This study examines how regulated cannabis businesses normalize their trade in the United States. Using interviews ( N = 56) and a cross-sectional survey of cannabis professionals ( N = 144), I find that the U.S. cannabis industry employs three strategies: (1) Using deviant practices to engage in legitimate business, (2) Reconciling divergent cultural frames for reducing stigma against the cannabis industry, and (3) Changing discursive repertoires that uniquely stigmatize cannabis and cannabis users. I argue that each strategy constitutes a new analytical category of social skill that contested industries leverage in a gray market context.
This content will become publicly available on May 24, 2024
Sumptuary administration: How contested market actors shape the trajectory of policy when regulated under fragmented governance
In contemporary society, sumptuary laws regulate contested markets by delegating enforcement responsibilities to the private sector. This can decouple the intention behind policies from the practices to implement them. When state interests do not align concerning the legality of a market, can policy and practice recouple, and if so, how? This article reports on a case study of commercial cannabis in the United States to answer this question. Interviews with 56 cannabis industry stakeholders in California, Arizona, and Texas reveal that policy and practice recoupled through a patterned process that I call
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10420601
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Law & Policy
- Volume:
- 45
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0265-8240
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 507-529
- Size(s):
- ["p. 507-529"]
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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