ABSTRACT
On April 28, 2023, the University of California Office of the President, in partnership with the California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC), hosted the California Cannabis Research Briefing. The California Cannabis Research Briefing brought together researchers and state agencies/policymakers to discuss pertinent policy issues on cannabis within the state. Researchers across six different topic areas (environment, cannabis markets, social equity matters, public health, medicinal cannabis use, and public safety) provided brief explanations of their research and its policy implications. A moderated discussion with stakeholders followed these presentations. The goals of this event were to highlight research that can inform policy issues relevant to the state, and to discuss how research can be incorporated into the cannabis policy landscape.
ABSTRACT
The life and death of California's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP, 1983-2012) offers a unique analytical window into the time and space of the U.S. war on drugs in a global context. This paper draws on CAMP report archives, ethnographic interviews, and secondary data sources to locate the significance of CAMP, its demise, and enduring legacy for the political economy of domestic illicit cannabis production in southern Humboldt County, where it was initially focused. I first introduce the economic geography of cannabis production in southern Humboldt County and California. In the first part of the paper, using theoretical frameworks from Critical Geopolitics and International Relations, I examine the geo-politics of CAMP's emergence. In the second part of the paper, I examine industrial reterritorialization associated with its geographies of enforcement over time. I conclude by discussing the eclipse of its foundational logic-and-practice (policing the "Emerald Triangle") by new political and economic geographies of power.