical marijuana and, to a lesser extent (but still in the majority), those that believe cannabis ought to be reclassified under federal law altogether (as it is currently regulated more stringently than cocaine, opium, methamphetamine, and a whole host of oft-abused pharmaceutical and prescription drugs). fine's reportage takes on a personal note, as he evaluates much more than data and figures alone. with a sluggish economy and new opportunities for taxation and the reduction of costs related to cannabis prohibition, more towns, cities, counties, and states are beginning to explore alternatives to our decades-old draconian drug laws. with so much to gain (alleviated prison conditions, reduced enforcement spending, suppression of drug cartels and associated violence, increased tax revenue, agricultural and industrial resurgence per hemp farming, regulation of the black market, focus on harm reduction, the availability of demonstrably effective medicine, the decriminalization of behavior that is increasingly losing its taboo, and more), fine makes clear that the social acceptance and voter tolerance of drug law alternatives continue to gain in popularity. while our nation's politicians continue to lag behind on an issue with such far-reaching ramifications and consequences, the populace's demands for change continue to grow ever louder.

too high to fail is not an academic treatise by any stretch of the imagination, but instead a well-reasoned, often compelling argument for change, compassion, and common sense. fine's writing style is perhaps somewhat similar to michael pollan's - interjecting personal narrative and humor into the book's broader theme and subject. as the issue gains ever more traction nationwide, we may well be witnessing the early death throes of federal cannabis constraint (which will, of course, begin on the state level and eventually spread upward). while a lot of drug policy books may be unable to change the minds of readers, too high to fail will, at the least, offer a more sensible approach with which to think about this long, costly, tragic, ineffective, and ultimately embarrassing national nightmare.

the drug war is, along with alcohol prohibition, one of america's worst waste of resources. it is one of our nation's most awful policies, lumped in with dark episodes of our history like jim crow. it is one big constitutional violation, and it isn't necessary. it needlessly and with hardly any real effect - other than causing the founding fathers to roll over in the graves - misspends billions that could be otherwise much better directed. ending the war on drugs - or at least fundamentally changing it and removing cannabis from the equation - should be a national imperative.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is convinced we are at or near the tipping point for legalization of marijuana, especially medical marijuana. Half of Americans favor legalization, but only 1% of Congress does. But the War on Drugs has been a disastrous failure, costing many billions per year and fostering organized crime and corruption in our law enforcement agencies. Obama's broken promise to turn the heat down on federal enforcement has infuriated many people, especially the residents of Mendocino County, CA, which has passed local laws recognizing registration and taxation of medical marijuana farmers, legal under CA law. The sheriff supports these farmers, and sends officers to protect pot farmers from thieves. The process has enriched the county, with MJ taxes paying enough to lift the budget into a comfortable surplus. The argument is that the successful local experiment could work nationally if allowed, and make a very significant cut in the federal deficit.

The author follows one plant, "Lucille," from a 4" cutting to maturity, flowering, harvest, trimming, and delivery to patients. It's an interesting story, with interviews and profiles of many of the people involved. It's told with wry humor and skill from a very personal POV.

[Peter Knox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Discovered via a smartly written Bill Maher op-ed NYT review, this book very much covers the green/cannabis economy, the failings of the drug war, the potential tax/financial benefit to the country in the current time of fiscal need, the changing stigmas of pot, the desperate recipients of its medical benefits, and the entire grow and harvest start-up company process.

It was enlightening and educational (I truly did not know the medicinal powers of the plant) but the author seems to make and repeat the same case (drug war has failed and is costing us billions) every chapter without much moving things along; the story sags and drags and could have been shorter. But I certainly learned enough to justify the read.

[Thomas S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wanndered over to the non-fiction aisle for the first time in a long while and grabbed this by chance.


Let's say 2.5 stars. I think Fine must be a disciple of Michael Pollan (Omnivore's Dilemna, etc.). Very similar style, just not nearly as good.

Author makes some excellent points about the sheer absurdity of our nation's drug laws and then repeats them. Again. And again. And then in the next chapter ... again. This would have made an excellent article in the New Yorker or Atlantic Monthly but it felt like the author was really stretching things to turn this into a book.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but no more interesting than you'd expect it would have to be from the subject matter. Some kindle quotes:

our word canvas (originally from the Arabic) derives from the same root as cannabis - location 144


the importance of cannabis to early European settlement in North America can be seen in the dozens of municipality names that remain today: For much of their lives, my grandparents lived in the town of Hempstead, New York. - location 151


My dream is to be able to stop talking about cannabis—get it off the headlines—so I can fight the real problems in this county: meth and domestic violence. I care about this even more than raising my own kids right.” - location 179


In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, alcohol taxes at times provided more than 70 percent of federal revenue. - location 401


“It’s magnitudes more productive than corn- or soy-based ethanol as a biofuel,” a USDA biologist told me at a 2010 sustainability festival. “But it’s not even on our blackboard because it’s a federal crime.” - location 431


Late on the afternoon on a windy (and - location 517


Zip-Tie Program that bands every registered cannabis plant in the county in a bright yellow anklet. For a total annual cost to the farmer of about $8,500. These zip ties, in turn, allow Cohen’s not-for-profit, Internet-based cannabis delivery cooperative, called Northstone Organics, to grow the ninety-nine plants (worth close to a million dollars in the down buyer’s market of 2010), as far as the County of Mendocino was concerned. - location 530


he told me that, in his view, “maybe five percent” of medical cannabis claims were legit. - location 578


Sheriff Tom (it’s an informal county) said something telling while giving me what I had learned is the standard honest law enforcer’s line about how much he’d rather get a call that involves someone using cannabis than an alcohol-related one, let alone one involving cocaine, meth, or prescription drug abuse. I think the way he phrased it was “I’ve never seen a stoned man beat his wife—he generally just plays video games.” With those words, a thought occurred to me. I asked him if that might be considered effective medicinal use and therefore bump up his 5 percent legitimate use estimate. “What?” he asked. “Playing video games?” “Cannabis—what would you call it?—mitigating potentially violent tendencies in, say, an undiagnosed chronically depressed person.” “OK, maybe twenty percent,” the sheriff amended curtly but with typical good humor. - location 582


In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that allowing VCRs to record programming did not in itself violate the federal Copyright Act of 1976 unless the copied material was used for a “commercial or profit-making purpose.” In other words, even if huge numbers of people didn’t use the devices legally (you know, without the express written consent of Major League Baseball or HBO), those who did still had a right to own them. The ruling is widely considered to have launched the multibillion-dollar home entertainment revolution that today brings us, for better or for worse, Ishtar via instant download from nearly any spot on Earth. Similarly, with cannabis, I discovered that assertions that many essentially “healthy” people (baseball-game tapers, in the VCR example) were obtaining doctor referrals for cannabis is irrelevant. For - location 591


Between 1985 and 2008, sales of antidepressants and antipsychotics multiplied almost fiftyfold, - location 643


two hundred dollars for an ounce of medical cannabis—considerably lower than California street levels, which could push three hundred. It’s safe to say an ounce might be a reasonable monthly supply for pain control. A monthly supply of the generic version of Vicodin, by comparison, can cost six hundred dollars for the uninsured. - location 670


For legal reasons, many California cannabis collectives avoid the term payment. They love that verb reimburse. Patients reimburse the collective for its operating costs, which is what you do if you belong to a food cooperative. - location 686


And yet six months later his real problem was prescription painkillers. “I got great care that saved my life, no question, but when you tell the VA you have pain, they toss you a pill. None of the painkillers is positive for your body, and I was on every one of them at some point. If I hadn’t tried cannabis as a kid, I’d probably never have thought of it as a medicine. But I moved to California [from Indiana] in large part because of the medical cannabis law, and today I take no pharmaceuticals at all. - location 698


fifty-four-year-old former Navy SEAL Mike Knox, was prescribed methadone for an aorta tear, a medication that made him lethargic and obese before he kicked it with cannabis. “I lost a hundred thirty-five pounds when I got off that stuff,” he said. “I just bought me a new motorcycle. I’m back. In my age group especially, we Medicaiders at fifty-plus years old, we need this medicine—and education about it.” - location 707


Courtney was a man who, I was warned by my referrer (the county sheriff), spoke in such dense clinical language that I should consider myself brainy if I comprehended “ten percent of what he says.” I therefore can report with some pride I believe I pegged as much as 12 percent, - location 766


“If an indica strain shows dramatic sleep-aid value in eighty percent of patients, it can have the opposite effects in five percent, and no effect on fifteen percent. Patients have to understand their systems, and sometimes try multiple dosages and strains to find what works for them. Everyone’s biochemistry interplays with cannabinoids uniquely.” - location 785


To obtain cannabis samples or funding for research, some researchers have resorted to applying for grants with negative-sounding hypotheses suggesting addictive qualities or postulating that cannabis interferes with AIDS cocktails (with the actual studies, unsurprisingly, finding that it actually augments the efficacy of AIDS treatments). - location 798


The tumors regressed over the same period of time that cannabis was consumed via inhalation, raising the possibility that cannabis played a role in tumor regression…. Further research may be appropriate to elucidate the increasingly recognized effect of cannabis/cannabinoids on gliomas (brain cancers). —From a 2011 study - location 816


Cash had sauntered over to the locked police car (yes, I checked, while the officers were tangled in some of my infant’s car-seat blankets) in an effort to play Good Cop (“This can be really quick if you just tell us whether you’re transporting a little or a lot of pot”). He also contradicted Deputy Londo’s stated reason for pulling me over, telling me that I had been late in signaling for a lane change. While Cash and Londo fruitlessly ransacked my sons’ life jackets and river booties not far from an almost impossibly ironic Anheuser-Busch billboard featuring a San Francisco Giants tableau and the enormous slogan “Grab Some Buds,” I thought but wasn’t quite brave enough to say, “So, you know, thanks for the chapter.” - location 929


Every regional subculture requires a period of residency before a newcomer can in good faith publicly declare himself a local. In Maine, I learned from a friend who moved there a few weeks too late, it’s a generation. No exceptions. If you arrived in the Pine Tree State when you were one second old, it doesn’t count. You’re from “away.” Alaska, my home for many years and, incidentally, the first U.S. state (in 1975) to legalize cannabis for all uses during the Drug War, sets the meter at a more reasonable one winter. The more grizzled of the Last Frontier’s denizens figure if you survive a few ditch skids and wet-firewood emergencies, you’re not just a wide-eyed, eagle-snapping tourist anymore. - location 949


It is also a town with a five-to-one massage-therapist-to-physician ratio - location 1035


easily 85 percent of Mendocino County’s economy is generated by cannabis— - location 1144


The depth of cannabis integration into life here reminds me of the time, waiting for a late flight to Seattle out of the Anchorage airport in 1993, that I saw a certified, beard-to-his-chest mountain man act surprised when his revolver set off the metal detector at the flimsy, pre-911, contractor-run security station. “It’s just my gun,” he said with surprise, never imagining a place where it wouldn’t be totally normal for him to be armed. - location 1209


the California Board of Equalization’s ruling in 2011 that cannabis, while indeed a medicine as the voters said it was, is for some reason also going to be the only medicine for which the purchaser is required to pay state sales tax. - location 1346


This is a man who paid his dispensary-supplying, indoor-crop taxes, even prior to going public. He did this, on the advice of his tax attorney, by checking the truthful if vague “direct marketing” career box on his tax forms. (“Contractor” and “carpenter” are two other common official answers to this ticklish “what’s your line?” question for honest gray-market cannabis farmers nationwide.) - location 1483


Forced by an unfulfilled science requirement to take Psychology 101 with four hundred freshmen when we were upperclassmen, he legendarily submitted the following response to a midterm short essay question, which had asked that he “give an example in your own life of a conditioned stimulus and a conditioned response, as made famous by Pavlov and his immortal dogs.” Concisely, in neat cursive, my roommate had written, as best as I remember it, “When this exam is over, the thought of almost already being high on the Kind Sticky Green Bud waiting for me in my bong will cause me to salivate expectantly and even to smile. This is an example of a conditioned stimulus, since the bud itself isn’t physically here with me in Miller Building Room 319. When I actually exhale that very Kind Sticky Green Bud’s heavenly vapors back in my room, that will be an example of a conditioned response, since I am now experiencing the stimulus that is creating the response.” I saw the returned exam. Almost as notable as the answer itself was the manner of grading by a no doubt sleep-deprived, adrenaline-drained graduate student. The grader marked my roommate’s answer with a NOTICEABLY LARGER check than he’d given all the other correct answers on the page. In fact, the passage of time might have me exaggerating, but I actually recall two large checks next to that answer. - location 1709


Diesel generators kept electric bills from getting suspiciously high during the depth of cannabis prohibition, - location 1881


It helped that come August of 2011 no 9.31-permitted growers had been busted. County-wide, a record 725,000 plants were seized by law enforcement. Nationwide, too, the most recent available figures (for 2010), show historic highs in cannabis arrests (853,838), and for the first time, cannabis arrests now accounted for more than half of total “drug” arrests nationwide, according to the FBI. - location 1974


Let us not forget that the plant under discussion is America’s Number One Cash Crop. By Far. ABC News says its $35.8 billion annual revenue already exceeds the combined value of corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.5 billion). That’s now. Imagine if every delivery didn’t inspire a potential ten-year prison sentence. - location 2345


Jim Hill described the raid “game” this way: “They come in, they interrogate you for eight hours, you make them coffee, you call the lawyer, they punish you with the process a little bit, and it all goes away.” Hill even felt that the county’s Child Protection Services (CPS) folks are in on the game. “They take your kids for a day,” he said. “Feed them some processed food, you get them back. They get paid. The worst thing is when the mother screams and carries on during the raid. It scares the kids. If you’re someone who’s really worried about it, you should take your kids down to the CPS office in Ukiah today, to meet the folks there. Then it’ll be Aunt Kim and Uncle Jeremy—a sleepover, instead of a scary experience. That’s where they get you—frightening you that they’ll take your kids away. Think of it as a short vacation. A free babysitter.” - location 2421


Suddenly a solid rap on my passenger-side window startled me as much as any chopper could. Why were so many people trying to test my heart today? The knuckle rapper turned out to be a woman on the youngish edge of middle age, attractive in a primped Southern California kind of way, asking in an “I don’t mean this literally” tone if she could help me with anything. Though nearly hyperventilating, I gave her my standard “accosted on a public road by someone who thinks it’s private because it’s near her home” line, well-rehearsed from rural New Mexican back roads. “No, I always pull over when I need to answer a phone call,” I said self-righteously, waving my new smartphone. “It is the law.” - location 2518


California has between two hundred thousand and a million medical cannabis patients, depending upon whether you believe a 2011 UC Santa Cruz study or NBC Los Angeles. - location 3049


Participants also reported lower rates of alcohol, cocaine, and methamphetamine use than noncannabis patient rates. - location 3051


Federal asset seizure doesn’t even mandate returning property if no criminal charges are ever filed. - location 3099


the total number of marijuana arrests for 2000 far exceeded the combined number of arrests for violent crimes, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. —NORML.org - location 3158


Prison spending today eats up 11 percent of California’s general fund. Higher education? Six percent. - location 3281


any dispensary operator, if he or she chooses to be legal in the state of California, must also be a patient with a physician’s referral for cannabis. This is a policy that grower George Fredericks calls “like requiring a headache to sell aspirin.” Dang states rights, it’s different in every cannabis program: In New Mexico, for example, state-sanctioned cultivators don’t have to be patients. In Michigan, you can grow cannabis in your garden or obtain it from a caregiver, but you can’t obtain it at a dispensary. - location 3699


The first assault in the October offensive had already been unleashed in the barrage of threatening “go away or go to prison” notes sent to dispensaries and—even more constitutionally scary—to landlords who had nothing to do with cannabis. Is the landlord of a Manhattan office building threatened if a banker commits insider trading from his leased space? Is the operator of a convention center threatened if a vendor at a traveling gun show sells a Glock to a felon? - location 3810


On October 3, the IRS issued a ruling against the eighty-three-thousand-member Oakland dispensary Harborside Health Center, saying that, as drug traffickers, the facility’s operators were not entitled to take payroll and other standard deductions when they paid their taxes. - location 3940


the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), in a move I can say as a gun owner was met with hypocritical NRA silence, declared a new policy in September: ATF officials sent a letter to gun sellers saying cannabis patients no longer have Second Amendment rights. That’s right: In the United States of America today, it is illegal for playing-by-the-rules, state-registered medical cannabis patients nationwide to bear arms. Whacked on OxyContin? Shoot away. - location 3951


Mendocino County supervisor McCowen called Cohen’s raid “outrageous…Cohen was the first medical marijuana advocate in Mendocino County to call for regulation of the cultivation and dispensing of medical marijuana to prevent black market diversion.” - location 4040


But as is the case in every war, it is the civilians who suffer most. In this case, Northstone’s seventeen hundred patients. “We’re beside ourselves—it’s especially scary to not know if my partner is going to get his [cancer] medicine,” Northstone patient Diane Fortier told me. - location 4043


Sergeant Randy monitored Tomas’s second trespassing call on his radio. “This,” he told Tomas, “is why 9.31 matters, why it’s gotta continue: When cannabis farmers can call the police, on any issue—domestic abuse, trespassing—we have a safer community.” - location 4305


Fifty percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana. Not even one percent of Congress does. Can you think of any other issue with that level of disconnect?…Legalize marijuana and arguably 75 percent of the border violence goes away. —Former New Mexico governor and 2012 Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, November 3, 2011 - location 4642


When I covered a computer security conference for National Public Radio in 2005, I learned that in order to lure our nation’s best hacking minds, federal recruiters offer exemption from drug testing, in favor of a sort of don’t ask, don’t tell on cannabis use. - location 4786


On November 24, 2012, county sheriff Tom Allman confirmed that a federal grand jury was demanding those program financial records from his department—actually, four connected subpoenas were issued a month earlier. A year after being shut down following federal threats to local elected officials, the landmark 9.31 ordinance was under attack again. - location 5072

[Agustin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book makes some great points about the economic benefits of cannabis. It aims to show how ridiculous it is to have it as a schedule 1 drug when research has shown it to have strong medicinal properties (affects the same receptors as NSAIDs),the potential of hemp, the potential of use as alternative fuel and lastly the restoring effects on the soil it grows in.

In summary the book aims to show the reader that the war on drugs has been a total waste. That cannabis actually has great potential to help a slumping American economy if regulated corrected. The author does this by living for a year in Mendocino County where thanks to Program 9.31, registered farmers can grow up to 99 medicinal marijuana plants through a zip-tie program. It presents an interesting view into what the legalization and regulation of cannabis could look like in a real working model.

Despite all of these good points, I found myself feeling like i was reading the same points over and over about halfway through the book. No joke.

Basically, while it was a good book, it could have been about 150 pages shorter. Either do that or go more in depth with what you're trying to get the reader to understand.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent look inside the industry of growers and dispensaries. My issue is in the use of the word journalism to describe the book. It is clearly a position piece full of partisan banter. That's cool. Just call it what it is. Personally, I think the topic would have been better suited to more serious examination of all sides of the issue, especially coverage of illegal grows and so called "black market diversions." Such things clearly do exist. Let's not ignore them in the interest of our point.

[Tori Scharadin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice and fun sort of casual read being held up by data throughout. Until, I feel, in the afterword when Doug Fine stated that the drug war is won when cannabis is federally decriminalized. I'd be interested to know his thought process around that. Good book all around, just would want to know where that comes from because my interpretation is that the drug war is intertwined with other more problematic drugs along with socioeconomic issues.

Best,
Tori

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

Follows a grower in California who plants marijuana pursuant to a county government program, which is sort of allowed under state law, which is not allowed under federal law. A little crunchy at times, but the book is an interesting exploration of the tenuous administration of state marijuana laws and their conflict with the federal laws.

[Uwe Hook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too high to Fail is a very informative, well written expose into the world of medical marijuana from seed to medicine. All of the political, economic, medical, and all around straight forward info into medical marijuana, at this point in time.

[Hillary · Rating 4 out of 5]

By the author of "Farewell, My Subaru" in an easy journalistic style, he makes some interesting points. A must read for helping a college student with the quintessential "legalize it" progressive speech...a better reference than High Times...

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with pretty much every cannabis book that's even a few years old, I would love to have an update regarding the rapid changes in legislation. But this is a great examination of the dirt to patient process for medical marijuana focused on the experiences of legal(ish) Mendocino farmers, who occupy a very specific space in the semi-legalization era. I do wish that the book had dedicated a bit more time to the illicit farmers in the Emerald Triangle and the overlap between legal/illegal, but I get that the focus was on medicinal growth. I do think there should have been a chapter comparing Mendo's limbo to a legal recreational state.

The intense focus on cannabis as medicine and growing legally as a "good" tax-paying farmer (constantly juxtaposed with the violent criminal archetype) misses some important parts of the larger cannabis debate. Fine appropriately criticizes the War on Drugs but seems unable to delve fully into how the scheduling of cannabis isn't the only thing that desperately needs to change. For example, he alludes to the inherent racism in marijuana incarceration but only very briefly, and there isn't any examination of how the institutions being discussed are built for racist purposes. His calls for action at the end of the book suffer from a reform mentality and lack that necessary step towards an abolitionist imagination of the future.

TLDR Fine's writing was fun and informative as long as it was about his relatively narrow topic. Too much "hardworking cops" bootlicking but otherwise a good read that really puts you on the ground with Mendo farmers. Needs companion reads if you want a more complete sense of macro level cannabis issues.

[Jade Geleynse · Rating 4 out of 5]

So close to 5 stars! I thoroughly enjoyed it cover-to-cover, Doug is a real journalist and a refreshing read. Just found there was a bit of filler that I personally could have done without. No reason to bypass though!

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly redundant information given that it was published in 2012. Counterintuitive writing style. Probably a better read for someone with rudimentary knowledge of cannabis usage and the politics surrounding it

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book. A little outdated information in regard to the current cannabis industry of 2017. Otherwise a great read on what was happening in the Mendocino area around 2011.

[Taha Ragheb · Rating 1 out of 5]

More of a memoir of his travels than solid commentary. Not worth reading if you care about widening your knowledge

[Chrissy Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following a clone cannabis plant from source to patient, the author recalls his experiences in the legal marijuana farming industry. Between the local law enforcement and the federal government none of it is easy going. This was written before legalization in CA and I would love to see a follow up. But it also seems bleak for those states who are yet to make a go of it. The author was humorous, honest, and intelligent, and I look forward to reading more.

[Shawn Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well-written book about the perils and rewards of cannabis farming in northern California during a growing season under the 9.31 program. While the book does present excellent detail, color and local flavor (I really want to visit Mendocino, now), it does occasionally wander away into mythical drug lore - like stating that a draft of the Declaration of Independence being written on hemp paper - which in a small way detracts from the overall message.

The tone of the book is positive and presented - for about the first two-thirds of the work - by a subtle, effective delivery system. Unfortunately, the book becomes more and more strident towards the end. The odd inclusion of liberalism as supporting cannabis growth (which it doesn't), and other political strangeness derails the ending - at least for me.

Doug Fine is a very good writer, and this book is one of his best works. I've read others and ... well, he and I see things differently when it comes to certain subjects. Rather than going off on a rant about the "economic benefits of cannabis to the country" like a previous reviewer did (which really wasn't a review of the book as much as it was a personal view of cannabis economy), I recommend that the reader pick up this book, and make up his own mind about the benefits or disadvantages of this Controlled Substances Act Schedule I plant.

Too High To Fail really isn't a "must read" for anyone who is thinking about the economic situation in this country; it's a "must read" for anyone who wonders about cannabis, cannabis enforcement, and how the plant goes from cutting to patient. It's a great treatise on green, sustainable growth, and how this plant does help local economies when growers and law enforcement work together to legally produce a product under a very well-thought-out civic plan. It's a must read for anyone who wonders about what the plant can possibly do to help anyone ... or if it's just another alcohol or meth substitute for weak-willed people who live in trailer parks and wear 'cologne' that reeks like a nursery.

Whether you're a drum circle liberal who smells like Lisa Simpson's art teacher's office who screams in the streets and protests that doobage should be legalized, a moderate who is on the fence but thinks they might look good in tie-dye , or a conservative who can't see what the big deal is about a weed that grows naturally in virtually any climate, by the end of this book you'll be able to tell your sativas from your indicas and you'll even know what trichomes are.

This book could very well change your mind about marijuana; it's that well written. Four stars for how well it's done, but only four stars because of the stridency and misunderstanding about which political party is actually FOR moving the plant from it's current Schedule I status to something closer to a Schedule V.

[Rand · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a narrative, not a systematic argument. Overall it seems more likely to preach to the choir than convert the non-believers who would seem less likely to be swayed by the narrative's extended/repeated emotional appeal disguised as an economic argument.

But Fine is funny, readable & very emphatic that the laws governing hemp use (recreational, medicinal, and industrial) are in dire need of changing. His focus is on California's medicinal clinics and the growers in Mendocino County, where it is legal for anyone to register to grow no more than 99 of plants (which is plenty) with the law's blessing/tax. He shadowed one young man who made a fresh start as an outdoor grower in Mendocino. Mendocino is a very mountainous region with lots of renegade sorts who would rather not pay the tax and grow as much as they please—or worse, yank other's yields.

My favorite part was an old grizzly, Mendel-esque grower who said that prior to the introduction of modern horticultural techniques in the mid-70s, they "didn't know buds from leaves".

Also of interest is the claim that consumption of raw buds inhibits the growth of tumors.

Note that these events took place in 2011 as this book was published last summer, before the laws were changed in WA and CO. CO runs a tighter ship than CA: CO's medicinal clinics *know* where their stuff comes from, whereas in CA there's a more than a little gray area in that an unregistered grower in the mountains of CA can have a crop of unknown quantity that magically becomes "legal" upon entering a co-op/clinic. But the decision to focus on CA was made since they've had their "zip tie" grow program in Mendocino for a good long while now. This program has been an ongoing point of conflict between the Feds and Mendocino County. For current status on what's going on, check out this blog.

Fine repeated time and time again that Portugal has decriminalized all drugs and has had their crime rate drop. A more interesting book would have been one in which a group of successful Portuguese growers dealt with the same bullshit which CA state troopers flung at some of the growers/runners Fine featured.
But that would have detracted from Fine's general argument that Full Legalization is the Decent and Patriotic Thing To Do.

[Sheehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me preface this review by stating I began this book already wholly sympathetic to the author's thesis that the War on Drugs is a sham, that the funding comes as a hidden tax/drain on the populace through aggressive enforcement laws, inflexible sentencing and a total disregard for scientific reality, especially when we are speaking about marijuana.

Too High To Fail is an interesting examination of the industry of medicinal marijuana (MMJ) production from the seeds to the ultimate recipients of a plant followed throughout the course of the book. It's a great review of the issues at hand in the MMJ markets, addressing the various legal, practical and security concerns of those who work to provide medicine for dispensaries. Along the way the author does use individual players' anecdotes and lives as jump-off points for in-depth discussion of the larger national/state issues.

My favorite part of this book was how clearly it highlighted that the War on Drugs is effectively already over, the people have chosen how they wish to engage MMJ, and the Feds are merely playing an old script, garnishing the lucre that comes from criminalizing cannabis. Many chapters describe how communities (I'm looking at you Mendocino!) are already laying foundations for what a "drug peace" would look like, creating cultivation job surpluses; including a conscious effort have sun-grown, clean and sustainable farming practices.

I'm pleased to hear AG Holder instruct a review of mandatory sentencing, and POTUS to say the Feds will back off busting non-criminal affiliated MMJ growing operations. The decisions reinforce my intuitive understanding that the government can see the writing on the wall and is attempting to reorder the deck chairs on the Titanic Drug War of 40 years so it has a soft landing.

See you all on the other side...don't dither.

[Carol Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book that mainly focuses on Mendocino County, California that legalized marijuana cultivation and the farmers that are dedicated to bringing a high quality product to patients in need. One of the biggest supporters of the program is the sheriff because the program has given him time and resources to go after criminals like thieves and meth dealers. It has made me look at cannabis in a different way and found out which strain is supposed to be good for migraines. Doug Fine has written a book about hemp legalization and I look forward to reading it after it comes out this month.

[Mauricio · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great, if rather long, reading on cannabis legalisation and it's potential effects on the economy. It's a very enlightening read not only from a social perspective but also a business one. There's a few lulls in between, especially when the author delves too much into his personal views but when he writes about the economical benefits, the industrial uses of cannabis and such, it becomes a great, insightful read.

Looking forward to reading his sequel of sorts: "Hemp Bound".

[HTHI Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's the insider stories of those who farm, sell, and use marijuana medicinally. I found it interesting that we spend two billion dollars a year to fight the production and sale of marijuana. It's interesting to take a look at the economic argument for making marijuana legal." --Brandon (Spring '15) ****

"It was really interesting to hear about different places where farmers can grow cannabis plants." --Christian (Spring '15) ****

[Sylvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little over-simplistic and narrowly focused for me, with far too much personal editorializing about the author's goats, etc., but still provides some interesting observations on outdoor medical marijuana growing in Mendocino. Might be more persuasive for folks who are more ambivalent/less informed about medical marijuana, cannabis legalization, and ending the drug war.

[Sunset · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable read traveling with Doug Fine into Mendocino County, CA, for the year he, his partner and child visited to do research for writing this book. With him, I've smelled the terpenes, met a variety of farmers, and rooted for Lucille--from a 4" cannabis cutting, precarious growing stages, to final delivery to patients.

[Kristen Ridley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really interesting look into the economics of the emerging legal marijuana economy as well as an intimate look into the journey of one plant from seedling to patient. It feels well-researched and the writing is compelling. I really enjoyed it. Looking forward to this author's previous work on other topics.

[Christopher Wilocki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited to read this book. Unfortunately, the book ended up being extremely boring and tried incredibly hard to make a very short, boring story into a long, drawn out exciting one, and then failed at that. The story about cannabis farmers lost excitement and power after the first 5 chapters.
The book bored me out of my mind.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well-researched illustration of the ins and outs of the legalized medical production as of 2011, with some really interesting insights into the massive cost of the Drug War, fiscally and socially. The prose occasionally loses focus, but more often than not, this book just makes it abundantly clear how much sense a legalized industry would make for our country.

[Lucy Chronicles · Rating 3 out of 5]

A worthwhile look into the legal, functional world of cannabis. However, the author has too many foregone conclusions in his context particularly seeking that the Government will actually take appropriate actions for patients in his lifetime. Really, this from the same group of thugs making war in how many countries? He is correct only in that great public outcry will result in forcing change.

[Scott Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

And why the War on Drugs continues? In the case of cannabis, so the police/prison industry can have a revenue stream. Basically, over a trillion dollars spent in the past 40 years with little to show for it. Support legalization of cannabis farming to improve our economy and put the drug cartels out of business.