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Thanks to its best-known use, any mention of cannabis tends to bring up jokes about the munchies or debates about marijuana and legalized drug use. But this not-so-innocent flowering plant was one of the first to be domesticated by humans, and it has been used in spiritual, therapeutic, and even punitive applications ever since-in addition to its more recreational purpose. Despite all the hoopla surrounding cannabis, however, we actually understand relatively little about it in the human and ecological past. In Cannabis, Chris Duvall explores the botanical and cultural history of one of our mo

The German government plans to legalize the consumption of cannabis for recreational purposes. According to the new government coalition, the soft drug will soon be sold to adults in licensed stores. Germany, thus, follows an interna-tional legalization trend initiated by Canada, Uruguay and the USA. In these countries the cultivation, trade and sale of cannabis for recreational purposes is already permitted. In recent years, some EU countries have established various models of decriminalization and tolerance of cannabis. Based on the Dutch tolerance policy, this article analyzes different options for legalization and examines to what ex-tent they can be implemented in Germany. It explains that a comprehensive legalization of cannabis under German law remains difficult. The principle of mandatory prosecution is an obstacle to any attempts of a far-reaching tolerance poli-cy towards cannabis cultivation. After all, international and European law clearly stand in the way of a total legaliza-tion, particularly of the cultivation and trade. Germany faces a dilemma: should it take the path of legalization, which is reasonable from a criminological point of view, and accept breaking international and European law? Or should the ambitious plans shrink to a legalization-light, limited to the private cultivation of cannabis for personal consump-tion?

In 2018, Kenneth Okoth, a member of Parliament for the Kibra Constituency in Kenya, introduced a Marijuana Control Bill in parliament. Okoth's bill sought to legalise the growth and use of cannabis, establish a system for the registration and licensing of cannabis growers and users, promote the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, and increase public awareness of cannabis. This last point is critical in that Okoth understood that public knowledge of cannabis was shallow at the very moment when the country was debating prohibition, and he considered public awareness a critical component of this debate. Undoubtedly, the shallowness stems from a dearth of scholarship on cannabis in Kenya and East Africa. This study attempts to close the gap on the historiography of cannabis in Kenya. It historicises cannabis before the country's independence in 1963, revealing that the British colonial government sanctioned cannabis for medicinal use but prohibited it for recreational purposes among Africans. The essay grounds the history of cannabis in Kenya within a longer history of making and re-making citizens and contributes to a more complex understanding of how bodies, goods, and ideas move across time and space.

Inflammatory rhetoric and increasingly punitive drug policies dominated marijuana politics in the past. Today, as 36 have legalized cannabis in some form and 17 states have legalized recreational marijuana, the federal government continues to perpetuate policies of the past. The following analysis investigates rhetoric and policies that led to the War on Drugs as well as their outcomes, the dramatic shift in public opinion as states began to legalize marijuana, and the successes and failures of state cannabis programs to identify gaps within the MORE Act, the ideal policy, and politically viable incremental change. State programs are incapable of addressing issues regarding data collection, research, and equity. The MORE Act passed by the House of Representatives in December 2020 presents a semi-comprehensive federal reform option. The ideal cannabis reform, however, should address guidelines for federal regulators, barriers to employment and entrepreneurship, incentivize state cannabis legalization and expedited expungements, expand research and data collection, and provide a framework for federal communications. Despite the act's shortcomings, it remains politically infeasible in today's polarized climate. Immediate incremental cannabis reform should take the form of action by the Attorney General and Congressional action expanding cannabis research supply and funding, requiring public health data collection, rescheduling marijuana, and authorizing doctors to write prescriptions for medical marijuana.

Accompanied by a podcast called "The Cannabis Criminology Podcast." As a limited series podcast, the authors will review key aspects of the book and interview scholars and activists working in this area. Very timely as the (potential) legalisation of cannabis has received much attention across the globe in recent decades/years, and this interest is set to continue for many years to come. Most research tends to focus on drugs as a whole, whereas this book focus solely on cannabis, and as such offers the depth needed to grasp the topic more effectively. Fits into several topics/modules within criminology, sociology, law, drug policy and public health. Comprehensive in its coverage, exploring history, frameworks of analysis, evidence to date, key initiatives, and providing examples from relevant jurisdictions

Intro -- General Editor's Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- PART ONE: ETHNOBOTANY AND DIFFUSION -- Typification of Cannabis sativa L -- Cannabis: An Example of Taxonomic Neglect -- Early Diffusion and Folk Uses of Hemp -- The Origin and Use of Cannabis in Eastern Asia: Their Linguistic-Cultural Implications -- Ethnobotanical Aspects of Cannabis in Southeast Asia -- Cannabis Smoking in 13th-14th Century Ethiopia: Chemical Evidence -- Dagga: The History and Ethnographic Setting of Cannabis sativa in Southern Africa -- PART TWO: SOCIOCULTURAL ASPECTS OF THE TRADITIONAL COMPLEX -- The Social Nexus of Ganja in Jamaica -- The Ritual Use of Cannabis in Mexico -- Cannabis and Cultural Groups in a Colombian Municipio -- Patterns of Marihuana Use in Brazil -- Economic Significance of Cannabis sativa in the Moroccan Rif -- Traditional Patterns of Hashish Use in Egypt -- The Traditional Role and Symbolism of Hashish among Moroccan Jews in Israel and the Effect of Acculturation -- The Social and Cultural Context of Cannabis Use in Rwanda -- Reunion: Cannabis in a Pluricultural and Polyethnic Society -- Social Aspects of the Use of Cannabis in India -- Cannabis in Nepal: An Overview -- The "Ganja Vision" in Jamaica -- PART THREE: MEDICAL, PHARMACOLOGICAL AND ETHNOMETABOLIC STUDIES -- Cannabis sativa L. (Marihuana): VI Variations in Marihuana Preparations and Usage - Chemical and Pharmacological Consequences -- Social and Medical Aspects of the Use of Cannabis in Brazil -- Sociocultural and Epidemiological Aspects of Hashish Use in Greece -- Marihuana and Genetic Studies in Colombia: The Problem in the City and in the Country -- Cannabis Usage in Pakistan: A Pilot Study of Long Term Effects on Social Status and Physical Health -- The Significance of Marihuana in a Small Agricultural Community in Jamaica.

Recently, many countries have changed their cannabis policy by introducing medical cannabis and/or by moving toward different forms of legalisation and/or decriminalisation. Researchers have thus argued that traditional notions of cannabis as a singular and coherent object, are gradually being replaced by perspectives that highlight the multiple ontological character of cannabis. At the same time, there is growing recognition that drug policy is not a unitary phenomenon. Based on the idea that drug policy is composed by multiple "policy areas" each defined by particular notions of what constitutes the relevant policy "problem", this article explores how Danish cannabis policy is composed of different co-existing framings of cannabis use; as respectively a social problem, a problem of deviance, an organised crime problem, a health- and risk problem and as a medical problem. While the international trend seems to be that law-and-order approaches are increasingly being replaced by more liberal approaches, we show how Denmark, on an overall level, seems to be moving in the opposite direction: Away from a lenient decriminalisation policy of cannabis use and towards more repressive approaches. We demonstrate how the prominence of discursive framings of cannabis use as a "problem of deviance" and as "a driver of organised crime", has been key to this process. ; Aim: This article traces recent developments in Danish cannabis policy, by exploring how "cannabis use" is problematised and governed within different co-existing policy areas. Background: Recently, many countries have changed their cannabis policy by introducing medical cannabis and/or by moving toward legalisation or decriminalisation. Researchers have thus argued that traditional notions of cannabis as a singular and coherent object, are being replaced by perspectives that highlight the multiple ontological character of cannabis. At the same time, there is growing recognition that drug policy is not a unitary phenomenon, but rather composed by multiple "policy areas", each defined by particular notions of what constitutes the relevant policy "problem". Design: We draw on existing research, government reports, policy papers and media accounts of policy and policing developments. Results: We demonstrate how Danish cannabis policy is composed of different co-existing framings of cannabis use; as respectively a social problem, a problem of deviance, an organised crime problem, a health- and risk problem and as a medical problem. Conclusion: While the international trend seems to be that law-and-order approaches are increasingly being replaced by more liberal approaches, Denmark, on an overall level, seems to be moving in the opposite direction: Away from a lenient decriminalisation policy and towards more repressive approaches. We conclude that the prominence of discursive framings of cannabis use as a "problem of deviance" and as "a driver of organised crime", has been key to this process.