(POL2) Five years of Legal Cannabis in Canada: What a long, strange trip it’s been

This panel session invites sociologists researching all aspects of cannabis legalization in Canada, asking them to assess the social and legal challenges, problems, and successes five years after the passage of the federal Cannabis Act. Panelists may discuss their own research findings or offer an overview of relevant debates and literature. Themes include, but are not limited to, the following. Going forward, what communities should be further included in this new market? How are those most hurt by the prohibitionist laws and policing now faring? How is recreational drug use in general now understood? Who owns and controls most cannabis production and why? How do Canadians think about legal cannabis and its consumption? How have the provinces and other jurisdictions, including first nations communities, developed law and policy in their local settings? What is the hegemonic construction of cannabis and its users found in government and health discourses? Would decriminalization have been a better model than legalization?

Moderator: 

Joel Garrod, St. Francis Xavier University

Panelists:

Tara Bruno, King’s University College, Western University

Jim Cosgrave, Trent University

Andrew Hathaway, University of Guelph

Gabriel Levesque, McGill University

Samantha McAleese, Brock University

Tags: Cannabis, Criminology, Law, Policy

Organizers: Patricia Cormack, St. Francis Xavier University, Joel Garrod, St. Francis Xavier University