Diane Tvert is a self-described "child of the '70's," so when her son wrote a 192-page book about why weed is safer than alcohol that has found itself on best-seller lists, she was quick to give him a ringing endorsement.
"My mom is totally on board," Mason Tvert, author of the latest pro-marijuana scroll Marijuana is Safer: Why Are We Driving People to Drink tells New Times.
Tvert, 27, is one of the latest messiahs in the crusade to legalize marijuana, and while he's taken his fight to the weed-friendly streets of Denver, the battle began here in the Valley.
Tvert is from Scottsdale, where his pro-pot mother still lives, and he worked both for the Arizona Attorney General's Office and the Phoenix City Council.
He says he jumped on the "legalize it" bandwagon after he "almost drank myself into oblivion, and nobody seemed to care."
He was referring to a time he had probably given himself alcohol poisoning and says all he got in terms of a scolding from any sort of agency was a bill from the hospital.
He compares that with an experience he had while a student at the University of Richmond:
He was hauled in by federal drug-enforcement agents because someone he knew got caught with marijuana, and Tvert was implicated as someone with whom that person may have smoked pot.
Tvert lists all the familiar slogans of a pro-weed, "It's-not-that-bad-for-you" campaign in his book. He says he's providing what parents need to hear to on board.
"The ending-border-violence argument, and things like that don't work," he says of persuading people. "Those things don't get to suburban mothers like my own."
Tvert is the executive director of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, or SAFER, based out of Denver. The organization's goal is, basically, to bring awareness that if you don't feel like drinking, weed is a much safer alternative.
So put down the booze and spark one up.
For more information on Tvert's book, click here.
