Memoirs of Dennis Peron: How a Gay Hippy Outlaw Legalized Marijuana in Response to the AIDS Crisis

Memoirs of Dennis Peron: How a Gay Hippy Outlaw Legalized Marijuana in Response to the AIDS Crisis

By Dennis Peron & John Entwistle, Jr.

Medical Use Publishing House

Upon first impression, Dennis Peron comes off like a disrespected pothead, complaining about the way life has (mis)treated him at the start of his biography, Memoirs of Dennis Peron: How a Gay Hippy Outlaw Legalized Marijuana in Response to the AIDS Crisis. However, when this wide-ranging book eventually gets to the section where Peron fights for passage of California’s Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, where marijuana is “legalized” as medicine— particularly to help heal the pain and suffering caused by the AIDS epidemic in Peron’s San Francisco hometown—his image is subtly transformed from that of a loser, into a true leader. This book is part biography, part marijuana legalization manifesto and Peron (with John Entwistle’s editorial help) sometimes cannot decide if he’s writing a political opinion piece or a life story. However, it’s difficult to blame Peron for his tendency to digress because political causes are his life story, so the book would be incomplete without these various activist elements. With these editing flaws aside though, this book nevertheless offers an essential historical snapshot of one peaceful warrior in America’s lengthy war on cannabis. (Dan MacIntosh)