Romancing Mary Jane

i am not a toker and have never smoked pot. i did enjoy this book and learned a lot. never knew how much trouble a grower has to go through. also brings you into his growing environment as he describes the terrain. i enjoyed reading this one.

Even if you are not a toker, read this book as a wonderful meditation on self-reliance and independence from society, as well as an exploration of our relationship to nature. I can't help but to find a lot of similiarities to Thoreau in Poole's writing, which in my mind, is a good thing. Instead of hoeing a field of beans, we find a similiar narrator coming to similiar conclusions as he nurtures a different crop. When I reflect on this book and describe it to people, I always speak of his descriptions of the people, bears, eagles, and falcons that Poole closely observes, as well as the self-effacing, humorous comments the author has about his growing experiences. This will be an underground classic that the rest of society will, unfortunately, miss, but could really benefit from.

Romancing Mary Jane: A Year In The Life Of A Failed Marijuana Grower is the memoir of Michael Pools, an unabashed, unashamed, self-professed Canadian marijuana cultivator who combined his love of the outdoors with his passion for psychoactive plants. Michael's daily life, his resistance to the pressures of Canadian anti-drug laws, as well as his travails and insights fill the pages of this eye-opening book, one which is emphatically not intended for those intolerant of recreational marijuana use, yet amusing in its own right and a thoroughly interesting and thought-provoking contribution to the national dialogue over a "cannabis culture".