World Wide Weed, Need and Greed: cannabis cultivation in the UK and beyond

1. Gary Potter LSBU potterg@lsbu.ac.uk World Wide Weed, Need and Greed:cannabis cultivation in the UK and beyond

2. “Look, I know my habit causes problems in Colombia, but you try finding a Fair Trade drug dealer”

3. The Pyramid model: the stereotypical view of drug markets • Organisation (organised crime?); Violence; Adulteration; ‘Pushing’ • Primarily about the money • ‘Layers’ of the market (Pearson and Hobbs, 2001) • Importation; Wholesale; the ‘Middle Market’; retail level distribution • ‘Bifurcation’ • Of organisational structures in drugs markets • Of ‘attitudes, ‘motives’ or ‘drivers’ • Changes over time (e.g. Adler, 1985; Dorn et al. 1992) • From ‘Hippie’ ideologies to violence, greed and organised crime Preparing the ground:Existing models of UK drug markets

4. The demand for cannabis • Traditional supply routes • Recent trends towards domestic cultivation • Legal cultivation • Industrial hemp • Medical marijuana • Illegal cultivation • Now accounts for as much as 60% (or more) of the cannabis consumed in the UK (source: IDMU) A growing industry:Trends in domestic cultivation

5. Sowing the seeds:How cannabis is grown in the UK • Outdoor cultivation • Gardeners • Guerrilla growers • Farmers • Greenhouses • Security vs. control • Indoor cultivation • No, low and high-tech approaches • Climate control to maximise drug production

6. Outdoor growing

7. Indoor growing

8. Fertile ground:Who grows cannabis, and why? Requirements to become a cannabis grower Space; Materials (including seeds or cuttings); Knowledge Who grows cannabis? Demographic profiles Personal traits: interests and ideologies Cannabis growing as an ideological position Cannabis as a cultural symbol since 1960s Jack Herer’s “The Emperor Wears No Clothes”

9. Roots:Ideological cannabis growers Not-for-profit cannabis growers All about the ‘weed’… Activism Affiliation with wider ‘cannabis culture’ Personal use and social supply Avoiding the black market Ensuring quality, strength and purity Elements of ‘need’ Medical marijuana cultivation ‘Accidental’ cannabis cultivation Summary of non-financial drivers

10. The budding business:Commercial cannabis cultivation Small scale for-profit growers (‘Weed’, ‘Need’, and the emergence of ‘Greed’) One off opportunists and the slippery slope Growing as a business: the self-employed grower Partnerships and growing friends The limits to individual grow-ops Mid-range growing (‘Weed’, ‘Need’ and ‘Greed’) Co-operatives Franchises Key individuals ‘Corporate’ cannabis cultivation: the traditional pyramid model? (‘Greed’ dominates over ‘Weed’)

11. The need to recognise domestic production • Import substitution • The interplay of financial and non-financial ‘drivers’ • Drift and the ‘slippery slope’ • Networks and key individuals – linking demand and supply • Bifurcation • Methods; ideologies; organisation • Conditions leading to the ‘Green avalanche’ • Future trends for cannabis and other drugs Bearing fruit: discussion points

12. Import substitution in a range of industrialised nations • Outdoor vs Indoor • Typologies of growers • Weed, Need and Greed motivations • Amateur and professional • Small and large scale • Impact on traditional producer nations and global trafficking • Resistance to policing and eradication efforts World Wide Weed:Some Observations on International Developments