While at the Book Store...

...I noticed something odd on the shelves and it was a little disconcerting to see. I went to the big chain bookstore in Franklin to see what kind of garden books they were carrying with the intent on purchasing one with some leftover money I received for my birthday last July. I know it's been a long time since July but while there are things that I would like to have I just couldn't find anything really worth spending it on!

I perused the shelves with my two year old daughter while my oldest was spending the day with her grandmother. You know how two year olds are - constantly exploring, searching, playing, and handling everything their little hands can get a hold of.  She picked up books and I put them back, I told her no, I went back to looking, she went back to picking up books. This little scene played out many times but I noticed that the book that she kept picking out was a rather peculiar one in the gardening area. It was within easy hand reach of any little child which I suppose wouldn't be a big deal normally but this book was about growing something that is illegal pretty much everywhere in the United States. It was a book about growing marijuana! I knew those kinds of books existed, but to actually see it on a shelf in a book store was surprising. There wasn't only one either, there were easily 5-6 different books on the subject.

Now I realize that simply reading material about the plant does not make you a criminal. I also realize that some people claim that it should be legalized. I'm not writing to get into a debate on that subject but should the biggest bookstore in Williamson County carry something that could so easily fall into the hands of teenagers? It's illegal to grow here in Tennessee for any reason, why help people break the law by carrying books on subjects like this? Why carry books on growing illegal plants that tell you how to do it (and though I didn't not read any of the material I'm assuming that it tells you how to skirt the law) and not carry at least as many books on growing tomatoes and other vegetables? I'm not saying that the other books weren't there, in fact I saw a great number of large resource type books from the American Horticultural Society, The Garden Primer (Nancy Damarosch), and many other books that discussed gardening in general but books that hone in on a single vegetable or plant as subject material seemed very rare compared to the marijuana books.

Then again maybe it's just me but shouldn't books in the garden section be about plants we can actually legally grow? Maybe the marijuana books should be in the "How to" section instead...