According to recent statistics, there are 38 states in the US that have legalized cannabis for medicinal use, with 24 of these states legalizing cannabis for recreational use. In states like Los Angeles, Seattle, and Denver, you can buy cannabis easily by walking into a shop and browsing buds. It is no longer considered a sketchy pastime in many social circles, and with more states legalizing the casual consumption of cannabis, it’s important to stay educated.
Although you can use the internet as a means to learn more about cannabis, it’s worth considering reading a book on cannabis that caters to your specific interests. Cannabis books often endure more through vetting and fact-checking before they are published.
So, if your interest is piqued and you want to learn more about everything from cannabis legislation and politics to cooking with cannabis and where the future lies for this plant, read on.
What Are Five of The Best Books On Cannabis?
Hundreds of cannabis books exist, but this doesn’t mean they are all worth reading. If you would like to read some of the best books in this genre and bypass the duds, have a look below:
The Cannabis Health Index by Uwe Blesching
Did you know that there are more than 42,500 scientific papers on cannabis, and many of these focus on how this plant can be beneficial to one’s health? No one has time to scour thousands of papers, but you likely do have time to read a book.
If you’re interested in evidence-based insights into the powerful healing effects of medicinal cannabis, you should read “The Cannabis Health Index,” written by Uwe Blesching, a former paramedic with a PhD in alternative healthcare. This masterpiece of a book features comprehensive insights into over 1,000 studies proving cannabis can treat more than 100 symptoms and diseases, including eye diseases, cancer, inflammatory diseases, infections, and more.
The Cannabis Health Index will take you through a whirlwind of information showing how cannabis-using patients have used and are using this plant for its therapeutic potential. With easy-to-understand condition-specific chapters, usage recommendations, and eye-catching cannabis usage statistics, this book will help you learn more about applying cannabis healthcare as a valid form of treatment in your life.
The Cannabis Grow Bible by Greg Green
Arguably, the most comprehensive but straightforward guide to cannabis gardening written thus far is the book “The Cannabis Grow Bible” written by Greg Green. This book meticulously details how to grow cannabis for recreational and medicinal use and is available as a paperback or spiral-bound tome.
Yet, this book doesn’t simply explain how to grow cannabis; it contains more than 700 in-depth pages filled with highly detailed step-by-step guides for all experience levels, from beginners to expert growers.
Besides offering incredible insights into growing cannabis, “The Cannabis Grow Bible” also provides readers with information surrounding the new advances in cannabinoid extraction techniques and lighting equipment.
Green: A Field Guide to Marijuana by Dan Michaels (with photos by Erik Christiansen)
Sometimes, all you want is a great coffee table book, and if you’re interested in cannabis, you might want to give “Green: A Field Guide to Marijuana” by Dan Michaels a read. With its eye-grabbing visuals that provide up-close shots of cannabis plants, you’ll finally understand why a green plant can also be purple.
This book is a treasure trove of information for those interested in learning more about and admiring cannabis strains. With painstakingly accurate photography, “Green: A Field Guide to Marijuana” shows what buds and different cannabis strains look like up close.
Alongside the photography, readers will enjoy the explanations detailing the botany of a cannabis plant with unique descriptions of flavor, type of high, and lineage. Essentially, readers looking for a breakdown of the cannabis plant will love this book, which is perfect for casual reading.
Bong Appétit: Mastering the Art of Cooking with Weed [A Cookbook] by MUNCHIES
Bong Appétit: Mastering the Art of Cooking with Weed [A Cookbook] by MUNCHIESCannabis is a popular ingredient in gummies, sodas, and alcoholic beverages nowadays, but are you aware it’s one of the best ingredients to cook with? If you’re curious about adding cannabis to your pantry as a staple item alongside the flour, sugar, and eggs, you’ll want to read “Bong Appétit: Mastering the Art of Cooking with Weed: A Cookbook.”
Written by the editors over at Munchies, who inspired the popular Viceland television series, Bong Appetit brings the joys of cooking to a new generation. This book is a budding chef’s dream cookbook, filled with incredibly diverse recipes that produce seriously sophisticated food.
While learning how to cook everything from cannabis-infused butter-basted chicken, french bread pizza, and raspberry and peach pie to weed brownie sundaes and weed chimichurri, you’ll also learn the science of infusing.
So, instead of simply learning the ingredients, you’ll also gain insights into the science of creating common infused ingredients in most recipes, like weed butter, milk, and oils. Not to mention, this book also touches on dosage and pairing flavors and strains!
Brave New Weed: Adventures into the Uncharted World of Cannabis by Joe Dolce
Most of us know a fair bit about the illustrious past of cannabis, but what does the future hold for this plant? In the book “Brave New Weed: Adventures into the Uncharted World of Cannabis” written by Joe Dolce, readers learn the potential answers to this question.
“Brave New Weed: Adventures into the Uncharted World of Cannabis” is an exploratory masterpiece that uses the past as a way to understand how cannabis use might evolve in the coming years through well-researched historical, cultural, and social impacts of this drug.
Unlike other books that have tried to answer the same question, this book doesn’t only base its insights on cannabis in the US. It instead looks at how cannabis use is evolving globally in places like Israel and Amsterdam to put together a better picture of its future after prohibition.
Wrap-Up On The Best Cannabis Books
By reading this list of the best books on cannabis, you’ll have a much deeper understanding of cannabis’s impact on the world and industry. With cannabis infiltrating everything from cooking to healthcare, it’s worth reading up on this plant and its usefulness to determine if it has a place in your life now or in the future.
