Cannabis legalization: an ethnography of the global movement and market forces

After decades of prohibition and advocacy for law reform, over 60 countries have legalized cannabis. Legal change has transformed cannabis as an almost wholly illicit substance into a licit one undergoing commodification. Regulations have enabled markets to emerge for an array of cannabis products, designed for medical, ‘wellness’, recreational and industrial use. But an ongoing movement for reform remains. There are campaigns for legalization, accessibility, and regulatory oversight, intertwined with demands for human rights. Meanwhile, aspects of the counterculture that surrounded illicit cannabis still linger. In this thesis, I examine the relationship between the cannabis market and movement, the people behind processes of change and commodification, and the implications of these activities. I present an ethnographic portrait of both the market and the movement, as they move through different stages of change and development. This is based on multi-sited fieldwork in 11 countries, over 14 months, during which I attended different cannabis events and worked with different people and organizations, using participant observation and interviews. To analyze this data, I turn to Becker’s theory of deviance, Bourdieu’s discussion about ‘rules of the game’, and Abolafia’s concept of ‘markets as cultures’. I build upon, and contribute to, social movement theory, economic anthropology and organizational sociology. The findings demonstrate parallel sets of ongoing processes – legalization, normalization and commercialization – and their complex effects, which result in processes of commodification. This reform is non-linear and dependent on people, activities, events and networks, but cannot be wholly attributable to legalization. I describe the extent to which the market has been supported by the moral norms of the ongoing advocacy movement and historical elements from the days of the counterculture. I focus on local and global processes of change and commodification to demonstrate the importance of the relationship, and sustenance, between the movement and market.