In the past few years, Colorado-based activist Mason Tvert has taken the notion of comparing marijuana to alcohol and used it to great success, first in organizing college students around equalizin

"Marijuana is Safer," the brand spanking new book by NORML's Paul Armentano, MPP's Steve Fox, and SAFER's Mason Tvert (who came up with the whole "marijuana is safer than alcohol" trope) is set for book bomb tomorrow. The idea behind a book bomb is to get large numbers of people to buy a book on a designated day, thereby driving it up the best-seller lists on Amazon. If enough people buy "Marijuana is Safer" tomorrow, we could drive it to #1 on Amazon and generate even more publicity for the book--and the message it sends.

While we will no doubt offer the book as a premium at some point in the near future, I want to encourage people to participate in tomorrow's book bomb to help get the word out.

You can find out more at marijuana book bomb.

I'll be reviewing "Marijuana is Safer" for the Chronicle this week, but don't wait for the review. If you've been thinking about buying the book, tomorrow is the day to do it.

Last week, 136 people died in the Indian state of Gujarat after drinking tainted alcohol, and the incident has stirred debate over the state's alcohol prohibition policy, in existence since 1960.

Via Radley Balko, the irony is truly staggering:

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania liquor store clerks need to be more bubbly when they're selling Champagne.

The state's Liquor Control Board is spending more than $173,000 to try to make workers friendlier and more well-mannered at the nearly 650 stores it operates. The board says it wants to make sure clerks are saying "hello," "thank you" and "come again" to customers shopping for wine and spirits. [Comcast.net]

Seriously, alcohol users don’t need you to be nicer to them. Just be glad you can buy alcohol in a safe place, with products labeled for purity and no fear that you'll be charged with "intent to distribute" if police find a case of beer in your trunk.

Instead of being nicer to alcohol users, can we finally stop destroying people's lives for choosing other intoxicants instead?

Indian Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss Wednesday called for alcoho

Responding to recent data suggesting that young Queenslanders are switching to ecstasy in the wake of a steep increase in the state government's tax on popular "alcopops," a leading drug researcher