World Wide Weed Global Trends in Cannabis Cultivation and its Control

For the majority of its history, the cultivation of cannabis did not stand out, at least compared to the cultivation of other illegal plants. Cannabis plantations, like coca bush or opium poppy plantations, were typically large in size, grown by local farmers in a handful of developing (producing) countries, processed and then exported to industrial (consuming) nations. While cocaine and heroin are still produced in a handful of developing countries, cannabis cultivation is increasingly universal. From Europe to the Americas and Oceania, import substitution in cannabis markets has been noticed in almost every developed country around the world, with a notable aversion for discrimination. Geographical, technological, cultural and economic factors help to explain why (indoor and outdoor) domestic cultivation is well established, and why the nature and extent of cultivation varies so dramatically across the western, developed nations. As we start the second decade of the 21st century, the new cannabis industry continues to fascinate both casual and academic observers of the drug scene. Researchers around the world have become increasingly interested in the phenomenon, aiming to describe, and potentially explain, the rapid switch from importation to domestic production in their own countries. In bringing together some of the world's leading experts on cannabis cultivation this book contains sixteen chapters that take an interdisciplinary look at global trends in cannabis cultivation. It will serve as an exemplar for wider discussions of key theories and concepts relating to the spread not just of cannabis cultivation, but also of illegal markets more generally, the actors that operate within these markets and the policies and practices that are employed in response to developments within these markets.

Contents: Preface, Peter Reuter; The globalization of cannabis cultivation, Gary R. Potter, Martin Bouchard and Tom Decorte; Part I Traditional Producer Nations: Peculiar and perplexed - the complexity of ganja cultivation in the English speaking Caribbean, Axel Klein; Cannabis cultivation practices in the Moroccan Rif, Kenza Afsahi. Part II Growing in the Developed World: Medical marijuana - exploring the concept in relation to small scale cannabis growers in Denmark, Helle Vibeke Dahl and Vibeke Asmussen Frank; With a little help from my friends - justifications of small scale cannabis growers, Pekka Hakkarainen and Jussi Perälä; 'Stories', 'facts' and 'myths'. Perceptions of domestic cultivators on potency and quality of cannabis, Tom Decorte; Professionals or amateurs? Revisiting the notion of professional crime in the context of cannabis cultivation, Martin Bouchard and Holly Nguyen; Co-offending networks in cannabis cultivation, Aili Malm, Rebecca Nash and Samuel Vickovic; Cannabis cultivation in the United States, Ralph A. Weisheit; Cannabis cultivation in Spain - the case of cannabis social clubs, Xabier Arana and Virginia Montañés Sánchez. Part III Responses to Growing in the Developed World: Marihuana behind and beyond coffee shops, Dirk J. Korf; Reforming laws applying to domestic cannabis production as a harm reduction strategy - a case study, Simon Lenton; A review of cannabis properties and experiments for its biological control, Margaret Kalacska, Pablo Arroyo-Mora, Eva Snirer and Rick Parent; The seizure rate of cannabis crop eradication operations in New Zealand, 1998-2009, Chris Wilkins and Paul Sweetsur; Keeping down the weeds: cannabis eradication in the developed world, Gary R. Potter; Emerging trends in cannabis cultivation - and the way forward, Martin Bouchard, Gary R. Potter and Tom Decorte; Index.

Professor Tom Decorte is Director of the Institute for Social Drug Research, Ghent University, Belgium, Dr. Gary Potter is Senior Lecturer in Criminology, London South Bank University, UK and Professor Martin Bouchard is Assistant Professor in the School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, Canada.