Prescription Pot fails to give thrills - If you're worried abou appearances, beware of the cover too.

The cover of George McMahon and Christopher Largen's new book Prescription Pot has a huge marijuana leaf on it. It's in the middle of the letter 'o' in the word 'pot.' It makes this book somewhat hard to read in public. Nevertheless, it is equally hard to resist being attracted to a book with such a rebellious title and potentially controversial content. What college student wouldn't want to read a book entirely about marijuana use, medical or not?

Mr. McMahon is one of only seven patients in the entire country that currently receive marijuana cigarettes as a prescription medication from the federal government, making it legal for him to smoke pot anywhere in the United States at any time. He suffers from an extremely rare disease known as Nail Patella Syndrome, a condition that severely reduces bone strength and affects the immune system and almost all gastro-intestinal organs. Marijuana has effectively given him twelve so-called 'borrowed' years by mitigating the pain, nausea, and depression caused by the disease.

In Prescription Pot, he details his tragic growing-up in almost every chapter, devoting only a little space to a more present-tense story about his journeys to different conventions and meetings with various political personalities. His childhood was almost unimaginably horrific, and a simple retelling of the facts would be completely sufficient to induce raised eyebrows in any humane reader.

But the tone that Mr. McMahon uses, especially when recounting the bloody surgeries and botched recuperation efforts that he suffered through early adulthood, is one of profound melodrama. Phrases such as "the appearance of this angel ... a fleeting, drug-induced moment of self-deluded profundity" and "the Arkansas highway spreads out before us like a concrete welcome mat" simply make you roll your eyes.

There is also the issue of medical marijuana which is, by the end of the book, not an issue. It is a political hotspot thought of the nation over as extremely controversial. As with classic issues such as abortion and gun control, people on both sides of the issue tend to be very vocal and largely uninformed. But the issue of medical marijuana is different simply due to the wealth of scientific evidence that backs up the use of medical marijuana as an effective treatment for a plethora of syndromes.

Granted, the issuance of several hundred joints to an asthma patient would seem a little out of sorts. But it has been shown to prevent blindness due to glaucoma. It has aided Mr. McMahon and countless other patients receiving state-granted cannabis (in direct violation of federal law). I myself have talked to a rather shocking number of politically conservative doctors who say that the illegality of medical marijuana is a hindrance to the medical profession.

So does Mr. McMahon's book reveal anything profoundly new? Yes and no -- there are facts contained within the book and its appendices that are both not widely known and very useful in discussing the issue. But the story itself, as a tale designed to shock and compel, falls short of the rather high expectations set by the subject matter itself.

Mr. McMahon's story speaks for itself, without any of the added frill that he feels compelled to add. The issue of medical marijuana is a complicated issue that needs to be addressed -- it is disappointing to realize how much more convincing Prescription Pot could be if Mr. McMahon were only more ironically grounded.