Stan Cohen and the Limits of the Cannabis Revolution

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the limits of cannabis reform based on the work of Stan Cohen and specifically his view that rather than receding, state power often spreads, expands, or transforms. By focusing on the contagious nature of social control, we show that despite liberalization, efforts to govern cannabis, and the people who use it, are not limited to formal contacts with the criminal justice system. They extend to various diversion schemes, including drug and education treatment programs. Moreover, it is present within nascent efforts to regulate legal cannabis, which allows the state to replace carceral commitments with regulatory burdens. This constrains rather than advances cannabis reform. We consider the impacts of illusory reform in Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Around the world, cannabis control is shifting, reconstituting, and expanding.