Cannabis Devices, from the new book, the Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization, on Amazon

The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization: Rubman, Mitch, Fassett, Mucci: 9781733311076: Amazon.com: Books

who ordered this?

 

French pastries at Figaro Cafe.  As civilization continued with the morning experience. These items became more enticing. Must have some fruit in the morning. These offer creme fraiche and a spectacle of colors.

One‑Page Pitch: The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization

 One‑Page Pitch: The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization

Title: The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization: Rubman, Mitch, Fassett, Mucci: 9781733311076: Amazon.com: Books

Author: Mitch Rubman Genre: Cultural Commentary / Memoir / Social Critique Length: 178 pages Publication: August 31, 2025

Logline: A sharp‑eyed cultural observer dives into the chaotic, comedic, and unsettling world of modern cannabis culture—revealing what our obsession with weed says about who we are becoming.

Pitch: In The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization, Mitch Rubman delivers a raw, funny, and incisive chronicle of America’s rapidly shifting relationship with marijuana. What begins as a series of bizarre encounters—from smoke‑filled lounges to street‑corner deals—unfolds into a larger portrait of a society drifting toward numbness, distraction, and self‑inflicted decline. Rubman’s voice blends the gonzo energy of Hunter S. Thompson with the sharp bite of a social critic, capturing the absurdity and the danger of a culture that has normalized what was once taboo.

Through scandalous stories, vivid characters, and unfiltered commentary, Rubman exposes the contradictions of cannabis culture: the promise of relaxation that masks deeper anxiety, the illusion of connection that hides growing isolation, and the celebration of “freedom” that often leads to escapism. His observations are not academic—they’re lived, witnessed, and delivered with the comedic timing of someone who has spent years watching society unravel from a front‑row seat.

Beneath the humor lies a serious question: What does it mean when a civilization embraces a substance not just as recreation, but as identity? Rubman argues that the rise of cannabis is a symptom of a deeper cultural drift—one that reveals our collective desire to check out rather than confront the challenges of modern life.

Why This Book: This book stands at the intersection of memoir, cultural anthropology, and social satire. It offers the narrative punch of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas with the cultural insight of modern social‑critique nonfiction. With cannabis now mainstream, legal, and celebrated, Rubman’s perspective arrives at the perfect moment—provocative, timely, and impossible to ignore. Readers who enjoy bold, unfiltered takes on contemporary culture will find this book both wildly entertaining and uncomfortably true.

WEHO The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization

Most people think cannabis turns you into a couch‑locked dropout, but that stereotype shattered the moment I tried to understand the two men who shaped my life: my father and my brother. Both of them love cannabis — not casually, not secretly, but as a daily ritual that fuels their creativity, softens their pain, and, strangely enough, keeps them moving forward. I picked up this book project to understand why. What I found was far more enlightening than I expected.

The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization: Rubman, Mitch, Fassett, Mucci: 9781733311076: Amazon.com: Books

The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization is a memoir‑driven exploration of family, identity, and the misunderstood plant that quietly shaped our lives. Through intimate stories, cultural history, and candid conversations, the book challenges the lazy‑stoner myth and reveals how cannabis can become a tool for reinvention. Everyone I meet who uses it says the same thing: it helps them reset, rethink, and rebuild. This book asks why — and what that means for the rest of us.

Part personal journey, part cultural commentary, The Rise of Cannabis invites readers to rethink what they think they know about cannabis and the people who love it. It’s not a pro‑weed manifesto; it’s a story about understanding, healing generational gaps, and discovering that sometimes the things we judge the most are the things we understand the least.

Santa Monica

What an interesting surprise to stumble upon this "book" in blog format! It's definitely exciting to hear all those stories from someone who experienced them firsthand (not necessarily fully consciously, lol). The experiences in the different locations perfectly reflect the social structures surrounding those places. Going to a lounge in New York is not the same as going to a "dispensary" in Lima, yet we can see that the experience is enjoyable in both places. When I read the book's title, I expected a formal essay stating that the rise of one was directly proportional to the decline of the other, but no. The book is a light read with a very well-told and enjoyable chaos. Recommended.

Pitch Letter to Book Reviewers: The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization

Pitch Letter to Book Reviewers

Subject: Review Copy: The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization by Mitch Rubman

Dear [Reviewer Name],

I’m reaching out to share a book that has been surprising readers across backgrounds — from cultural critics to casual readers to people who grew up around cannabis and thought they’d heard it all. Mitch Rubman’s The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization isn’t a policy book or a manifesto. It’s something far more unusual: a travelogue‑meets‑cultural‑sketchbook built from years of notebooks, street encounters, and conversations in places most people only glimpse in passing.

Early reviewers have called it:

• “A sharp‑eyed wander through smoke‑filled back rooms and neon‑lit dispensaries… funny, reflective, and surprisingly human.”

• “Provocative, intriguing, and thought‑provoking… ideal for readers seeking ideas that challenge traditional thinking about cannabis.”

• “Authentic, confusing, and extraordinarily human — between laughter and discomfort.”

• “More than weed… a lived‑in, unfiltered look at a massive, misunderstood subculture.”

Rather than arguing for or against cannabis, Rubman observes the world around it — from New York to Los Angeles, from Egypt to Peru — capturing the humor, tension, risk, and reinvention that shape the culture. Readers have described it as stepping into someone’s personal notebook: candid, curious, and unexpectedly sincere.

If you’re open to reviewing the book, I’d be happy to send a digital or print copy, along with any additional materials you may need. I believe your audience would appreciate a work that blends reportage, travel writing, and cultural anthropology with a voice that’s both self‑aware and entertaining.

Thank you for considering it. I’d be delighted to hear your thoughts.

Warm regards, The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization: Rubman, Mitch, Fassett, Mucci: 9781733311076: Amazon.com: Books

Bird talk

 A cockatoo is any of the 21 species of parrots belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea (true parrots), they make up the order Psittaciformes. The family has a mainly Australasian distribution, ranging from the Philippines and the eastern Indonesian islands of Wallacea to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Australia.

Puppy love

 

Rise of Cannabis Review on Amazon

 The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization is less a conventional argument than a long, intimate memoir stitched from diary entries, street memories, travel stories, dispensary scenes, and afterthoughts about what cannabis has meant across one man’s life. Author Mitch Rubman moves from teenage initiation in Queens to Boston student years, New York hustles, Los Angeles smoke sessions, legal-era dispensaries, and the oddly mournful sociology of modern cannabis culture. The book keeps circling the same essential question, not with a thesis so much as with a shrugging, searching consciousness: as weed becomes normalized, commercialized, and everywhere, what exactly have we gained, and what have we lost?

What stayed with me most was the book’s candor. It isn’t polished into tidy self-explanation, and that turns out to be part of its force. Rubman is often funny in a way that feels accidental and therefore real, whether he’s rolling while driving on the Major Deegan, recalling the ashtray full of roaches in a borrowed Beverly Hills Mercedes, or chasing cheap shake with the desperate ingenuity of someone who knows both the ritual and the trap of habit. There’s a restless, talky, half-stoned music to the prose that sometimes spills over into repetition or rough phrasing, but even then I felt the pulse of an actual life on the page. The strongest passages have that scruffy memoirist magic where danger, absurdity, loneliness, and appetite all occupy the same sentence. The early robbery with Snake, the eerie New York encounter with the scar-faced dealer, and the Luxor detour into mysticism all give the book a bruised, wandering vitality I found hard to dismiss.

Rubman’s central premise about cannabis and civilizational decline is deliberately loose, almost provocatively so. When he lists “locked bathrooms,” hunger, expensive eggs, and mismatched weed-container lids beside “free joint Fridays” and planted trees, the effect is less analytical than diaristic, less argument than worldview. On one level, I wanted a sharper line of thought, more pressure on the title’s big claim. On another, I think the vagueness is revealing. The book becomes a record of how a person thinks while living inside a habit for decades, how economics, friendship, boredom, grief, appetite, and longing all get filtered through smoke. Its most interesting idea is not really that cannabis causes decline, but that the culture around it exposes the texture of a society, its loneliness, its opportunism, its flashes of tenderness, its little indignities, and its odd forms of fellowship.

I found this book oddly moving and unmistakably personal. What remains after the last page is the feeling of having spent time with a man who has made cannabis not just a habit but a lens, sometimes comic, sometimes sad, sometimes almost spiritual, through which he’s watched whole decades slide by. I’d recommend it to readers who like unruly memoirs, countercultural diaries, and books that value lived texture over formal neatness.

on Amazon The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization: Rubman, Mitch, Fassett, Mucci: 9781733311076: Amazon.com: Books

Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization Updates, controversy, humor, cultural critique, and a narrator with a pulse.

 

The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization

Paperback – August 31, 2025

by Mitch Rubman (Author), Mucci Fassett (Illustrator)

172 pages

ISBN-13978-1733311076

·       A Chaotic Road Trip Through Weed, Politics, and the American Psyche.

·       “A gonzo journalist who traveled through the cannabis boom and came back with stories that are equal parts hilarious and horrifying.”

·       “A modern-day Hunter S. Thompson wandering through dispensaries and dystopia”

·       “A cultural critic disguised as a stoner tourist”

 Recent Amazon Reviews

Pearl A

5.0 out of 5 stars A thought-provoking look at cannabis

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2026

Format: KindleVerified Purchase

The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization by Mitch Rubman is a book that shows how cannabis use has increased in modern society and the potential implications for decision-making, culture, and health. Rather than focusing on shock value, Mitch Rubman adopts a thoughtful and analytical stance, challenging readers to consider trends that are frequently disregarded or accepted. What makes this book a worthy read is its balanced tone and how it doesn't come across as judgmental but instead invites readers to reflect and form their own opinions. The ideas are clearly explained, and it was so easy to follow, especially for readers who are not familiar with the subject. As a whole, this book was a meaningful read with a touch of humor and perspective. It encourages awareness and seeing the bigger picture behind modern societal changes.

Jorge Sánchez Parra

5.0 out of 5 stars NIce point of view

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2026

Format: KindleVerified Purchase

This book goes far beyond talking about cannabis: it’s a chaotic, funny, and very human journey through a culture that has become part of everyday life. Through anecdotes, humor, and uncomfortable moments, it raises interesting questions about productivity, values, and social change. It’s not a serious or moralistic essay, but rather a lived from the inside kind of diary. It’s an easy, entertaining read that also leaves you thinking. Ideal for anyone who wants to understand the phenomenon without taking it too seriously.

Johnny Chica

5.0 out of 5 stars An enjoyable chaos

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2026

Format: KindleVerified Purchase

What an interesting surprise to stumble upon this "book" in blog format! It's definitely exciting to hear all those stories from someone who experienced them firsthand (not necessarily fully consciously, lol). The experiences in the different locations perfectly reflect the social structures surrounding those places. Going to a lounge in New York is not the same as going to a "dispensary" in Lima, yet we can see that the experience is enjoyable in both places. When I read the book's title, I expected a formal essay stating that the rise of one was directly proportional to the decline of the other, but no. The book is a light read with a very well-told and enjoyable chaos. Recommended.

Christian M

5.0 out of 5 stars Between laughter and discomfort

Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2025

Format: KindleVerified Purchase

This is not a political discourse, but rather a lively travelogue compiled from years of notebook entries. I laughed at the great stories and the eccentric locals, but the warning in the subtitle resonates in the background. Rubman captures the thrill of access along with the gray areas: street deals, underground rules, and the trafficking of happiness. I appreciated the sincerity more than the lists, but the journey feels authentic, confusing, and extraordinarily human.

Diana Pe

4.0 out of 5 stars Good read

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2025

Format: KindleVerified Purchase

I can say that this book was a total surprise. When I started reading it, I thought I was going to find some kind of serious essay or perhaps a harsh critique of the impact of marijuana on society. But what I found was something completely different: a kind of chaotic, funny, and very human travelogue, written by someone who has clearly lived and smoked every one of the stories he tells. What captivated me most was that the book weaves together a collection of anecdotes, notes, thoughts, and scenes in the style of an informal log. This book is definitely a collection of moments experienced by someone who has been deeply immersed in cannabis culture for decades. If you're interested in this world, you should read it.

Nix

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good read!

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2026

Format: KindleVerified Purchase

Halfway through this book I looked up and said to my friend, “I think this author has been quietly judging humanity for years.”

Piaras

5.0 out of 5 stars High Times, Sharp Observations.

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2026

Format: KindleVerified Purchase

Mitch Rubman’s The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization reads like a sharp-eyed wander through smoke-filled back rooms and neon-lit dispensaries, guided by a journalist who knows how to listen. The humor lands easily, but beneath it sits a genuine curiosity about the people, rituals, and quiet codes that shape cannabis culture.

Part travelogue, part cultural sketchbook, the book moves from New York streets to Los Angeles lounges, collecting strange encounters and candid moments along the way. It’s funny, reflective, and surprisingly human—less a manifesto than a lived-in portrait of a world usually glimpsed in passing.

Norman

5.0 out of 5 stars High Times and Hard Truths

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2025

Format: KindleVerified Purchase

The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline of Civilization is more than a story about potheads: it's cultural anthropology in disguise. Mitch Rubman's sharp observations and scandalous encounters expose the colorful chaos of cannabis culture, from smoke-filled lounges to street transactions. His tone is part Hunter S. Thompson and part social critic. A messy, funny, and fascinating chronicle of how marijuana became mainstream, and what that says about us.

###

                   

A chaotic, funny, and sharply observant travelogue through the smoke‑filled lounges, neon dispensaries, and underground corners of global cannabis culture.

 A chaotic, funny, and sharply observant travelogue through the smoke‑filled lounges, neon dispensaries, and underground corners of global cannabis culture.

Part gonzo journalism, part cultural anthropology, part diary of a man quietly judging humanity while passing the joint.

As cannabis goes mainstream, journalist Mitch Rubman sets out on a years‑long journey to document the rise of a plant—and the strange, revealing, sometimes ridiculous world growing around it. From New York lounges to Los Angeles storefronts, from street deals in South America to hazy nights in Europe, Rubman captures the thrill, the contradictions, and the unspoken rules of a culture that has quietly reshaped modern life.

What begins as a simple curiosity becomes a messy, hilarious, and deeply human chronicle of a global shift. Through notebook entries, candid encounters, and moments of both laughter and discomfort, Rubman explores the gray areas: the trafficking of happiness, the rituals of consumption, the productivity paradox, and the subtle ways cannabis has woven itself into the fabric of everyday civilization.

This isn’t a political argument or a moral lecture. It’s a lived‑from‑the‑inside portrait—equal parts entertaining and unsettling—of a world most people only glimpse in passing.

The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization new reviews....the real story

 

The Rise of Cannabis and the Decline in Civilization is less a conventional argument than a long, intimate memoir stitched from diary entries, street memories, travel stories, dispensary scenes, and afterthoughts about what cannabis has meant across one man’s life. Author Mitch Rubman moves from teenage initiation in Queens to Boston student years, New York hustles, Los Angeles smoke sessions, legal-era dispensaries, and the oddly mournful sociology of modern cannabis culture. The book keeps circling the same essential question, not with a thesis so much as with a shrugging, searching consciousness: as weed becomes normalized, commercialized, and everywhere, what exactly have we gained, and what have we lost?

What stayed with me most was the book’s candor. It isn’t polished into tidy self-explanation, and that turns out to be part of its force. Rubman is often funny in a way that feels accidental and therefore real, whether he’s rolling while driving on the Major Deegan, recalling the ashtray full of roaches in a borrowed Beverly Hills Mercedes, or chasing cheap shake with the desperate ingenuity of someone who knows both the ritual and the trap of habit. There’s a restless, talky, half-stoned music to the prose that sometimes spills over into repetition or rough phrasing, but even then I felt the pulse of an actual life on the page. The strongest passages have that scruffy memoirist magic where danger, absurdity, loneliness, and appetite all occupy the same sentence. The early robbery with Snake, the eerie New York encounter with the scar-faced dealer, and the Luxor detour into mysticism all give the book a bruised, wandering vitality I found hard to dismiss.

Rubman’s central premise about cannabis and civilizational decline is deliberately loose, almost provocatively so. When he lists “locked bathrooms,” hunger, expensive eggs, and mismatched weed-container lids beside “free joint Fridays” and planted trees, the effect is less analytical than diaristic, less argument than worldview. On one level, I wanted a sharper line of thought, more pressure on the title’s big claim. On another, I think the vagueness is revealing. The book becomes a record of how a person thinks while living inside a habit for decades, how economics, friendship, boredom, grief, appetite, and longing all get filtered through smoke. Its most interesting idea is not really that cannabis causes decline, but that the culture around it exposes the texture of a society, its loneliness, its opportunism, its flashes of tenderness, its little indignities, and its odd forms of fellowship.

I found this book oddly moving and unmistakably personal. What remains after the last page is the feeling of having spent time with a man who has made cannabis not just a habit but a lens, sometimes comic, sometimes sad, sometimes almost spiritual, through which he’s watched whole decades slide by. I’d recommend it to readers who like unruly memoirs, countercultural diaries, and books that value lived texture over formal neatness.

Rating: 5

Thank you,

Thomas Anderson

Editor In Chief

Literary Titan

Shooting on #Norton

 

Raining at Cafe Figaro

 

Mitch Rubman art

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