The Paradoxes of Normalization: Cannabis as Nuisance Crime, Medicine, and Consumer Good in British Columbia Before and After Legalization

Wheeldon, Johannes; Heidt, Jon

doi:10.1080/01639625.2022.2125856

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Beyond the purview of this article is interest in and research on medicinal cannabis, including therapeutic properties, benefits associated with harm reduction, and opiate replacement. While medical cannabis remains a paradox (Wheeldon and Heidt, 2022c), establishing a credible means to measure positive health outcomes, assess therapeutic effects, and catalog potential side effects is needed. Long constrained by limitations on cannabis research, restrictions have undermined evidence-based efforts to educate people about the responsible use of cannabis, including where it can enhance some experiences and complicate others.…”

Section: Studying Legal Cannabis (2018-present)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This tends to favor observational studies based on large, anonymized data sets. Qualitative cannabis research is certainly not unknown (Wheeldon and Heidt, 2022c). However, it is more difficult to secure permission for this kind of research from institutional review boards (IRBs) in many countries.…”

Section: Structural Realities: Legal Status Funding and Research Deci...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…37 Wiese et al (2023: 25) describe the experience of racialized communities as "overpoliced and underrepresented." How race intersects with concerns about impaired driving (Pearlson et al, 2021), public consumption (Wheeldon and Heidt, 2022c), and safe cannabis storage (Wang et al, 2016) remains an essential question. The ethical implications of deferring to policies that continue to impact people of color disproportionately can no longer be doubted (Sheehan et al, 2021).…”

Section: Ethics and Post-prohibition Cannabis Research Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Persistent obstacles include resilient illicit markets, supply shortages in some cases, and oversupply in others. A significant challenge is banking, access to capital, and commercial point-of-sale protections (Wheeldon and Heidt, 2022c).…”

Section: Controlling Cannabis and Restraining Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, there is evidence that despite legalization in Canada, the historic over-representation of Black and Indigenous people in arrest statistics (Owusu-Bempah and Luscombe, 2021) persists despite cannabis’ legal status. 37 Wiese et al (2023: 25) describe the experience of racialized communities as “overpoliced and underrepresented.” How race intersects with concerns about impaired driving (Pearlson et al, 2021), public consumption (Wheeldon and Heidt, 2022c), and safe cannabis storage (Wang et al, 2016) remains an essential question. The ethical implications of deferring to policies that continue to impact people of color disproportionately can no longer be doubted (Sheehan et al, 2021).…”

Section: Ethics and Post-prohibition Cannabis Research Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cannabis, research ethics, and a duty of care

Wheeldon

Heidt

2023

Research Ethics

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Despite growing evidence to the contrary, researchers continue to posit causal links between cannabis, crime, psychosis, and violence. These spurious connections are rooted in history and fueled decades of structural limitations that shaped how researchers studied cannabis. Until recently, research in this area was explicitly funded to link cannabis use and harm and ignore any potential benefits. Post-prohibition cannabis research has failed to replicate the dire findings of the past. This article outlines how the history of controlling cannabis research has led to various harms, injustices, and ethical complications. We compare commonly cited research from both the prohibition and post-prohibition eras and argue that many popular claims about the dangers of cannabis are the result of ethical lapses by researchers, journals, and funders. We propose researchers in this area adopt a duty of care in cannabis research going forward. This would oblige individual researchers to establish robust research designs, employ careful analytic strategies, and acknowledge limitations in more detail. This duty involves the institutional recognition by funders, journals, and others that cannabis research has been deliberately misconstrued to criminalize, stigmatize, and pathologize.

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Section: Studying Legal Cannabis (2018-present)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Structural Realities: Legal Status Funding and Research Deci...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ethics and Post-prohibition Cannabis Research Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Controlling Cannabis and Restraining Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ethics and Post-prohibition Cannabis Research Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cannabis, research ethics, and a duty of care

Wheeldon

Heidt

2023

Research Ethics

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Cannabis policy liberalization is only associated with increased blunt use if states lack strong tobacco control

Orsini,

Vuolo,

Kelly

2024

Addictive Behaviors

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Becoming a Cannabis Professional

Kinney

2024

Sociological Inquiry

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In recent years, U.S. states have relaxed their laws to permit the operation of a commercial cannabis market despite enduring federal criminalization. While media outlets commonly point to money as the primary motivator for working in the newly regulated cannabis industry, this article advances the alternative view that becoming a cannabis professional is linked to a broader process of drug‐related identity formation. Interviews with cannabis professionals reveal that commercial cannabis careers are facilitated through diverse moral meanings associated with this plant regardless of economic success. These meanings are filtered through imagined futures of the cannabis trade that draw people to cannabis occupations, increase their job commitment, and formalize their professional identities. In the spirit of reflecting on cannabis policy at the twilight of drug prohibition, this article sketches out new directions for studying the regulated cannabis trade and advocates for greater attention to the projective element of capitalism in the operation of legally contested markets.

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The Paradoxes of Normalization: Cannabis as Nuisance Crime, Medicine, and Consumer Good in British Columbia Before and After Legalization

Cited by 4 publications

References 82 publications

Cannabis, research ethics, and a duty of care

Cannabis, research ethics, and a duty of care

Cannabis policy liberalization is only associated with increased blunt use if states lack strong tobacco control

Becoming a Cannabis Professional

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