Close Modal

Weed: The User's Guide

A 21st Century Handbook for Enjoying Cannabis

Illustrated by Alex DeSpain
Look inside
Paperback
$17.95 US
5.51"W x 7.47"H x 0.57"D   | 8 oz | 56 per carton
On sale Apr 18, 2023 | 208 Pages | 9781632174963
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
Now in paperback – a witty and well-researched illustrated beginner’s guide to the world of weed, from cannabis connoisseur David Schmader.

“This fun and insightful book is the perfect owner’s manual."—Rick Steves

This definitive handbook on decriminalized recreational marijuana educates and entertains novice and experienced users alike. Complete with history, ways to enjoy, recipes, safety and legality tips, and medical-use information, this witty illustrated guide is perfect for gift giving. Here, you'll learn:·     
·      Exactly how much THC you need for an enjoyable edible experience
·      How to make an apple into a pipe
·      The racist history of US marijuana laws
·      How to clean a bong
·      Which presidents were potheads
·      What to do if you are high and you don't like it
“A hugely informative, completely hilarious, and desperately necessary guide to marijuana—written by one of the funniest guys I’ve ever known, who just so happens to be the person who got me high for the first time.”
—Dan Savage

“If weed’s already a part of your life, this fun and insightful book is the perfect owner’s manual."
—Rick Steves
 
“A witty guide full of history, recipes, safety and legality tips, and medical information.”
—Publishers Weekly

“[Weed] is smoothly written and completely thought out, covering the basics of usage (smoking, vaping, consuming edibles, and applying the substance topically) as well as ‘marijuana etiquette’ (don’t bogart, man!).” 
—Booklist

“Buy everyone this book.”
—The Stranger

...an encyclopedia of marijuana history, use, and culture for those questions you’re afraid to ask at your friendly neighborhood pot shop...”
Seattle Weekly

“[An] indispensable book for beginning or returning dope smokers.”
Portland Mercury

“David Schmader is a goddamned Seattle treasure….Funny…entertaining…” and “useful.” 
—The Seattle Review of Books

“One of the very best cannabis books as of late.”
—Comics Grinder

“You don’t need to know anything about weed to find [this book] entertaining.”
Toke of the Town

[Schmader tells you] how to find the sweet spot of being a successful stoner without the lazy, dropout stigma stopping you from achieving your fully baked dreams.”
Eugene Weekly

“As poignant as it is hilarious.”
—High Times

“Marijuana users from the novice smoker to the seasoned toker will appreciate the colorful anecdotes, recipes, and safety tips.”
—Business Insider

“Consider this the modern man’s instruction manual for marijuana.”
—Men’s Journal

"You should just read it… explain[s] the varieties of weed particularly well."
—Drunk Booksellers

"All that stuff that really matters."
—Cannabis Magazine

"A well-written and engaging little book about marijuana use. Schmader is a gifted, witty, and entertaining writer."
—New York Botanical Gardens
DAVID SCHMADER is a writer and performer devoted to exploring his obsessions, from homophobic rock stars and pray-away-the-gay Christians to trash cinema and legalized drugs. His solo plays have been performed across the US, including productions at San Francisco’s Theatre Rhinocerous, New York City’s Dixon Place, Los Angeles’ Highways Performance Space, Seattle’s Intiman Theatre, and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. From 1998–2015, Schmader worked as a staff writer and editor for Seattle’s Pulitzer-winning newsweekly The Stranger, where he wrote the issue-opening column “Last Days: The Week in Review” for 18 years. In his spare time, he is the world’s foremost authority on the glorious terribleness of the movie Showgirls, hosting annotated screenings of Paul Verhoeven’s notorious stripper drama at cinemas all over North America and providing the commentary track for the Showgirls DVD.
Introduction

The life-enhancing potential of marijuana first made itself known to me when I was nineteen. A group of friends and I were headed out to a Mexican restaurant, and en route one friend whipped out a joint and passed it around. I’d smoked weed before and enjoyed it. I’d eaten Mexican food before and enjoyed it. But the combination of the two was revelatory. One of weed’s great powers is sensory enhancement, and my sensory-enhanced encounter with a nothing-fancy enchilada plate was a full-immersion. Technicolor opera starring pico de gallo–soaked rice and delicious bits of charred cheese around the edges. When I was done, I felt like I’d just had a short face-to-face with God in my mouth. 
This enchilada epiphany led me to further investigation of weed’s power to enrich sensory perception and facilitate immersive engagement with the world. I was thrilled to find it worked with music (I spent what felt like hours swimming around in the space between notes on Cowboy Junkies’ languorous The Trinity Session), comedy (ditto sob-laughing through compulsive replays of 30 Rock’s “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah”), and conversation. 
Still, the fact remained that all these seriously enriching pleasures were forbidden—banned by law and disparaged by society, the majority of which lazily adhered to the stereotype of potheads as basement-dwelling burnouts on the level of the fictional Cheech & Chong. 
But what about all the high-functioning, life-loving adults—doctors, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, authors, parents—who comprise the vast majority of weed smokers I know? The reality of responsible adult marijuana use is a fact of life that’s ever more apparent, thanks in large part to citizen-driven efforts to reclassify, decriminalize, and legalize marijuana. This book is a guide for all those interested in exploring the wide, wonderful, post-“War on Drugs”-terror-hyperbole world of marijuana. 
That all sounds great but perhaps you’re wondering: Does weed require a “user’s guide”? Aren’t the basic facts known to every middle-school rebel puffing behind a Dumpster? 
Yes and no. (But mostly no.) 
Yes, marijuana’s ability to produce psychoactive effects in human users is common knowledge. But beyond this fact lies a world of nuance and discernment that I will map in this book—synthesizing information from the existing pool of marijuana wisdom and offering myself up as an experienced test subject and tour guide. (Another reason for a user’s guide is that today’s concentrated marijuana products are a far cry from the grassy stuff folks might’ve smoked at Woodstock or in the ’80s in college—a fact that makes even past personal experience an unfortunately unreliable guide to twenty-first-century weed.) 
In this book, you’ll find all you need to know to about the current state of recreational marijuana, from methods of ingestion and varieties of effects to edible recipes and tips for maximizing your marijuana experience. 
What you won’t find in this book is reckless encouragement to smoke marijuana. Even among people who love it, experiences of being high differ widely, and there are tons of folks who just don’t enjoy the sensations marijuana offers. To these people, I offer my sympathies, my support, and Chapter 7: If You’re High and Don’t Like It. 
To everyone else, a final bit of wisdom from Stephen Colbert, who delivered this gem at the end of a scared-straight drug lecture on Strangers with Candy: “All I’m saying is, if you still want to smoke pot, then be prepared to spend a lot of
time laughing with your friends.”

Photos

additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo
additional book photo

About

Now in paperback – a witty and well-researched illustrated beginner’s guide to the world of weed, from cannabis connoisseur David Schmader.

“This fun and insightful book is the perfect owner’s manual."—Rick Steves

This definitive handbook on decriminalized recreational marijuana educates and entertains novice and experienced users alike. Complete with history, ways to enjoy, recipes, safety and legality tips, and medical-use information, this witty illustrated guide is perfect for gift giving. Here, you'll learn:·     
·      Exactly how much THC you need for an enjoyable edible experience
·      How to make an apple into a pipe
·      The racist history of US marijuana laws
·      How to clean a bong
·      Which presidents were potheads
·      What to do if you are high and you don't like it

Praise

“A hugely informative, completely hilarious, and desperately necessary guide to marijuana—written by one of the funniest guys I’ve ever known, who just so happens to be the person who got me high for the first time.”
—Dan Savage

“If weed’s already a part of your life, this fun and insightful book is the perfect owner’s manual."
—Rick Steves
 
“A witty guide full of history, recipes, safety and legality tips, and medical information.”
—Publishers Weekly

“[Weed] is smoothly written and completely thought out, covering the basics of usage (smoking, vaping, consuming edibles, and applying the substance topically) as well as ‘marijuana etiquette’ (don’t bogart, man!).” 
—Booklist

“Buy everyone this book.”
—The Stranger

...an encyclopedia of marijuana history, use, and culture for those questions you’re afraid to ask at your friendly neighborhood pot shop...”
Seattle Weekly

“[An] indispensable book for beginning or returning dope smokers.”
Portland Mercury

“David Schmader is a goddamned Seattle treasure….Funny…entertaining…” and “useful.” 
—The Seattle Review of Books

“One of the very best cannabis books as of late.”
—Comics Grinder

“You don’t need to know anything about weed to find [this book] entertaining.”
Toke of the Town

[Schmader tells you] how to find the sweet spot of being a successful stoner without the lazy, dropout stigma stopping you from achieving your fully baked dreams.”
Eugene Weekly

“As poignant as it is hilarious.”
—High Times

“Marijuana users from the novice smoker to the seasoned toker will appreciate the colorful anecdotes, recipes, and safety tips.”
—Business Insider

“Consider this the modern man’s instruction manual for marijuana.”
—Men’s Journal

"You should just read it… explain[s] the varieties of weed particularly well."
—Drunk Booksellers

"All that stuff that really matters."
—Cannabis Magazine

"A well-written and engaging little book about marijuana use. Schmader is a gifted, witty, and entertaining writer."
—New York Botanical Gardens

Author

DAVID SCHMADER is a writer and performer devoted to exploring his obsessions, from homophobic rock stars and pray-away-the-gay Christians to trash cinema and legalized drugs. His solo plays have been performed across the US, including productions at San Francisco’s Theatre Rhinocerous, New York City’s Dixon Place, Los Angeles’ Highways Performance Space, Seattle’s Intiman Theatre, and the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. From 1998–2015, Schmader worked as a staff writer and editor for Seattle’s Pulitzer-winning newsweekly The Stranger, where he wrote the issue-opening column “Last Days: The Week in Review” for 18 years. In his spare time, he is the world’s foremost authority on the glorious terribleness of the movie Showgirls, hosting annotated screenings of Paul Verhoeven’s notorious stripper drama at cinemas all over North America and providing the commentary track for the Showgirls DVD.

Excerpt

Introduction

The life-enhancing potential of marijuana first made itself known to me when I was nineteen. A group of friends and I were headed out to a Mexican restaurant, and en route one friend whipped out a joint and passed it around. I’d smoked weed before and enjoyed it. I’d eaten Mexican food before and enjoyed it. But the combination of the two was revelatory. One of weed’s great powers is sensory enhancement, and my sensory-enhanced encounter with a nothing-fancy enchilada plate was a full-immersion. Technicolor opera starring pico de gallo–soaked rice and delicious bits of charred cheese around the edges. When I was done, I felt like I’d just had a short face-to-face with God in my mouth. 
This enchilada epiphany led me to further investigation of weed’s power to enrich sensory perception and facilitate immersive engagement with the world. I was thrilled to find it worked with music (I spent what felt like hours swimming around in the space between notes on Cowboy Junkies’ languorous The Trinity Session), comedy (ditto sob-laughing through compulsive replays of 30 Rock’s “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah”), and conversation. 
Still, the fact remained that all these seriously enriching pleasures were forbidden—banned by law and disparaged by society, the majority of which lazily adhered to the stereotype of potheads as basement-dwelling burnouts on the level of the fictional Cheech & Chong. 
But what about all the high-functioning, life-loving adults—doctors, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, authors, parents—who comprise the vast majority of weed smokers I know? The reality of responsible adult marijuana use is a fact of life that’s ever more apparent, thanks in large part to citizen-driven efforts to reclassify, decriminalize, and legalize marijuana. This book is a guide for all those interested in exploring the wide, wonderful, post-“War on Drugs”-terror-hyperbole world of marijuana. 
That all sounds great but perhaps you’re wondering: Does weed require a “user’s guide”? Aren’t the basic facts known to every middle-school rebel puffing behind a Dumpster? 
Yes and no. (But mostly no.) 
Yes, marijuana’s ability to produce psychoactive effects in human users is common knowledge. But beyond this fact lies a world of nuance and discernment that I will map in this book—synthesizing information from the existing pool of marijuana wisdom and offering myself up as an experienced test subject and tour guide. (Another reason for a user’s guide is that today’s concentrated marijuana products are a far cry from the grassy stuff folks might’ve smoked at Woodstock or in the ’80s in college—a fact that makes even past personal experience an unfortunately unreliable guide to twenty-first-century weed.) 
In this book, you’ll find all you need to know to about the current state of recreational marijuana, from methods of ingestion and varieties of effects to edible recipes and tips for maximizing your marijuana experience. 
What you won’t find in this book is reckless encouragement to smoke marijuana. Even among people who love it, experiences of being high differ widely, and there are tons of folks who just don’t enjoy the sensations marijuana offers. To these people, I offer my sympathies, my support, and Chapter 7: If You’re High and Don’t Like It. 
To everyone else, a final bit of wisdom from Stephen Colbert, who delivered this gem at the end of a scared-straight drug lecture on Strangers with Candy: “All I’m saying is, if you still want to smoke pot, then be prepared to spend a lot of
time laughing with your friends.”

Books for the Cannabis Revolution

With nearly half of US states legalizing recreational cannabis usage–and medicinal and CBD usage enjoying an even broader reach–the country is at a pivotal moment with regards to cannabis. Whether you call it weed, pot, grass, or the devil’s lettuce, cannabis products are more popular and more publicly available than ever before. New users are

Read more