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1 – 10 of 126The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it investigates the characteristics of Hanfparade 2022 – the biggest prolegalization festival in Germany – and its visitors, as well…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it investigates the characteristics of Hanfparade 2022 – the biggest prolegalization festival in Germany – and its visitors, as well as the main reason for participation in Hanfparade. Findings are compared to those from Hanfparade 2016 to explore whether the main reason for festival attendance has changed since the legalization of medical cannabis in 2017 and since the announcement of plans for cannabis legalization. Second, this paper assesses Hanfparade participants’ views on cannabis legalization in Germany, in particular their opinions on and their preferences for retail supply options.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is a replication of a research conducted in 2016 at the same festival in Berlin, with a slightly adapted questionnaire. In this study, a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods was used: observation at the festival, interviews before and after the festival with the organizer and a survey among festival attendees (n = 183).
Findings
Protest still looks relevant for the participants at Hanfparade, and the announcement of plans for legalization does not seem to downgrade this feeling. The participants have positive opinions about self-supply through home cultivation, noncommercial supply through Cannabis Social Clubs (CSCs) and commercial supply through stores similar to Dutch coffee shops. However, positive opinions do not necessarily reflect a personal preference, e.g. CSCs were very low in personal preferences. The options of home cultivation and CSCs were more popular among daily users.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the ongoing debate in Germany, focusing on views of cannabis users.
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Alana Griffith, Mahalia Jackman and Peter Wickham
Public support for various policy options for managing cannabis in the Caribbean and the characteristics of those most likely to support specific policy options remains largely…
Abstract
Purpose
Public support for various policy options for managing cannabis in the Caribbean and the characteristics of those most likely to support specific policy options remains largely unknown. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of age, sex and employment status on the public attitudes towards the full legalisation of cannabis, partial legalisation (that is for medical or religious purposes) or its continued prohibition.
Design/methodology/approach
Using secondary data collected from nationally representative public opinion polls conducted by Caribbean Research and Development Services from 2016–2018, this paper compares the public attitudes towards cannabis in Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica using a multinomial logistic model.
Findings
Support for the continued prohibition, legalisation or partial legalisation of cannabis varied significantly by age, employment status and country of residence. Women, people over 51 years of age and the employed were more likely to support full prohibition. Attitudes towards cannabis policy in the Caribbean are by no means homogenous, neither are the policy shifts occurring across the region, with some of these changes occurring slowly and not necessarily reflective of cultural dynamics.
Originality/value
This study is unique in its cross-country analysis in the Caribbean and providing valuable insight into the levels public support for cannabis legalisation. Its findings can help shape targeted public education in these countries.
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Zoë Plakias, Margaret Jodlowski, Taylor Giamo, Parisa Kavousi and Keith Taylor
Despite 2016 legalization of recreational cannabis cultivation and sale in California with the passage of Proposition 64, many cannabis businesses operate without licenses…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite 2016 legalization of recreational cannabis cultivation and sale in California with the passage of Proposition 64, many cannabis businesses operate without licenses. Furthermore, federal regulations disincentivize financial institutions from banking and lending to licensed cannabis businesses. The authors explore the impact of legal cannabis business activity on California financial institutions, the barriers to banking faced by cannabis businesses, and the nontraditional sources of financing used by the industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a mixed methods approach. The authors utilize call data for banks and credit unions headquartered in California and state cannabis licensing data to estimate the impact of the extensive and intensive margins of licensed cannabis activity on key banking indicators using difference-and-difference and fixed effects regressions. The qualitative data come from interviews with industry stakeholders in northern California's “Emerald Triangle” and add important context.
Findings
The quantitative results show economically and statistically significant impacts of licensed cannabis activity on banking indicators, suggesting both direct and spillover effects from cannabis activity to the financial sector. However, cannabis businesses report substantial barriers to accessing basic financial services and credit, leading to nontraditional financing arrangements.
Practical implications
The results suggest opportunities for cannabis businesses and financial institutions if regulations are eased and important avenues for further study.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the nascent literature on cannabis economics and the literature on banking regulation and nontraditional finance.
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Tanisha Wright-Brown, Sandy Brennan, Michael Blackwood and Jennifer Donnan
Almost five years after legalization, the unlicensed cannabis market is still thriving in Canada, and legacy cannabis retailers continue to face barriers to legal market entry…
Abstract
Purpose
Almost five years after legalization, the unlicensed cannabis market is still thriving in Canada, and legacy cannabis retailers continue to face barriers to legal market entry. This study aims to shed light on these challenges and offer policy recommendations supporting legacy retailers and the government’s goals of enhancing public safety and displacing the unlicensed market.
Design/methodology/approach
This study reviewed online sources, including the media, gray literature, government, and other policy and legal websites, to identify legacy retailers’ challenges to entering the Canadian ecosystem since legalization and policy approaches of legalized jurisdictions with similar issues.
Findings
Legacy retailers face financial, legal and social barriers to entering the legal market. The Canadian government should focus on lowering and eliminating these barriers by developing programs that reduce financial risks and required capital, facilitate partnership programs and accelerators, provide innovative options that reduce overhead expenses, encourage pooled ownership to support small businesses, prioritize market entry for equity-deserving individuals and enable automatic expungement. A description of programs that have been implemented in other jurisdictions to address similar barriers is provided.
Practical implications
The policy recommendations in this paper would enable increased entrepreneurship and employment in a growing sector. While the tax revenue earned from the new market entrants may not be enough to support all the recommended policy initiatives, it could be reinvested to fund some of them creating sustainable growth opportunities.
Originality/value
The paper provides practical, timely policy recommendations on expanding the legal cannabis market in Canada and addressing unintended negative consequences of current policies.
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Daniel William Mackenzie Wright
The purpose of this paper is to offer original ideas into a potential future cannabis industry in the UK. This paper presents novel approaches regarding the potential existence of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer original ideas into a potential future cannabis industry in the UK. This paper presents novel approaches regarding the potential existence of cannabis for the tourism industry. It presents an idea in which the UK Government could produce, distribute and control the industry. The proposed idea presents a scheme in which the UK could encourage regional tourism (inclusive to domestic and international travellers) through a controlled but innovative cannabis market scheme. This paper presents a future scenario aiming to encourage dialogue and critique, at a time when attitudes to cannabis are changing.
Design/methodology/approach
This research takes a scenario narrative approach in presenting and exploring a potential future cannabis market in the UK. The importance of narrative writing as a method is recognised by Lindgren and Bandhold (2009), who identify the significance in telling a story to the reader. Taking a pragmatic approach, embracing diverse philosophical methods, this research explores past and current trends via a mixture of secondary data sources to create and present a scenario narrative of the future.
Findings
This paper identified that trends in legalising cannabis for cultivation, medical and recreational purposes continue to become more liberal globally. However, cannabis laws mainly focus on the use for residents. Consequently, domestic tourism markets have the potential to grow. However, there is limited consideration regarding the potential for international tourism cannabis markets. Thus, the findings of this research are based on the potential for the UK to implement and promote a cannabis industry for international travellers.
Originality/value
This paper offers original ideas in exploring a future cannabis market in the UK, one where regional tourism is considered. The paper presents a novel approach that encourages domestic and international tourists to engage with the cannabis industry by navigating a well-managed, local approach to supplying cannabis in the UK.
The purpose of this paper to examine laws and regulations applicable to cannabis in the USA and the UK, including legal reforms and international treaty obligations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper to examine laws and regulations applicable to cannabis in the USA and the UK, including legal reforms and international treaty obligations.
Design/methodology/approach
This study relies on primary data from statutes and secondary data from online and offline resources, including relevant case studies.
Findings
Federal laws in the USA and existing UK cannabis legal regime generally prohibit recreational use of cannabis. Increasingly, various individual states in the USA have enabled the use of cannabis health-related uses, thereby challenging the status of the UN treaties on drug enforcement. As the USA struggles to reconcile the conflicts between federal law on cannabis and individual states within its borders, much of the rest of the world, including the UK, are struggling with how best to reconcile their domestic positions with their UN treaty obligations.
Social implications
Recent disclosures of past recreational use of prohibited drugs by several candidates vying to be the UK Prime Minister suggests why understanding the laws governing the use of cannabis is useful and relevant to the general public.
Originality/value
This paper provides a general but integrated review of national laws in the USA and the UK, as well as international treaties governing the use of cannabis.
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The present study aimed at classifying cannabis festival attendees based on their motivation and travel activities, profiling the resultant latent groups with demographic and…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aimed at classifying cannabis festival attendees based on their motivation and travel activities, profiling the resultant latent groups with demographic and travel characteristics and examining the association between the groups.
Design/methodology/approach
With a quantitative-exploratory approach, this study collected 392 out-of-state visitors' responses to a cannabis festival in Denver, Colorado and classified them according to their motivation and activity participation. Using the classification results, the study profiled the festival visitors based on their demographic and travel characteristics. Latent class analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and cross-tabulation were employed.
Findings
The results revealed that festival visitors were categorized into four latent groups by motivation and three latent groups by travel activity participation. Regarding motivation, the cannabis seekers (relatively young, White/Caucasian and residents in liberal states) and multi-purpose seekers (relatively young, Black/African American and residents in conservative states) were strongly motivated by cannabis-related factors. For travel activity participation, moderate participants were more likely to be first-time visitors, whereas active and passive participants were classified as repeat visitors.
Originality/value
The current study filled the research gap in the quantitative exploration of cannabis tourism industry in general and cannabis festival segment specifically. The findings contribute to (1) better understanding of out-of-state visitors' motivation and travel behaviors while attending a cannabis themed festival and (2) serving as a seminal work in the context of cannabis tourism literature since the recreational cannabis legalization in the United States.
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Kostas Skliamis and Dirk J. Korf
The purpose of this paper is to: describe and contextualize the aims and distinctive and common characteristics of cannabis festivals in countries with different cannabis…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to: describe and contextualize the aims and distinctive and common characteristics of cannabis festivals in countries with different cannabis policies; assess characteristics of participants; identify reasons to attend cannabis festivals; explore to which extent cannabis festivals contribute to the social and cultural acceptance of cannabis, as perceived by attendees.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach incorporates three methods of data collection in the research design; quantitative research among 1,355 participants, participant observation and interviews with the organizers.
Findings
Cannabis festivals in Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome and Athens have common features but also maintain and reproduce local, social and cultural characteristics. Cannabis festivals, as well as their attendees, represent heterogeneous categories. The style of the festival – music festival or march combined with music – affects the main reason for attendance by the participants. In cannabis festivals more similar to music festivals the majority of the respondents attended for entertainment while at the cannabis festivals in the form of a march combined with music the majority attended for protest. Furthermore, increasing age, residency and the high frequency of cannabis use are factors that led the participants to attend for protest.
Originality/value
The research on cannabis festivals is limited. This paper not only explores the aims of cannabis festivals in four capital cities of Europe and the characteristics of their attendees including motivations, but also offers interesting insights for understanding the ways in which political and social constructions like cannabis festivals shape attitudes, perception and behaviors around cannabis use.
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Casey Camors, Stacy L. Chavez and Andrea M. Romi
Motivated by upper echelon theory, this paper aims to examine the association between gender and the cannabis industry in the USA from both policy and an organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
Motivated by upper echelon theory, this paper aims to examine the association between gender and the cannabis industry in the USA from both policy and an organizational perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper examines two novel data sets in two legal adult-use cannabis states. First, it examines how city council gender diversity relates to city opt-out measure decisions, barring cannabis operations and forgoing related tax revenues. Second, it examines how management gender diversity relates to organizational performance.
Findings
Results suggest that, from a policy perspective, cities with higher council gender diversity are less likely to propose an opt-out measure to city taxpayers. From an organizational perspective, results suggest that female representation at the highest level is associated with higher sales in the retail sector of the cannabis industry.
Research limitations/implications
Findings are somewhat limited by data availability and may not be generalizable to all adult-use legal states. While the study recognizes the possibility of self-selection bias in the results, robust analyses is performed to limit this possibility. Finally, while the study wholly recognizes that gender is not binary, it is limited to a binary gender variable based on the gender recognition software used in this study. It is also understood that this may not accurately capture the richness of a more inclusive examination of gender.
Practical implications
Results from this study inform communities on the impact of city council gender diversity on policy outcomes and related tax revenue levels. Further, results inform the adult-use cannabis industry on benefits derived from executive-level gender diversity.
Social implications
Evidence suggests that gender diversity has a significant impact on the adoption of legalized adult-use cannabis policy. Social benefits from legalization potentially include increased revenues from taxes, decreased spending on cannabis enforcement, decreased health costs and decreased drug-related violence. Many of these benefits substantially impact communities disproportionally burdened by former prohibition. Additionally, the results indicate that gender is associated with the level of sales within cannabis organizations, generating debate about the possibility of economic performance in the absence of historical executive gender barriers.
Originality/value
This paper provides an initial empirical examination of gender diversity within and around the rapidly evolving adult-use cannabis industry in the USA.
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Milind Tiwari and Jamie Ferrill
The purpose of this paper is to interrogate if the legal status of a cannabis affects money laundering activity. The legal status of cannabis continues to evolve globally; at the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to interrogate if the legal status of a cannabis affects money laundering activity. The legal status of cannabis continues to evolve globally; at the same time, its market remains enormous. Much of this market represents dirty money from criminal acts, which often requires laundering. In the context of changing cannabis regulations, legislation, and policies, the authors propose the possible implications such changes may have on the extent of money laundering.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposes the implications of the evolution of cannabis regulations on money laundering activities, using the theoretical underpinning of rational choice. Using Australia as a replicable critical case study, the paper, using the Walker gravity model and using United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime-reported prices of cannabis from 2003 to 2017 and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission reports empirically validates the effects of cannabis regulations on the proceeds available for laundering.
Findings
This study finds support for the argument that prohibitive measures toward cannabis use contribute to increases in the need to launder generated proceeds.
Research limitations/implications
The findings can be replicated in other countries and may contribute to novel propositions within the debate on the legalization of cannabis use, which has, thus, far primarily focused on the areas of health, crime, taxation and education.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no study has yet attempted to provide an economic analysis of the effects of cannabis policy changes on money laundering.
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