Overview

In 1937, the U.S. government passed the Marijuana Tax Act, which effectively banned the plant in response to political pressure from those who feared its use by Mexicans (Musto 1972). Cannabis’s later association with hippies helped justify crackdowns on anti-war protestors and other leftist movements by the Nixon administration (Baum 2016). In the decades that followed, police and judges disproportionately arrested and imprisoned Black and Latinx people for the use and sale of cannabis (Golub, Johnson, and Dunlap 2007; American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU] 2020). Even today, cannabis continues to be illegal in many states in the United States, with penalties ranging from jail time to fines to probation.

Within the past decade, though, cannabis laws have slowly shifted (figure 7.1). As of 2022, 19 states had legalized cannabis for recreational use, and 39 states had legalized cannabis for medical use (National Conference of State Legislators [NCSL] 2022). With so many different policies, how should we view cannabis? Should cannabis be considered a dangerous, illegal drug because it is federally illegal? Should cannabis be regarded as a healing plant? Should cannabis be subject to legal penalties for its use or possession? Or should cannabis be considered a legal, acceptable substance to use recreationally? There are no correct answers to these questions, but they demonstrate how the status of cannabis continues to be redefined by society.

Equity issues have become apparent as cannabis has become legalized in many states. Black and Latinx communities have been disproportionately arrested and imprisoned for cannabis offenses. As cannabis has become legalized, these groups have not had the same ability to participate in the legal market. Licenses to open medical or recreational dispensaries often cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Consequently, White men dominate the legal cannabis market because they can afford the exorbitant start-up costs. All the while, Black and Latinx people (in both legal and non-legal states) serve prison sentences for engaging in the same activity. How do we ensure equity in this emerging legal market and new legal context?

How can we use our sociological imagination to understand the role of cannabis in our society? As cannabis has become legalized, how do we ensure that those most impacted have the opportunity to participate in the legal market?

In what follows, we will provide you with tools to understand how and why our definitions of what is legal or illegal and acceptable or unacceptable change over time. We will spend some time exploring different theories explaining deviance. Then we’ll dig deeper into debates around equity. By looking at how groups have been treated differently by the criminal justice system, we’ll think critically about the impacts of cannabis legalization.