Críticas Magazine

Adriana V. Lopez

A Book about Cannabis Sativa for Kids?
May 7, 2008

My role as blogger of the Latino arts demands that I delve into book subjects I feel you should know about whether kosher or non-kosher. So I wanted to let you know that there’s a book about teaching young children about marijuana available in several languages including Spanish and English. Meet Ricardo Cortés, the 34-year-old founder and director of the Magic Propaganda Mill (MPM), a NY-based visual design agency that combines art with progressive political education. He is also the man behind a controversial and much talked about book entitled It’s Just a Plant first published in 2005 . Dr. Andrew Weil called it "A delightful book….a glimpse of what enlightened drug education could be" and it was labeled "an outrage" by Entertainment Weekly.

While the book’s subject matter is a definite button pusher, it does provide a simple way to broach a difficult conversation between both medical and recreational marijuana using parents and their children. The book, aimed at children in Kindergarten to Third Grade, tells the story about a young girl of color named Jackie who walks in on her parents smoking marijuana. What follows is the child’s own pseudo-psychedelic journey with her mother for answers about pot smoking. They visit a marijuana farmer, then a medical doctor who explains that some adults use it but that children absolutely should not, then a policeman for some more historic background. Near the end of the story Jackie recognizes that familiar scent when she passes a group of African-American men smoking it and she knows exactly what it is.

The book is currently only being sold in English but on the It's Just a Plant website the entire story is posted in Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Korean, Portuguese, Swedish, Thai, and now fiinally in Spanish. I have no idea what took Cortés so long to get it in Spanish (neither does he), but it's finally up and the translation reads well.

In addition to writing and illustrating the books, Cortés publishes, promotes, and distributes the titles himself. He printed 5, 000 copies of the first edition of the English-language edition  and it sold out mostly through sales from its website and Amazon. Some independent bookstores have carried the book, and both Urban Outfitters and some Borders outlets carried the first edition. The second edition was picked up by American Apparel, and it’s also distributed by Baker & Taylor. He’s had a lot of press about his books, his most recent controversy: an ultra liberal coloring book about the war on terrorism entitled I Don’t Want to Blow You Up.   The calm and collected Cortés even got invited by Bill O’Reilly to debate and defend It’s Just A Plant on The O’Reilly Factor, if you’re in the mood to watch a good cat fight.

When I asked Cortés with what he could compare the book’s vision and message to he answered: “I would say it's a message that is similar to children's books dealing with another adult issue such as sexuality. Teaching children about sex is not about teaching them how to have sex at a young age, but rather it's about giving them information to help them make better and safer choices as they grow. It's Just a Plant is about teaching children what marijuana is and why people use it - it's not a story promoting its use to children.”

As to what inspired him to write this book, Cortés said:“The fact is, despite our best efforts to restrict, to ban and to otherwise hide it in every way we can, children learn about marijuana. Whether in the schoolyard or the classroom, kids are inundated with information about it. Some children are trying their first "hit" of marijuana at 10 or 11 years old, and awareness of the plant begins even earlier for many.  I believe there is a way to safely educate children about drugs by satisfying their curiosity but without piquing an interest to try them.  I also believe a child's first awareness of drugs should come from their parents, not their peers, the media, the government, or drug manufacturers (a central source of funding for PDFA).”

Posted by Adriana V. Lopez on May 7, 2008 | Comments (0)