Review: This got me to think—is this when the worry of addiction begins?
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 18, 2014
With all the buzz surrounding medicinal marijuana and its healing properties, I read with great interest Jason Akley’s Crossroads from Damascus: Mississippi Headlights.  Jason’s story speaks, not to the healing or innocuous qualities of pot, but to life itself.  And I use the term “story”loosely.Jason’s Crossroads is a mix of stories, random thoughts and poems none of which are connected to each other.  It is not your typical story with a progressing narrative.  But it is a story nonetheless.  It is the story of murder, drug smuggling, family life and yes—pot.While many might believe that the book is about addiction to pot and all of the circumstances that grow out of addiction, I respectfully disagree that this is in fact the tone and tenor of this book.  I felt that the pot was “just there”.  Like a bottle of booze you might find in any home, the pot was just part of Jason’s life.  And whether things were plainly crazy or plainly mundane in his life, the pot was there.Like the person who wonders when was the last time he didn’t have a drink, I got the sense that Jason wondered of a time when pot wasn’t around in his life.  This got me to think—is this when the worry of addiction begins?Jason’s book is not that heavy though.  To me it wasn’t a commentary of drug addiction.  It was a unique way to tie his life’s moments—the funny, the sad, the down right strange—to the presence of pot.Be prepared to suspend your notions of story-telling in Jason’s book.  If you approach it as a typical novel, you might be frustrated at his approach.  If, however, you read this with an open mind both as to the style of presentation and the topics shared, I know you will enjoy it as much as I did.