The State and the Legal Canadian Cannabis User
Revisiting Howard Becker
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11056752 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patricia Cormack (0000-0001-5037-4447, Department of Sociology, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada), James F Cosgrave (0000-0003-2539-140X, Department of Sociology, Trent University Durham, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada), James Cosgrave (Durham College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 440-454 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contemporary Drug Problems (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0091-4509 • E-ISSN: 2163-1808 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00914509251371531 |
| OpenAlex | W4413878819 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 26 |
Drawing on Howard Becker's classic 1953 sociological interpretation of the process of becoming a cannabis user, this paper analyses how the Canadian state shapes the social and political meanings of cannabis and its use in the context of recent legalization. Our analysis moves from concrete face-to-face subcultural life studied by Becker to state discourses and administration, examining Canadian government commissions, task forces, and legislation that have thematically framed cannabis over the past 50 years. Becker's three stages of becoming a cannabis user are echoed in the Canadian context as: (1) learning to transfer trust to the licit market, (2) recognizing the cannabis high as a matter of individuated risk assessment, and (3) embracing official meanings of cannabis and its use. Finally, we show how this emergent domesticated cannabis consumer, as political ideal, sidelines projects of reparation and reconciliation with groups historically controlled and criminalized in Canada's long war on drugs
Cannabis · Criminology · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · State (computer science) · Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research · Computer Science · Law · Psychedelics and Drug Studies · Psychology · Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
Distinction
Where Is the Fairness in Canadian Cannabis Legalization? Lessons to be Learned from the American Experience
Outsiders Studies in the Sociology of Deviance
Powers of Freedom
The privileged normalization of marijuana use – an analysis of Canadian newspaper reporting, 1997–2007
The Canadian war on drugs
Race, cannabis and the Canadian war on drugs
Enjoy your experience”
To Market or Demarket? Public-Sector Branding of Cannabis in Canada
Updating Howard Becker's Theory of Using Marijuana for Pleasure
Becoming a Medical Marijuana User
Overpoliced and Underrepresented
Contesting cannabis
Suspension, not expungement
Evidence‐based policy development for cannabis? Insights on preventing use by youth
Cannabis careers revisited
Rethinking the State
Becoming a Marihuana User
It's Really No Big Deal
Marijuana and tolerance
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |