Words: Clive Noctchaw

A little while back - about a year or so ago - a somewhat controversial children's book, written and illustrated by Ricardo Cortés, was released. Entitled It's Just A Plant, it follows a little girl through a day in her life when her inquisitive young mind puts forth questions about marijuana, and her parents provide her with answers. Not intended to encourage kids to smoke pot (in fact it's quite the opposite), it simply presents a topic that up until recently was not-so-curiously absent from popular media. Now, I don't smoke pot, nor do I condone children partaking in it, but I do feel that open dialogue on difficult subjects with kids is a good thing. I'm also a firm believer in the benefits of medicinal marijuana... for grownups; I feel that there's no question that the legalization of this plant would do really good things for our society for a number of different reasons.