Reefer Madness (Sloman book)

Reefer Madness: The History of Marijuana in America is a book by Larry "Ratso" Sloman, originally published in 1979. The book is a history of social cannabis use in the United States. The book was reissued in 1998 with an introduction by William S. Burroughs.

Reception

Writer Abe Peck gave Reefer Madness a mostly negative review, writing, "Sloman knows what he's talking about; the problem is that he presents his material as a multistyled hash of unsifted information. is reporting is so skeletal you can still see the ribs of a book outline poking through his prose."
The Boston Globes Lee Grove criticized the book for its pro-cannabis bias and selection of interviewees, whom Grove describes as " boring pothead friends", while also noting, "I would have expected Sloman to interview at least one major rock star smoking in the seventies – he alludes to so many of them in the book – but he doesn't."
Larry King of Democrat and Chronicle referred to the book as an "exercise in futility", criticizing a lack of details and statistics: "Sloman consistently fails to include any body of information that might lend some credibility to his subtitle, with its claim to be a 'history.' The book reeks of haste and sloppiness."