From Outlaw to Citizen: Police Power, Property, and the Territorial Politics of Medical Marijuana in California's Exurbs

Abstract

As governments worldwide justify the transformation of marijuana governance from one police power (law enforcement) to others (e.g. public health, zoning), the place of marijuana in lawful society is transforming rapidly. No venue in California is more central to this than land use regulatory bodies, which decide how marijuana rights, practices, and relations become territorial. Land use powers, as a declaration of the state’s police power, require a definitional rendering of “community.” This article analyzes an episode of outdoor marijuana cultivation policymaking and the struggles over the definition of community in a conservative exurban California county. From debates on fences, property line setbacks, rental terms, and nuisance complaints to racial and economic anxieties and the roaming stigma of crime, marijuana advocates confronted a powerful logic of private property and the moral-aesthetic propriety it implies. Despite the subordination of advocates’ claims to the terms of private property, outlaw communities sustained their own forms of territorial governance, informal regulatory and enforcement powers, and understandings of community. This episode, which illuminates territorial production across illegal/legal lines, has implications for understandings of liberal rule of law, political possibility, and the practice of citizenship.

Cannabis ( Cannabis sativa or C. indica ) agriculture and the environment: a systematic, spatially-explicit survey and potential impacts

“…One might hypothesize a combination of biophysical factors, such as access to water for irrigation (Bauer et al 2015), and social factors, such as law enforcement activities (Corva 2014). Other factors that might explain cannabis agriculture patterns include land tenure (Polson 2013), local landuse regulation (Polson 2015), and agglomeration economies (Pflüger 2004). Land-use science on cannabis agriculture lags behind research on other crops, but advances in the field will be crucial for predicting future cannabis expansion and moderating its impacts.…”

“…This estimate exceeds twice the total value of timber, livestock, dairy, nursery, and vegetable crops grown in Humboldt County in the same year (Humboldt County 2015). Therefore, while potential threats to the environment from cannabis agriculture are clear, there may also be opportunities for sustainable rural development (Polson 2015). Indeed, sustainable cannabis agriculture might provide a unique and significant opportunity for land sparing and nature preservation.…”

Illegal geographies and spatial planning: developing a dialogue on drugs

“…In 2015 a special issue of this journal dedicated to illegal geographies contained six studies on the "relationships between clandestine economies and the political geographies of law enforcement" (Banister, Boyce and Slack, 2015, p. 365). The unifying thread between the papers was their focus on illegal drugs, with some interesting nods to the role of land use planning (Polson, 2015).…”

“…However, there is a limited number of papers addressing drugs from a planning perspective (e.g. Boland, 2008;Németh and Ross, 2014;Polson, 2015;Smith, 2010;Souza, 2005). Regarding practice, at different spatialities of the UK's planning framework health, wellbeing, crime and anti-social behaviour are mentioned; however, in comparative terms drugs, and their often deleterious spatial and social consequences, are not discussed in any substantive or systematic manner in any planning strategy or policy document.…”

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INTRODUCTIONIn 2015 a special issue of this journal dedicated to illegal geographies contained six studies on the "relationships between clandestine economies and the political geographies of law enforcement" (Banister, Boyce and Slack, 2015, p. 365). The unifying thread between the papers was their focus on illegal drugs, with some interesting nods to the role of land use planning (Polson, 2015).More recently, in another journal De Leo (2017, p 216) discusses the "links between urban planning and organised crime". Responding to this emergent body of scholarship in geography and planning we unpack and problematize the links between illegal drugs and spatial planningthe drugs-planning nexus.

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