This survey of the progress of cannabis legalization in the United States is unusual for succeeding as both intellectual inquiry and policy advocacy. The core inquiry is twofold. First, Moyer analyzes the legalization campaigns that triumph or fail at the state level. Second, he asks if social equity—i.e., meaningful material redress for the disproportionate impact of cannabis prohibition on racial and ethnic minority communities—should be included in the development of the recreational cannabis retail industry. After tracing the political origins of alcohol and drug regulation in the mobilization of nativist and racist antipathies, Moyer describes how cannabis prohibition exacerbated the racial wealth gap. He uses detailed case studies of legalization campaigns in Colorado, Ohio, Massachusetts, Illinois, and New York to illustrate policy-making possibilities and limitations. He explores the problems associated with including social equity provisions. American politics and public policy scholars are likely to be intrigued by one important consequence of the Justice Department's 2013 "Cole Memo," which directed US attorneys to defer to state and local regulation: treating cannabis markets as hermetically sealed within state borders and the resulting rent-seeking from interstate cannabis tourism. Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals.

Choice Reviews

A Potent Moment: Building Social Equity into Cannabis Legalization is an excellent work on the promises and perils of cannabis legalization. Jeffrey Moyer does an excellent job of identifying cannabis policy as a key site of social equity and restorative justice, and conceptualizes these issues and familiarize readers with the important ways that social justice and cannabis legalization intersect. This work seems to be one of the first that adequately presents an even-handed analysis that is accessible, and one of the first to present a comparative analysis of legalization policy as it is evolving in the United States, each example representing a step along the process of creating more deliberate and effective social equity provisions in legalization policy. Moyer expertly demonstrates how exclusionary patterns are re-created through systemically vested political, economic, and social interests.

Robert Beach, University at Albany, SUNY

Moyer provides a fascinating look at social equity throughout the country. Cannabis advocates and scholars will enjoy going on the journey with him.

Shaleen Title, founder of Parabola Center for Law and Policy