Recreational marijuana: Ethical positions and consumption status in explaining attitudes, perceived law ethicalness, and perceived corporate social responsibility

Abstract

Drawing from the Ethics Position theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior, this study was conducted with a comprehensive four‐part goal. It seeks to explore the moderating influences of the consumption status and ethical positions in elucidating (i) individuals' attitude toward recreational marijuana consumption, (ii) individuals' perceived ethical stance regarding recreational marijuana legalization, (iii) individuals' CSR perception of firms operating within the marijuana industry often deemed as morally contentious, and (iv) the interrelationships among the aforementioned variables. Based on a sample of 411 Canadians and two grouping variables, ANOVA tests and a structural Equation Modeling were used to test the research hypotheses. The results show that individuals' attitudes toward the consumption of marijuana, perceived ethicalness of legalizing it, and perceived CSR significantly vary across the three groups of consumption status (i.e., non‐consumer, occasional, and regular) and the four groups of ethical positions (i.e., absolutism, exceptionism, situationism, and subjectivism). The SEM results, however, show that, except for a few cases, there were no notable variations in the model's path coefficients among the identified groups. This study has intriguing implications for academicians, practitioners, politicians, managers, social welfare activists, and other stakeholders.