Sampson concludes that “the influence of SES on police contacts is contextual in nature, and stems from an ecological bias with regard to police control” . Whether economic deprivation has a direct relationship with crime through individuals’ behavioral mechanisms , or an indirect effect on crime rates through the operation of police bias, there is a strong theoretical basis for the finding that poor neighborhoods report higher crime rates than rich ones. The measures of economic deprivation that are controlled for in this study are poverty and unemployment. Mollie Orshansky developed the original poverty thresholds in 1963-64 when she was an economist working for the Social Security Administration, shortly before the declaration of a “War On Poverty” by President Johnson . An individual or household is in poverty when its total cash income falls below the applicable threshold, determined by family size and composition . The 2010 poverty thresholds range from $11,139 for a single individual living alone to $42,156 for a family of eight or more people living in the same household. Indicators of socioeconomic disadvantage, including poverty and unemployment, have been associated with higher crime rates in Miami, Florida and Columbus, Ohio . Other studies show that rates of crime and violence are extremely high in neighborhoods containing public housing developments, which are areas of extremely concentrated socioeconomic disadvantage . In their study of medical marijuana dispensaries in Sacramento, Williams and colleagues found that violent crimes were significantly associated with “concentrated disadvantage”, a variable constructed from 2008 poverty guidelines. Property and violent crimes were not associated with density of marijuana dispensaries, indoor weed growing accessories but both categories were significantly related to unemployment rate . Further evidence of the link between crime and unemployment is found in crime data from across the United States in the 1990’s, a decade of incredible crime reduction.

Raphael and Winter-Ebmer found that a substantial amount of the reduction in property crimes could be explained by the corresponding decline in unemployment rate. A weaker relationship existed between unemployment and violent crime, according to the researchers. Freeman presents similar findings and concludes that as much as one-third of the drop in crime in the 1990’s can be explained by the expanding job market. Theorizing from earlier empirical work by Sampson , which found that macrolevel indicators of family disruption were related to rates of juvenile crime, Sampson and Groves include family disruption among their “exogenous sources of social disorganization” . The theoretical basis for this lies in the notion that “traditional” families provide their communities with greater parental supervisory resources, compared to single-parent families. Additional supervision results in greater social control and more effective prevention against crime . This theoretical link is supported by empirical evidence. In their reassessment of Sampson and Groves’s original analysis, Veysey and Messner report that family disruption has significant relationship with crime even independently of other social disorganization processes. Indeed, percent of single person households was significantly related with crime in the Sacramento dispensary studies conducted by Williams and colleagues .According to social disorganization theory, communities with higher levels of residential turnover suffer from correspondingly lower levels of social control and are therefore likely to report higher rates of crime . The present study conceptualizes “residential instability” as an index of the percent of housing units in a given census tract that are vacant and the percent of individuals living within the tract who are between the ages of 18 and 29. These variables are also used by Martínez and colleagues in their study of crime and drug use in Miami neighborhoods. Williams and colleagues found that property crimes—but not violent crimes— were significantly associated with percent of owner-occupied households, which is a measure of residential stability. Hipp and colleagues examined residential turnover in an ethnic context and found it to be significantly associated with crime. They conceptualized “residential stability” as the average length of residence of households in the relevant census tract .

Although it is not included in the forthcoming analysis, there is one final measure of social disorganization that appears in the theoretical literature which is relevant to the present discussion of crime in city neighborhoods: population heterogeneity . The argument here is that segregated communities suffer from lower rates of communication and interaction, which prevent them from organizing collectively to reduce crime and delinquency—even when the different population groups have a shared interest in law and order. A number of studies have found that population heterogeneity is associated with higher crime rates . Conclusion In this chapter I have reviewed the literature on cannabis, MCDs, and crime that is relevant to the present study. Particular attention has been given to routine activities theory as well as social disorganization theory . In the next chapter I extrapolate from these theories in developing a conceptual model of crime to test for the criminogenic effect of MCDs.Empirical testing is needed in order to assess the strength of these claims. I develop the model that will be used to test these claims in the first section of this chapter. In the latter sections I describe the various measures that comprise this model, which are tested in the following chapter. In comparing crime rates across city neighborhoods, it is important to control for neighborhood characteristics that are related to crime independently of MCDs. In the present study I consider three vectors of social and demographic variables, drawn from social disorganization theory, that will be used as control variables in my model: economic deprivation, family disruption, and residential instability . “Social disorganization” is a concept used to describe communities in which there is a lack of sufficient social cohesion among members—characterized by low socioeconomic status, fewer stable families, and high residential turnover—that would otherwise serve as a deterrent against crime. Higher levels of these social disorganization indicators are associated with higher crime rates at the citywide and neighborhood level . Controlling for these variables across city neighborhoods will help determine whether, and to what extent, MCDs have an independent effect on crime. Current debates about the relationship between MCDs and crime tend to revolve around politicized rhetoric and anecdotal claims .

The only scholarly discussion of this question known by this author at the time of this writing consists of a pair of studies out of UCLA that examined crime data from 95 census tracts in Sacramento for the year 2009 . Nancy J. Williams and colleagues found that crime rates were not significantly associated with neighborhood density of medical marijuana dispensaries. The researchers identified several other variables with higher explanatory power with respect to crime, including unemployment, percent of the population that is young, and percent of one-person households. These findings correspond with the assertion made by social disorganization researchers that low levels of SES, high residential instability, and high rates of family disruption correspond with relatively higher rates of crime. In the following sections of this chapter, I will discuss these and other measures that comprise the empirical model developed by this study. First, I will briefly review the two criminological theories that I draw upon: routine activities theory and social disorganization theory.Stemming from human ecology, routine activities theory attempts to explain crime on the basis of three conjoining factors: suitable targets, likely offenders, and absence of capable guardians . This approach suggests that MCDs could potentially lead to crime by increasing the concentration of likely offenders in the local neighborhood, or, more directly, by themselves presenting suitable targets for crime. These are precisely the sorts of claims that are made by critics of MCDs . Conversely, it is conceivable that MCDs might decrease crime in a neighborhood by introducing increased guardianship, rolling benches which could serve as a deterrent against crime. Proponents of MCDs make arguments of this type when asserting that dispensaries—especially those in compliance with local regulatory schemes requiring stringent security protocols—actually reduce crime in their neighborhoods . Routine activities theory is an appropriate and compelling lens through which to analyze these competing claims. It is appropriate because it presents direct causal mechanisms through which MCDs might affect crime, and it is compelling because those mechanisms plausibly run in either direction . Another useful approach found in the criminological literature is social disorganization theory, first developed by Shaw and McKay, which links urban crime to the concept of “social disorganization” . Studies have identified several measures of social disorganization that are positively associated with crime . In the present study I examine three “exogenous sources of social disorganization”: socioeconomic deprivation, residential instability, and family disruption. If these neighborhood characteristics predict crime, as social disorganization theory suggests, then they ought to be incorporated into more specific models of urban crime—including the present attempt to explain the relationship between MCDs and crime. I do not argue that there is a direct relationship between MCDs and social disorganization. Rather, I look to social disorganization theory to identify neighborhood characteristics, independent of cannabis, which might confound the real relationship between MCDs and crime. Variables from each of the three categories of social disorganization variables used in the present model are summarized in Table 3.1 below. For a more thorough review of the underlying theories and concepts, see the previous chapter.This study examines the spatial relationship between medical cannabis dispensaries and crime across 189 census tracts in San Francisco in the year 2010. I test two hypotheses drawn from the theoretical literature on routine activities theory , controlling for neighborhood characteristics drawn from social disorganization theory . The first is that MCDs increase crime by attracting likely offenders and presenting them with suitable targets; the second is that MCDs actually decrease crime by protecting their surrounding community with adequate security measures and thereby providing capable guardianship.

The theoretical bases for these claims are discussed in greater length in the previous two chapters. In this chapter I present the research methodology employed by this study and discuss their implications. Data are collected from the San Francisco Police Department, Planning Department, and Department of Public health; the California Department of Finance; the American Community Survey ; and the United States Census Bureau. Linear regression models are tested using four dependent variables at the census tract level: total property crimes, property crimes per 1,000 residents, total violent crimes, and violent crimes per 1,000 residents. Findings are largely but not perfectly consistent across these different models with respect to the spatial relationships between crime, MCD density, and the seven other neighborhood characteristics analyzed: poverty, unemployment, family stability, vacancy rate, percent of the population ages 18-29, percent of the population that is male, total population size, and percent of land commercially zoned. Findings indicate a consistently weak but statistically significant relationship between MCDs and crime. MCD-containing tracts have slightly higher rates of both property crime and violent crime than tracts that do not contain MCDs. The link is stronger for violent crime than property crime . I am careful not to infer too much from this finding, due to the limited number of cases under review—26 dispensaries across 16 census tracts, compared to 173 non-MCD-containing tracts. Crime is more strongly predicted by the social disorganization variables examined by this study: socioeconomic disadvantage, family disruption, and residential instability. Consistent with social disorganization theory, socioeconomic disadvantage and family disruption are found to be strong predictors of high crime rates. By “stronger” I mean that it has a larger correlation coefficient and a higher degree of statistical significance . “Family stability” is negatively associated with crime across all four models. Again, this link is stronger than the link between MCD density and crime. The third category of variables drawn from Sampson and Groves’ “exogenous sources of social disorganization” , residential instability, was not as strongly predictive of crime as socioeconomic disadvantage or family disruption. In the following sections I explore these findings more deeply and discuss their implications for research as well as policy making. In a recent working paper for the California Center for Population Research at UCLA, Nancy Williams and colleagues present a routine activities approach for examining the link between MCDs and crime. They examine 95 census tracts in Sacramento using data for the year 2009. Their findings indicate that tracts containing dispensaries are not significantly associated with higher rates of crime when controlling for neighborhood characteristics associated with crime . This study borrows from their work in conducting a cross-sectional analysis of the spatial relationship between MCDs and crime in 189 San Francisco census tracts for the year 2010. All measures are aggregated to the level of census tracts.

This phenomenon may explain why isolated compounds derived from cannabis appear only capable of exerting a limited effect as seen in drugs such as with the synthetic ∆-9 THC drug, dronabinol. To what extent each of these components confers anti-inflammatory benefits is a current focus of research. To what extent each of these components confers anti-inflammatory benefits is a current focus of research.An extensive literature beyond the scope of this review demonstrates persistently elevated levels of inflammatory and immune activation biomarkers even in PWH on antiretroviral therapy who have achieved plasma HIV RNA levels less than 50 copies/mL, designated “virally suppressed”. These include interleukin-6 , C-reactive protein and tumor necrosis factor alpha, CD4+ T cell depletion in gut lymphoid tissue persist, activated T cells are increased, and many immune cells are senescent. PWH also have a dysfunctional gut epithelial barrier , an increase in the permeability of the intestinal barrier accompanied by gut dysbiosis and immune dysregulation from loss of T cells in the GALT, resulting in activation of pro-inflammatory soluble CD14 , a response to circulating bacterial products, or microbial translocation . The central nervous system is an important site of inflammation in HIV, as demonstrated by measuring inflammatory biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid, by brain magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and by positron emission tomography using microglial activation markers. Several mechanisms contribute to the persistence of inflammation in virally suppressed PWH. These include coinfections and gut dysbiosis. Cytomegalovirus co-infection is highly prevalent in PWH; CMV replication is frequently reactivated, triggering an inflammatory response. As mentioned above, gut microbial dysbiosis, which promotes dysfunction of the gut epithelial barrier, drying room resulting in a positive feedback loop sustained by increased microbial translocation of pro-inflammatory antigens such as lipopolysaccharide and subsequent immune activation and chronic inflammation.

Whereas normal commensal flora contribute to tolerance and balance between T helper subsets, loss or replacement of these beneficial flora leads to loss of T-helper type 1 function, amplifying GALT dysfunction in HIV infection. Depletion of Th17 cells in the GALT leads to reduced IL-22 production, diminishing epithelium repair processes and maintenance of tight gap junctions. Such barrier defects create a pathway for microbial products to escape the gut lumen and enter the systemic circulation. The entry of microbial products into the blood, known as microbial antigen translocation triggers the innate immune response and release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin -1β, TNF-α and others. Abundant data show activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome in virally suppressed PWH. Hepatitis C virus co-infection is common in PWH and may be another source of microbial translocation that drives inflammation. Plasma levels indicative of microbial translocation in HIV-HCV co-infection were higher than in monoinfected PWH virally suppressed on ART. PWH co-infected with HCV had a marked increase in markers of microbial translocation than uninfected healthy controls, whereas the plasma 16S rDNA was relatively similar, suggesting that it is the immune activation that persists as opposed to the circulating bacterial products. Tudesq and colleagues demonstrated for the first time that the plasma 16S rDNA levels increased with the duration of HIV infection in HIV-HCV co-infection, independent of HCV progression.Increased inflammation in virally suppressed PWH as described above is associated with adverse health outcomes such as myocardial infarction and even death. Persistent inflammation also affects the central nervous system , where microglia and astrocytes are chronically activated , ddimer, IL-6, CRP, monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 , soluble CD14 and sCD40L. Adjusting for age, comorbidity status, sex, ethnicity, AIDS status, current and nadir CD4, and virologic suppression on ART, factor analyses reduced the dimensionality of the biomarkers, yielding three factors, one of which was loaded on d-dimer, IL-6 and CRP and was correlated with worse depressed mood. We also reported that poorer social support was associated with higher levels of plasma MCP-1, IL-8 and VEGF, as well as CSF MCP-1 and IL-6 , suggesting that that enhancing social support might be an intervention to reduce inflammation and its associated adverse outcomes among PWH.The ECS comprises a network of receptors, endogenous ligands and enzymes expressed in diverse cell types.

Among the many functions of the ECS is regulation of energy use and substrate metabolism to maintain homeostasis. Components of exogenously administered cannabis bind to EC receptors, thereby modulating the function of the ECS. ECS signaling pathways have been pursued as a target for future pharmacotherapy to reduce inflammation and provide therapy in pathological conditions. The cannabinoid receptors type-1 and -2 are expressed in most tissues. CB2Rs are densely expressed in immune tissue and organs in diverse cell types including macrophages, splenocytes, microglia, monocytes, and T-cells resident in the thymus, spleen, and bone marrow and tonsils, providing a mechanism by which cannabinoids can exert anti-inflammatory effects. CB1Rs are most abundant in the brain, where they serve to modulate neurotransmitter activities, thereby mediating effects of phytocannabinoids on neurobehavior. They are particularly highly expressed in nociceptive areas of the CNS, as well as in the cerebellum, hippocampus, limbic system, and basal ganglia. They are not found in the medullary respiratory centers and thus, unlike opioids, do not cause respiratory depression. CB1Rs are also expressed on immune, cardiac, and testicular cells. In the GI tract, CB1Rs are involved in feeding, gastrointestinal motility, satiety signaling and energy balance. CB1R peripheral activity includes lipogenesis and inhibition of adiponectin, found at elevated levels in obese and diabetic individuals . CB1R signaling has been linked to increased levels of free fatty acids, low HDL, high triglycerides and insulin resistance. The two main endocannabinoids are arachidonoyl ethanolamide, or anadamide , and 2-arachidonoylglycerol , both derived from lipid precursors and synthesized on demand. Endocannabinoids in the postsynaptic neuron are released into the synaptic cleft, and travel retrograde to the presynaptic neuron, where they inhibit neurotransmitter release. The principal enzymes for degradation of ECs are fatty acid amide hydrolase and monoacylglycerol lipase . Additional EC-degrading enzymes include cyclooxygenase-2 , lipoxygenase , serine esterases and cytochrome P450.The anti-inflammatory effects of exogenous cannabinoids are mediated by the ECS , likely through CB2Rs in the periphery that have immunomodulatory functions.

Both preclinical and clinical evidence support theseanti-inflammatory effects of exogenous cannabinoids, particularly THC and CBD. This may be particularly important in the context of HIV, which is characterized by persistent inflammation as described above. For example, PWH heavy cannabis users had decreased frequencies of T-cells bearing the activation marker HLA-DR+ CD38+ CD4+ compared to non-cannabis-using individuals. Heavy cannabis users also showed reduced frequencies of antigen-presenting cells that produced pro-inflammatory interleukin-23 and tumor necrosis factor-α. In another study, HIV-infected cannabis users had lower IFN-γ-inducible protein 10 levels in plasma. In an experimental study examining the interaction between the ECS and cytokine networks in humans, CB1 and CB2 expression were significantly induced by TNF-α, IL-β, and IL-6. CBD may be a particularly potent anti-inflammatory component of cannabis. CBD reduces pro-inflammatory cytokines, inhibits T cell proliferation and reduces migration and adhesion of immune cells. These effects translate to improved outcomes in disease models. Thus, CBD protected against the deleterious effects of inflammation in a viral model of multiple sclerosis. Cannabidivarin , structurally similar to CBD, is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid found in cannabis. Very little work has been conducted on CBDV in PWH. In one study, CBDV was safe but failed to reduce neuropathic pain in patients with HIV. In the laboratory, it has been shown that CBDV decreases fat formation and inflammation in human skin cells. Many anti-inflammatory actions of cannabinoids may be mediated through the gut, particularly through stabilization of the gut barrier. The gut barrier is composed of epithelial cells, tight junctions, and a mucus layer. It controls beneficial nutrient absorption and protects against the deleterious invasion of pathogenic bacteria and toxins from the gut lumen into the blood. The ECS, how to trim cannabis together with the gut microbiota, regulates epithelial barrier permeability. In an animal model of HIV, macaques infected with simian immunodeficiency virus showed increased markers of inflammation and immune activation in epithelial crypt cells; these markers were reduced after chronic THC administration. Exposure to phytocannabinoids may reduce neural injury by decreasing excitotoxicity and neuroinflammation. In a large cohort of PWH, we recently reported that neurocognitive impairment was less frequent in cannabis users than non-users, regardless of viral suppression. In comparison, cannabis exposure was not related to NCI among PWoH. Unlike many prior reports, this analysis carefully controlled for any non-cannabis substance use disorders, positive urine toxicology for other illicit drugs and any past methamphetamine use disorder, positive breathalyzer test for alcohol, major depressive disorder and HIV disease characteristics. A possible mechanism of the specificity of the benefits of cannabis only for PWH is the anti-inflammatory effect of cannabis, which may be particularly important for PWH who have persistent inflammation despite good antiretroviral treatment. In contrast to cannabis’s beneficial actions in PWH, research on PWoH typically reports adverse effects on brain development and neurocognition. Examples include attentional and memory deficits, behavioral problems and structural and functional brain changes. The data are particularly concerning for adolescents. It is possible that PWH are less likely to suffer these adverse consequences than PWoH because of the counterbalancing effects of cannabis in reducing neuroinflammation, as we discussed when considering stroke. In an animal study, euroinflammation, measured as levels of TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6 and MCP-1, was reduced in the striatum of SIV-infected animals treated with THC.

Enteroendocrine signaling and the vagus nerve may provide a mechanism through which the gut microbiota may influence the central nervous system. Additionally, signaling through CB1Rs is influenced by Akkermansia muciniphila and administration of this organism to obese and type 2 diabetic mice increased intestinal levels of ECs that control gut inflammation and the gut barrier. These relationships between the gutmicrobiota and the ECS may be therapeutically useful. Thus, in zebrafish treated with a probiotic formulation for 30 days, gene expression of FAAH and MAGL, the enzymes responsible for degradation of the endocannabinoids AEA and 2-AG, decreased. Thus, probiotic treatment enhanced endocannabinoid signaling and improved gut integrity. Gut bacteria control the differentiation and function of immune cells in the intestine, periphery, and brain. There is increasing evidence that gut microbiota and the immune system are critical factors in the pathogenesis of neurodevelopmental, psychiatric and neurodegenerative disease as microbiota immunomodulation orchestrates communication between the gut and brain. Some cognitive domains are subject to immune-mediated CNS injury from HIV-induced microglial activation and contribute to HIV-related cognitive dysfunction. Furthermore, microglia are exquisitely responsive to the gut microbiome and commensal bacteria support the maintenance of microglia in normal homeostasis conditions. When microbiota is absent, microglia lose the ability to mature, becoming defected in differentiation, and function. In a study with germ-free mice, severely defected microglia led to impaired innate immune responses. LPS activates microglial cells leading to neuroinflammation and when chronic, is a likely contributor to CNS pathologies, via a leaky gut–brain barrier. Microbial antigen translocation refers to the entry of bacterial, fungal and viral components, such as LPS, and metabolites, such as short-chain fatty acids , cross from the gut lumen into the bloodstream. The endogenous cannabinoid, AEA, contributes to the process by which the gut immune system actively tolerates such microbial antigens. In HIV, MAT is associated with monocyte activation and inflammation. Thus, β-D-glucan is a microbially derived antigen that serves as one index of MAT. The anti-inflammatory effects of cannabinoids may be beneficial with respect to HIV reservoirs, which are the principal barrier to HIV cure. We analyzed HIV DNA in blood as a marker of reservoir size in men who had sex with men and initiated ART within a median of 4 months of estimated date of HIV infection. All achieved suppressed HIV RNA within a median of 5 months. Exclusive use of cannabis, as compared to no substance use or use of other drugs, was associated with a faster decay of HIV DNA during suppressive ART. These results are in line with prior reports of reduced HIV replication and cellular infection rate in the presence of cannabinoids in vitro. Thus, the potential anti-inflammatory effects of cannabis could translate to a beneficial impact in reducing HIV persistence. However, there is no consistent evidence that cannabis use affects levels of plasma HIV RNA. In addition to their expression in the peripheral immune system, CB2Rs are also expressed in the CNS . In humans, the bulk of CB2R expression is by microglia and astrocytes, consistent with a role in neuroinflammation.

In addition to the various classes of natural products described above, there are some hybrid natural products that span two classes. Cannabinoids for example are derived from the terpenoid pathway and the polyketide pathway . Prenyl-flavonoids and prenylstilbenoids would also fall under this category. Cannabinoids are a very interesting class of natural products, with some pretty remarkable medicinal properties. For the past 83 years cannabis or marijuana was considered a schedule one drug by the United States, which stunted the research into the molecules that cannabis makes. Although it is still classified as a schedule one drug by the federal government, the perception of the plant and the molecules it makes is starting to change. Thirty-three states now permit the use of medical marijuana and 10 states and Washington DC have legalized it for recreational use. The shift in perception may be due to recent clinical studies. A non-psychoactive component of cannabis, cannabidiol or CBD was FDA approved to treat severe childhood epilepsy, and has been suggested as a possible treatment for the spasticity associated with diseases like Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis . THC or D9 -tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of marijuana is FDA approved as an appetite stimulant for patients going through chemotherapy.54 In addition to the conditions these cannabinoids are already approved for, both THC and CBD are cited to have antiemetic, antianxiety, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant and anticonvulsant properties. While THC and CBD are produced abundantly by cannabis plants, several groups have attempted to engineer microbes to produce cannabinoids and their intermediates in order to create a more sustainable source of these pharmaceutical compounds. As shown in Figure 1-7 the biosynthesis of cannabinoids can be broken down into three parts, cannabis grow room the polyketide biosynthesis , the terpenoid biosynthesis and the cannabinoid biosynthesis .

Gagne et al were the first group to transform the olivetolic acid biosynthetic pathway into yeast. Previous work by Taura et al had identified an olivetol synthase, capable of making the decarboxylated form of OA. Gagne et al posited that there was an additional enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway that would cyclize the polyketide chain to form OA instead of olivetol. In this work they identified olivetolic acid cyclase, which cyclizes tetraketide intermediate to form OA instead of olivetol. Gagne et al transformed the genes necessary to produce OA in S. cerevisiae, and reported a titer of 0.5 mg/L; however this titer is not optimized. Six years later Tan et al engineered the same pathway into E. coli. They added additional enzymes to increase the malonyl-CoA and hexanoyl-CoA precursors, and were able to obtain 80 mg/L of OA. At the other end of the biosynthesis , Zirpel et al have engineered several yeast strains to catalyze the final two steps in the biosynthetic pathway. First in 2017, Zirpel engineered P. pastoris to express a promiscuous prenyltransferase, NphB, and THCA synthase to convert OA into THC. While the yeast expressed both enzymes, they did not detect any THC until they lysed the cells and supplemented with two precursors, OA and geranyl pyrophosphate . Even then, the production of THC was slow at ~ 10 nmol/L/hr, which was attributed to an inefficient prenylation step, and low levels of the cannabinoid synthase. In later studies, Zirpel et al focused on engineering the yeast strains to improve the expression of the cannabinoid synthases THCAS and CBDAS. They identified five proteins that aid in the expression of the cannabinoid synthases. When they supplemented the yeast over expressing the cannabinoid synthases with CBGA, they were able to produce over 3 g/L of THCA and 400 mg/L of CBDA, a significant improvement to their first study.60 Only one group has reported the entire biosynthesis of cannabinoids in yeast, however the titers are low.

They produced the precursor cannabigerolic acid at 8 mg/L, THCA at 1.1 mg/L and CBDA at 4.2 µg/L, when the cultures were supplemented with 1 mM hexanoic acid. These low titers indicate the difficulty associated with engineering a microbe to produce a complex natural product. When the authors supplemented cultures with 1 mM of the precursor OA, they were able to produce higher levels of the CBGA intermediate 200 mg/L a 55% conversion of the OA added. This may indicate that OA biosynthesis is limiting in their strain, probably due to the low malonyl-CoA concentrations. Similarly to other engineered microbes for opioid, paclitaxel and artemisinic acid production, the cannabinoid pathway is very complex. The root of the pathway is the essential precursor acetyl-CoA, which is required to make both the aromatic polyketide component, and the isoprenoid component of the cannabinoid. Additionally there is always the possibility of product or intermediate toxicity, which can limit titers. Further, expression of the cannabinoid synthases can be challenging. Zirpel et al observed low titers of THC until they co-expressed the synthase with several chaperones, and an enzyme to improve cofactor biosynthesis. Listed above are 15 examples of microbes that have been engineered to produce various natural products , and it’s evident that microbial engineering allows for the production of vastly different natural products. Microbial fermentation is an important tool for the production of natural products, and is used in several industrial processes. However, the cases presented above demonstrate the highly variable nature of titers, ranging from µg/L to g/L, and its apparent that some studies are more successful than others. The studies that are more successful tend to be shorter metabolic pathways, and they do more than simply add an exogenous bio-synthetic pathway, they try to drive carbon flux into the target pathway. This highlights one inherent problem with engineering microbes.

The target pathway engineered into the microbe is always competing with native metabolic pathways for cofactors and metabolites. Therefore, essential pathways will always deplete resources from the target pathway. Additionally, metabolites from the background metabolism have the potential to inhibit the target pathway. These interactions are extremely challenging if not impossible to identify in vivo, and can limit the overall titers of any pathway. The final product can also decrease cell viability, like in the case of monoterpenes and alcohols, and limit product titers. Finally, while engineering microbes is fairly simple and efficient compared to other organisms, it still takes a significant amount of time to develop strains, approximately “150 person-years” of work were required to engineer yeast to produce artemisinic acid at 25 g/L.62 There are two alternatives to metabolic engineering, cell-free biosynthesis and synthetic biochemistry. They are built on the same principles, using enzymes to produce a target molecule, but instead of engineering a microbe, the biocatalysts are reconstituted either in a cell lysate or in vitro. The difference between cell-free and synthetic biochemistry is small, with cell-free relying on the cellular machinery in a lysate to recycle essential co-factors, whereas synthetic biochemistry relies on pathways with the ability to recycle the necessary co-factors. Cell-free systems are most commonly used to power protein expression, however there are some cases where lysates have powered the production of a biosynthetic pathway. There’s. lot of flexibility within this set up. Kay et al produced 2,3 butanediol at 84 g/L using a lysate derived from an E. coli strain expressing all three enzymes in the pathway, but Dudley et al expressed the desired proteins individually, lysed the cells and mixed the various lysates together to produce mevalonate at 17.5 g/L. Interestingly, when Dudley applied the same concept to the production of limonene , the titers were significantly lower at approximately 100 mg/L.This type of system shares some of the challenges with metabolic engineering. Even though the cells are lysed, metabolic enzymes still remain active; therefore its possible for carbon flux to be diverted from the target pathway. Dudley et al cite this as a major challenge for the cell-free production of limonene. The native E. coli farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase remains active, grow trays and siphons flux away from the monoterpene pathway to produce a sesquiterpene alcohol. Additionally, metabolites present in the lysate can inhibit the pathway of interest and limit titers. However, cell viability is no longer limiting, products can be extracted in real time limiting product inhibition and the target pathway protein levels are easily manipulated.Synthetic biochemistry provides several advantages over metabolic engineering. Many of the successful studies mentioned above required altering central metabolism to account for the target pathway, but in every instance it was a balancing act between essential pathways and the target pathway. A synthetic biochemistry approach also allows for rapid design, build, test cycles, which makes it easier and faster to identify pathway bottlenecks. Once bottlenecks are identified, it is very easy to tailor the enzyme activity to alleviate the problem, something that is very challenging to do in vivo. Additionally, because enzymes can be expressed and purified from a range of expression platforms , it increases the pool of potential enzymes that can be used.

Finally, like the cell-free approach the products can be easily extracted, limiting problems associated with product toxicity. However there is a challenge with this approach. Without the cell, the in vitro pathways need to incorporate components that will balance and regenerate co-factors. In their simplest form, in vitro enzymatic systems can be broken down into two modules, the sugar breakdown module and the build module. The sugar breakdown module catabolizes the sugar into 2-3 carbon building blocks and generates high energy co-factors like ATP and reducing equivalents in the process. Those components are then assembled in the build phase to generate the final product. The challenge is the high energy cofactors produced in the sugar breakdown module are not always balanced with the build module. This is the case for the in vitro biosynthesis of monoterpenes and isobutanol. Korman et al engineered a system with 27 enzymes to biosynthesize monoterpenes. To produce a monoterpene, the feedstock, glucose, was converted into pyruvate via glycolysis, pyruvate was converted into acetyl-CoA with pyruvate dehydrogenase , acetyl-CoA fed into the mevalonate pathway to yield geranyl pyrophosphate , which was converted into a monoterpene via a monoterpene synthase. The pathway originally was not stoichiometrically balanced for the reducing equivalents, NADH. The sugar breakdown module originally produced 6 moles of NADH, and the build module required 2 moles of NADPH. Not only were the reducing equivalents stoichiometrically unbalanced, they were not the type the build module needed. To counteract this imbalance Korman et al employed a molecular purge valve. The purge valve consists of three components. First, an NAD+ specific glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase is responsible for maintaining carbon flux through glycolysis. An NADH oxidase was used to burn excess reducing equivalents, and an NADP+ specific GAPDH was used to generate the reducing equivalents required for the mevalonate pathway. All three components were required for the in vitro system to run efficiently. Using the NADP+ specific GAPDH alone leads to a buildup of NADPH, which prevents the conversion of glyceradehyde-3-phosphate into 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate . This would eliminate ATP regeneration via the glycolysis pathway and eventually stop the system. The pathway yielded 12.5 g/L of limonene and 14.9 g/L of pinene, which is significantly higher than titers achieved in microbes. Opgenorth et al engineered an in vitro enzymatic system to produce isobutanol. As previously mentioned alcohols are fairly toxic to microorganisms. Therefore, an in vitro, cell-free approach might lead to higher titers. For isobutanol, the sugar breakdown module is glycolysis which nets 2 reducing equivalents and 2 ATP per cycle. The isobutanol build module requires 2 moles of NADPH, but 0 ATP. Therefore, in order to balance the system Opgenorth et al utilized GapN, an enzyme that converts G3P and NADP+ into 3-phosphoglycerate and NADPH, thereby eliminating a step that regenerates an ATP. This leads to a system that is stoichiometrically balanced, however, this may not be optimal in a cell-free system. Opgenorth et al found that ATPase activity from purified enzymes or spontaneous ATP hydrolysis can deplete ATP stores and limit product titers. So, they engineered a component to generate excess ATP under high phosphate conditions , called the molecular rheostat. The rheostat is a branchpoint in glycolysis providing two paths that convert G3P into 3PG, with one path produces ATP and the other does not. The GapN path directly converts G3P into 3PG yielding no ATP. The phosphorylation path converts G3P into BPG with an NADP+ specific GAPDH, and BPG is converted into 3PG using phosphoglycerate kinase, which regenerates an ADP into ATP. Because the activity of the GAPDH enzyme is dependent on the phosphate concentration, the rheostat ATP production is also dependent on the phosphate concentration.

The Hangzhou Public Bicycle System has surpassed Vélib as the largest bike sharing program in the world. Not surprisingly, it has sparked great interest in bike sharing in Mainland China. Indeed, Beijing, Tianjin, Hainan, and Suzhou have already launched pilot programs in 2008 and 2009.Nature plays a crucial role in medicine. Natural products, or molecules produced by living organisms, are a rich source of novel molecules that have a myriad of beneficial properties. The idea of using natural products as medicines is not a new concept. In fact, it dates back to ancient civilizations where various plant products were used to manage, treat and prevent disease. Mesopotamia relied on cedar and cypress oils to cure ailments, Egypt had a collection of about 700 plant based medicines detailed in “Ebers Papyrus.” Chinese civilizations also cultivated their own list of natural medicines with the first record dating back to 1100 BC.1 Over time the lists of natural remedies evolved; however, it was not until the 19th century AD when scientists began to identify the actual molecules that had the medicinal effects. Morphine was the first natural product to be isolated from its natural source and sold in 1826.Since, scientists have continued to identify novel natural products with amazing properties, and while the list of natural product medicines is long, some of the most notable are: penicillin , paclitaxel , lovastatin , quinine and cannabidiol .Beyond medicinal natural products, scientists have also identified natural products that can be used as fuels, fragrances and dyes. Nature continues to be a rich source for novel molecules, with some predicting only 10% of the biodiversity that exists on the planet has been discovered. Despite the importance of natural products in everyday life, drying cannabis there has been a paradigm shift from the use of unmodified natural products to semi-synthetic modified natural products, and synthetic compounds. 

This is in part due to the expense associated with identifying and characterizing natural products, and the decision of the Supreme court in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, 569 U.S.  which decided that natural products cannot be patented, thereby limiting economic motivation for identifying new natural products. However, it is imperative to realize the myriad of applications for natural products in human health and other industries, and continue to develop methodologies to identify and synthesize this class of molecules. Herein, we focus on methods to produce natural products. Chemical synthesis is the most common method used to produce a molecule, and while this technique can be used to produce almost any molecule, the process is not always economically feasible on an industrial scale. This is often the case for natural products; the chemical synthesis is possible , but the cost of the synthesis process is greater than the cost of extracting the target molecule from a natural source. As a result, the world’s supply of morphine, paclitaxel and cannabinoids as well as an array of other molecules is still dependent on natural sources. However, there are many challenges associated with relying on natural sources to produce these crucial medicines. Plants are slow growing, susceptible to environmental conditions, inconsistent in secondary metabolite production, and secondary metabolites are often present at very low concentrations. A great example is paclitaxel, produced by the pacific yew tree. It requires 3 to 6, 100-year old, pacific yew trees to treat one cancer patient.1 This is simply not sustainable. Additionally, there can also be political implications. The world’s supply of morphine is predominantly produced in Turkey, India and Afghanistan, and shifts in the political climate could lead to shortages or high prices of the essential drug. So while chemical synthesis and natural product extraction are sufficient for now, in order to capitalize on the properties of natural products, we need new cost-effective, consistent and efficient methods to produce natural products.

Several ideas have been proposed to address these challenges outlined in Figure 1-1, such as engineering plants to improve natural abundance, plant cell culture, engineering microbes, cell-free biosynthesis and synthetic biochemistry. Herein, each method listed above is reviewed for the pros and cons. It is important to realize that natural products are unique and different methods will be suitable for different molecules. First, some effort has been dedicated to engineering plants to either improve the abundance of a target molecule, or engineer a plant to make a natural product it would not make normally. Zhang et al were able to engineer tomatoes to improve the production of genestein, a flavonoid with an array of important medicinal properties. Naturally tomatoes produce very low levels of genistein , but Zhang et al improved the amount of genistein to 78 mg/g of dry weight, nearly 0.8% of the tomato DW. Additionally, you could engineer a plant to produce a molecule it would not have produced naturally. In addition to boosting genistein levels, Zhang et al were able to engineer tomatoes to produce resveratrol a compound not naturally produced by tomatoes at levels 100-fold higher than grapes .However genetically engineering plants can be challenging. There are only a few species that have been extensively studied, which limits the number of model systems. Additionally, plant metabolism is complex and it can be difficult to identify molecular components, like transcription factors, that are necessary to boost biosynthesis of the target molecule. This also does not address some of the inherent issues with plant sources, such as cultivation time and susceptibility to mold, pests and environmental conditions. Plant cell culture is an exciting alternative to extracting the compound from the natural source. They can be generated from a variety of plant species by first isolating plant tissue sterilizing the tissue, and plating the sterilized tissue on solid media supplemented with plant hormones and nutrients. The explants proliferate to form a callus . Calluses can then be used to initiate plant cell suspension cultures, which have the ability to produce secondary metabolites. This method has many advantages over extraction from the natural source such as improved sustainability, shorter incubation times, increased production level through metabolic engineering, consistent environmental conditions, and protection from insects and mold. 

Cell culture has been particularly fruitful for the production of paclitaxel, a powerful anticancer drug. As previously stated it would take 6, 100 year old trees to produce enough paclitaxel to treat one patient, however the plant cell cultures are able to produce 150 mg/L in 6 weeks, a dramatic improvement. Plant cell culture is well suited for the production of paclitaxel due to the complexity of the bio-synthetic pathway, so generating cell lines from cells that naturally produce paclitaxel is a relatively simple process. Some additional examples natural products produced by plant cell culture include: scopolamine , protoberberines rosmarinic acid , shikonin and geraniol .Despite the benefits of plant cell cultures there are still several challenges. The cultivation time is still 2-3 weeks, which is rather long compared to microbial cultivation times. Further genetic instability and physiological heterogeneity leads to variability and unpredictability in secondary metabolite production. The secondary metabolites also remain intracellular which can make it difficult to reach high titers. As this technology develops further it may be possible to address some of these issues. For example, Wilson et al are working to reduce genetic instability and rescue necrotic calluses in order to improve production of paclitaxel in plant cell cultures. However, some challenges are more difficult to address such as improving the titer of toxic compounds. While plant cell culture is an important method for natural product biosynthesis, specifically paclitaxel biosynthesis, the method is not broadly applicable to other natural products due to the complexity of plant metabolism. In addition to plants, microbes are a rich source of natural products. Both fungi and bacteria naturally produce an array of useful molecules. In fact, several FDA approved antibiotics are produced via microbial fermentation. However, it is also possible to engineer microbes to produce natural products from other organisms such as plants. Microbes are easy to manipulate, they have relatively short cultivation times , curing cannabis and are easier to culture than plant cells. As a result, there is an entire field of research dedicated to engineering microbes to produce nonnative natural products. Due to the vast number of studies conducted in this field, this review will only focus on several examples of microbial production of bio-fuels, terpenes, alkaloids and polyketides. In addition to being a rich source of medicines, nature also produces molecules that play an important role in everyday life. Due to the need for energy security and limits on the world’s petroleum supply there is a need for sustainable liquid fuels for transportation. Microbes naturally produce alcohols, isoprenoids, and fatty acids, which can be used as fuels or easily converted into fuels. 

As a result, a great deal of research has focused on engineering microbes to improve the natural production of bio-fuels. Microbial production of isobutanol and farnesene are reviewed below. Alcohol-derived bio-fuels are the ideal candidate to replace gasoline used in cars. Isobutanol has a high energy density low vapor pressure, and a high octane rating . Therefore, it can either be blended into gasoline or replace petrochemicals altogether. There have been several studies published that discuss the microbial production of isobutanol in various organisms, such as: E. coli, C. glutamicum, S. cerevisiae, C. acetobutylicum, R. eutropha, and S. elongatus. The highest titer achieved was an engineered strain of E. coli. Atsumi et al engineered E. coli to produce 22 g/L of isobutanol. First, they over expressed the enzymes in the isobutanol pathway shown in Figure 1-2. Then, they deleted non-essential genes that would divert precursors and intermediates out of the isobutanol pathway. Finally, they improved the flux of pyruvate into the isobutanol pathway by using a non-native enzyme with better kinetic parameters. A later study by Baez et al using a similar E. coli strain obtained titers of 50 g/L by continuously removing isobutanol from the culture, demonstrating the effects of isobutanol toxicity on E. coli cultures. While alcohol based bio-fuels are a possible alternative, they are too expensive to compete with the low cost of gasoline. Iftiters could be improved further, the cost of the bio-fuels would decrease, however this is unlikely due to the toxicity of alcohols at high concentrations. The highest microbial production of a bio-fuel reported thus far is a sesquiterpene derived bio-fuel, which can be converted into diesel fuel and jet fuel. Amyris was able to engineer yeast to produce the sesquiterpene farnesene at titers that exceed 130 g/L by re-engineering yeast central metabolism to direct sugar into the isoprenoid pathway. However, these production levels are still relatively low, when considering the energy demand of US transportation. At this titer, it would require 23.5 L of yeast culture to produce 1 gallon of farnesene. To replace the amount of jet fuel used in the US airlines in 2018 with farnesene, 1.2 billion liters of yeast would need to be cultivated and processed per day a total of 420 billion liters of yeast per year. In addition, while this titer is significantly higher than most reported, the cost of producing farnesene via microbial production is still more expensive than petrochemicals . The real challenge with bio-fuels is not engineering the microbes, but competing with the very low prices of petrochemical products. While bio-fuel production in microbes is generally too expensive to compete with fossil fuels, this is not the case with all natural products. Due to the challenges associated with chemical synthesis, a low natural abundance and the variability with plant based production of complex natural products, microbial fermentation is a plausible alternative for the production of high value natural products. Microbes have been engineered to produce an array of compounds, spanning three of the major classes of natural products: terpenoids, alkaloids and polyketides. Terpenes and terpenoids are a large diverse class of natural products derived from the mevalonate or methylerythritol phosphate pathway . The products of the MEP and MVA pathways are isopentyl pyrophosphate and dimethyallyl pyrophosphate , which serve as the core building blocks for terpene biosynthesis . For example, the condensation of DMAPP and IPP produces geranyl pyrophosphate , the precursor to monoterpenes. Condensation of GPP with IPP produces farnesyl pyrophosphate , which is the precursor to sesquiterpenes, like farnesene mentioned above. The condensation of two FPP molecules yields squalene , which is the precursor to cholesterol. Terpenes are classified by the number of isoprene units which range from monoterpenes to polyterpenes . 

Because of this closed network of potential buyers and smoking their own product, they only have enough money to purchase cannabis in small increments. This puts them in a situation where they don’t make much, if any, money at all. Thus, many cannabis sellers quickly resign themselves to the status of “helper,” part-time dealer, or simply a user that sells to smoke for free.Another facet that I found unique about the group is that none of them considered themselves drug dealers. Some referred to themselves as “herbalists,” some called themselves “helpers,” but none would call themselves drug dealers or refer to cannabis as a drug. They refused to use the term drug dealer or drug because of the negative connotations associated with them. They would frequently refer to their clients or customers as “patients” even though they admitted that only some of the visitors to the dispensary were actual medical patients. Moreover, they considered the act of selling to be helping. The Kings, as discussed prior, believed that cannabis could cure all the evils of the world so any instance of selling to an individual would be an instance of helping them or helping the world. This is in direct contrast to the more economic motivations discussed by the various criminological theories of drug selling . Back to the original questions of this dissertation, why do these users smoke sell and sell and how do they understand those processes. What I found was mostly inconsistent with the criminological theories prominent within the discipline. I found no instances of structural and social strain that lead to innovation. Nor did I find evidence of social disorganization among the Kings or their neighborhood. Rather, industrical drying racks what I found was a group of individuals who had an understanding of what cannabis is, does, and can be that was radically different than mainstream social conceptions of this plant.

Although many will be quick to dismiss the act of smoking cannabis as nothing more than a juvenile stoner act practiced by a group pot smoking hippies, mainstream culture heavily influences our outsider perception of this substance. In order to truly understand the practice of drug using and selling, it is important to take an interactionist and culturally relativistic understanding to this practice. Thus, we can see that meaning, interpretation and action is not a simple universal understanding. Instead, interpretation and meaning is socially constructed just as the Kings would suggest our social world is. Given the large and significant number of cannabis users in the United States today , the fact that more research on cannabis users motivations is not so scant is astounding. Moreover given the radical social and legislative changes going on in the U.S. today, the lack of research that examines the motivations of cannabis use and cannabis dealers is even more flabbergasting. Given the social significance that hallucinogens have held throughout history and the significance and social impact of the war on drugs, I would assume that researchers would seek to move beyond the old moralistic criminal control and pathological medical theories. Considering the overwhelming evidence of the effectiveness of cannabis for treating a myriad of diseases, and the fact that many states, four as of this writing, and the District of Columbia, have legalized recreational use of cannabis it is perplexing that within the field of criminology we still hold onto theories of drug use that are clearly no longer suitable in our modern era. Moreover, it is even more perplexing that much of the drug literature has stayed focused on problematic drug use to the detriment of cultural and social interpretations. Indeed, the majority of drug use in the U.S. is recreational and non-problematic. The majority of drug users are recreational users. Only a small percentage of the drug sing population uses the heavy drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine and heroine. Moreover, only a small percentage of the hard drug using population develops serious addiction patterns. Likewise, by conceptualizing drug use as a criminal problem in need of control, and by conceptualizing users as deviants, criminals and delinquents, we as researchers, criminologists and sociologists have unwittingly, or wittingly, been complacent in the very type of thinking that produces systematic racist and classist systems of inequality. It was the goal of this dissertation to counter our moralistic and criminological assumptions about drugs, drug users and drug sellers by focusing on the life history, practices and motivations of a unique group of cannabis users, growers and sellers.

Through ethnographic and interview methodology, I sought to illustrate an understudied yet culturally and socially relevant context of cannabis use. From the viewpoint of users, growers and sellers of these substances, the criminal justice system is but an intruder on the lives of people. One, it seeks to create a paradigm shift in our understanding of drug use and drug users. Two, it contributes to the interactionist and cultural understanding of drug use by examining the social and spiritual motivations of users instead of imposing moralistic judgements. And three, it investigates an under examined and understudied phenomenon of suburban semi-legal drug markets. The findings from this study counter many of the common misconceptions about drug users and sellers. They contradict Merton’s anomie theory as at no point did the Kings indicate that they perceived that legitimate economic opportunities were blocked to them. Likewise, when asked about their motivations to start selling their answers were more altruistic and cultural than economic. The neighborhood I studied did not resemble a ghetto and none of the members discussed depression or anything of that nature that would make me believe that their use was a coping mechanism to deal with the drudgery of life. This study contributed to sociological theories of money making in the sense that some of the members, High-C and TBC in particular, saw cannabis as a way to ball and make money. Like Dohan’s study, they saw cannabis as a means of upward mobility and a way to increase their status. Unfortunately, much like the individuals in Dohan’s study, the Kings are not rich and it is questionable whether or not selling cannabis is a more effective method of making money than a good paying nine-to-five job. Rather, what I found was a complex system of beliefs and rituals that related to cannabis that rival any cultural belief system. The Kings, influenced by the Rastafarian religion and the hippy movement of the sixties, hold a set of beliefs about the healing and spiritual power of cannabis that made it appear that they believed God created the plant for humans to use. They believe the hallucinogenic power of the plant was not merely coincidental.

They believe there was a co-evolutionary symbiotic relationship that humans held with marijuana; marijuana shows humans reality, spurs human creativity, intelligence, and consciousness and cures physical and social ills, and in return, humans spread the genes of the cannabis species throughout the world. By documenting the actual motivations and perceptions of the Kings, I seek to shift our understanding that portrays it as a public health or criminal activity to a more social, spiritual and cultural understanding. Lastly, this study contributed to our understanding of suburban drug markets and the effect of legalization and regulation of drug markets. Unfortunately, the few studies that examine the operation of drug markets in the United States tend to focus on banal characteristics such as whether or not the market is indoor or outdoor and whether or not it is an open or closed market. This dissertation advances our understanding of the cannabis networks that grow, transport and distribute this plant. Moreover, commercial greenhouse benches it illuminates what occurs to markets that are in the precarious situation of being semi-legal, which has been previously under-studied by scholars. By looking at the operation of semi-legal drug markets it shows that legalization has had and overwhelmingly positive impact in reducing drug related crimes. Likewise, it illustrates the unique and ingenious mechanism dealers use to skirt around the laws. The dissertation looked at prices, markups, potency and new types of routes of administration . Likewise, it looks at the various mechanisms used to stay compliant the new laws that regulate the use and distribution of cannabis. This contributes to our understanding of drug markets and how bureaucratic organizations operate by structuring a division of labor designed to stay compliant with the ever changing laws. Additionally, this dissertation looks at the various mechanisms used by county and cities to curb the legality of the cannabis industry.Although not the original goal of this dissertation, one would be remiss to not discuss the racial, classist and gendered implications of the shift in cannabis laws in the United States. As it was not germane to my main research questions, I only breifly touched upon the racialized and gendered nature of the dispensary. I discussed how the female bud tenders emotional and sexual labor is exploited to draw in and maintain the loyalty of young male customers. I also touched upon how the dispensary itself is broken down in a racialized manner with a black security workhorse and a white male running the dispensary. The Kings themselves do not openly exhibit racial bias, to my knowledge, and they do not maliciously sexualize women, to my knowledge. Rather, their behavior mirrors trends that have been occurring in the marijuana industry since its inception. In an attempt to keep up with competition, the Kings employ physically attractive female bud tenders to work at their dispensary. This is common as most job ads for bud tenders request a photo to be sent with the application. This allows potential employers to filter out men and unattractive women. Because the job is technically “volunteer work,” anti-discrimination laws typically do not apply to this industry.One recent study on the recreational cannabis industry in the state of Washington found that the marijuana industry is mostly controlled by white males. An analysis showed that in the state of Washington, about 60% of individuals that work in Seattle dispensaries are white. However, it is important to note that this approximately reflects the racial demographics of the city. The proportion of business owners to regular employees is actually much more relevant to whether and how racial inequalities shape the industry. While the study conducted by the pot blog found that approximately forty percent of individuals that work in Washington’s dispensaries are people of color, only about nine percent of those working in production and processing are non-white . Going beyond simple statistics, when looking at business ownership in the state of Washington, one can see a clear racial hierarchy emerging. When the state of Washington did the lottery for recreational licenses , there was not a single African-American winner . Thus, as we see in the corporate world and practically every other American social institution, racial hierarchy is emerging in the legal cannabis industry. For this reason many observers suggest that the legalization of marijuana has led to a whitening of the cannabis industry. It is important to note that although recreational cannabis use is legal in some states, there are still various barriers to entry into the market in these states and selling cannabis on the street corner is still very much illegal. Thus, while black and brown Americans are being locked up across the country for selling drugs, a select group of rich white Americans are raking in profits and becoming millionaires for the exact same act.Considering the fact that many states have ballot propositions to legalize the recreational use of cannabis , and the decreasing social stigma of the cannabis industry, it is important to critically analyze the racial, class and gendered dynamics of this industry. It is furthermore important that we do not reproduce the same inequality that legalization seeks to dismantle and afford former criminals prosecuted for non-violent marijuana-related crimes the same rights as other American citizens. For it is those disenfranchised and dispossessed that have the most to gain if legalization was truly an open market. Those disenfranchised and dispossessed can pull their years of experience together and compete with big cannabusiness.I think another interesting future direction for cannabis research would be to examine the motivation of cannabis users both before and after its legalization.

One aspects of Dohan’s work is revealing about drug trades in general, he mentions how while many who deal aspire for upward mobility, he points out how few climb the ladder. Much like Venkatesh’s documented in Gang Leader for a Day, few low level dealers make any significant money. Rather, drug dealing enterprises typically operate in a pyramidal structure with middle men and those at the tope holding out the allure of making it big while exploiting labor of the low level dealers. Yet, Dohan also points to how gang’s in the Barrio serve as a form of social organization and control where traditional mechanism have disintegrated. In a similar vein, Anderson suggest the code of the street is a new form of organization and control when previous systems of control break down. Yet, Wilson’s , Anderson’s , Venkatesh’s and Dohan’s studies assumes that blocked opportunities and economic survival is what drives the sale of drugs. Consistent with this theory, many of the members of the group have been effectively barred from the mainstream economy as a result of stints in juvenile hall and jail. However, unlike drug markets dealing with harder drugs, the marijuana market is partially legal and overly saturated. In some cities, it is possible to find 30 or 40 delivery services. Much like the cannabis market in general, many delivery drivers view cannabis selling as an effective path towards economic viability and social mobility. The financial incentive for cannabis selling is only one component. Moreover, the high cost of running dispensaries and the extensive risk creates barriers other businesses do not face. For example, bank loans, credit card transactions, leasing units and security are all prohibitive costs for dispensaries. Moreover, greenhouse bench top in the middle class area of Orange County, one cannot claim the type of destitute and blocked economic opportunities that Wilson observed. Wilson’s study was conducted primarily in the innercity Chicago area, conditions far different from middle-class suburban white Orange County.

Although Wilson’s theories related to upward social mobility and economic motivations are partially correct, the Kings motivations are not inherently financial. Rather, they view selling and smoking as a symbol of prestige and disconformity to the system. Culture, ideology and counter cultural belief systems play a significant role in their motivations. As Natty explained, “We’re burning down Babylon.” In a similar light, social disorganization theories posit that conditions within urban lower class environments affect crime rates. Criminologists working within this paradigm, a perspective popularized by Chicago school criminologist McKay and Shaw , point to factors such as high-unemployment, large high-school dropout rates, deteriorated housing, poverty and large number of single parent households as contributing to despair and anti-social behavior and lack of resources to sustain social organizations and community institutions. Anti-social behavior manifests itself in ways that leads to higher crime rates in poor socially disorganized communities. Again, while it is commendable for criminologist to see delinquency, crime and drug use as emanating from social structure instead of individual pathology, an overemphasis by criminologist on focusing on poor communities has lead to a type of virtual blinders of crime and delinquent behavior elsewhere. In the middle class area of Orange County, drug use, both cannabis and other drugs, are fairly normalized. A focus on inner-city neighborhoods ignores the extensive drug use that occurs in middle class and affluent neighborhoods. Self-report surveys indicate the drug use and selling is, and has always been a phenomenon in every race and social class. As is illustrated in both surveys and my dissertation, middle-class white Americans are just as likely to use drugs as any other racial group. It appears that the main difference between the two groups drug selling and usage is the attention paid to each group by academics, researcher, the media and police.Elliot’s integrated delinquency model is a synthesis of various social process and strain theories into one comprehensive theory of drug use.

Elliot et al. argue that drug use is the result of bonding with deviant peer groups. As the social structure becomes more disorganized and the individual loses his/her pro-social ties to society, deviant peer groups fill the void for social interaction. This is a step above the rest as it synthesizes various approaches from the macro and micro level, yet its overemphasis on peer bonding downplays the fact that non-users report bonding with deviant peers . Harton and Latane note the importance of social approval in the process of using drugs. Consequently, Anderson suggests that meaning systems and new definitions of the self may be the more important explanatory factors that distinguish users from non-users. Accordingly, I suggest, that when viewing the group I am studying that it is relevant to understand the meaning and symbols to this particular culture when understanding their substance use and selling. The groups cultural beliefs will be briefly recapped later in this chapter. Theorists working in the labeling tradition typically point to two features. One, the social construction of crime and deviance; and two, the development of a criminal identity. As has been discussed throughout this dissertation, drugs historically have not had the same type of reaction that they elicit today. Many cultures consider mind-altering substances of all types gifts from Gods. Today, because of political and social forces, drugs are perceived as inherently dangerous and immoral. The second line of tradition labeling theorists operate within is the development of a deviant identity. Edwin Lemert first proposed this in 1951 when discussing why certain individuals persist in their criminal career trajectory. Lemert’s thesis is that, once labeled, the deviant undertakes an intellectual process that works to justify the behavior through the adoption of a deviant identity. One can clearly see this manifest itself with the Kings. Both Natty and Dorian were arrested and sent to Juvenile Hall at a relatively early age . Having thus been labeled by the society as deviants, they undertook an identity as deviants, took that identity, and turned it into a career trajectory.

Although many theorists working within a pro criminal justice paradigm believe juvenile hall serves as a means of rehabilitation for young kids, my research suggest the opposite. Instead of rehabilitating Natty, juvenile hall actually brought him into contact with Dorian, who would become his life-long friend and life-long cannabis business partner. In 1973, Edwin Schur wrote his seminal text Radical Non-Intervention in which he claimed that the delinquent label can actually increase delinquency. Natty was sent to juvie for a relatively minor offense that today is common place . Moreover, juvenile hall and the process of delinquent labeling has a tendency to reproduce race and class inequality. When deciding whether or not to proceed with a juvenile trial an intake officer takes a record of the juveniles’ history of mental health, history of substance use and other factors. Natty, being the child of a single mother that was addicted to drugs certainly influenced the intake officer to detain Natty. Again, juvenile hall many times has the opposite effect of rehabilitation. The fact that juvenile hall takes into account social demographics of the child into consideration when making decisions inherently reproduces racial and class inequality. This type of experience led to a strong and profound anti-systemic feeling within Natty and Dorian. In fact, The Kings Self-conception is so heavily influenced their identity as rebels and smokers that they nickname themselves off of cannabis substances. High-C is a reference to being high and TBC is a reference to THC . Natty is a reference to Dread locks. I changed the names of these individuals for confidentiality purposes, however, botanicare rolling benches their nicknames in real life are somewhat similar. Indeed, being shunned by society may have led to their radical anti-American, anti-capitalist stance. Much of their behavior is counter cultural in nature. Differential Association Differential association is highly applicable to the Kings. This theory posits that through interaction with other deviants, individuals learn the motivations, techniques, values and ideas conducive to criminal behavior . In fact, every one of the Kings mentioned peer influence when discussing their own motivations to use and sell cannabis. For both Natty and Dorian, their parents were drug addicts or at the very least, appeared to use drugs on a relatively consistent basis. Dorian’s father, before he was locked up, taught Dorian how to set up and run a growing operation and taught him a lot about the culture and some of the techniques on how to not be caught with cannabis. Natty’s mother was so permissive of drug use that she would buy alcohol for the Kings while they were still in high school. TBC and High-C were both experienced smokers before they decided to get in the medical marijuana business. Yet, they did not have the same family situation as Natty and Dorian. I personally doubt whether their parents or close family members were aware of their activities. However, their interactions with Natty and Dorian influenced them to fund the grow-op and collective. Moreover, it was particularly interesting how all of them seemed to have perceived cannabis as positive for society. This type of uniformity in thought may have been influenced by the fact that they discussed the nature of cannabis with each other and it is a social status symbol within the group to know about cannabis culture and history. Bruce Johnson’s subcultural model is a form of deviant subcultural theory. Johnson focused on a college setting in which users were separated from their parents and influenced by their teenage peers. Johnson argued that the more isolated an individual was from his parents and the more attached they were to the teenage subculture, the greater likelihood they would participate in drug use.

The relevance of Johnson’s articles is dual in that it focuses on the meanings ascribed to drug use, and the social and cultural context in which the use existed. Johnson acknowledges that there is a competition for prestige and status within peer groups and that status and prestige are attained by engaging in activities that depart from the normative demands of mainstream society. Another relevant aspect of Johnson’s study is his use of college students. Although he noted these individuals were more likely to drop out of school, it is relevant to note that the use of drugs is a product of all social and economic classes, and is not a product of a culture mired in pathology. However, although Johnson notes the inherently social nature of drug use, he digresses into moralistic judgments about how the use increases the likelihood of dropping out and participating in deviant sexual behavior, further illustrating the fact that criminology has yet to shake the conservative view of drugs as a problem in society in need of remedy. All of these previous theories and studies pointed to the fact that substance use is correlated with various other anti-social, deviant, or occasionally criminal acts. I suggest two reasons for these findings. For one, as a result of various laws and moral entrepreneurs that create anti-drug campaigns, drugs are demonized as illegal, harmful and injurious to society. Consequently, the more likely one is to hold unconventional views on society, the more likely they are to participate in unconventional behavior, of which drug use may be one. Secondly, these studies tended to focus on adolescents, who, while they experience a gap between biological and social maturity, undertake rebellious and anti-social attitudes to break out of the juvenile roles they existed in when children . Johnson’s subcultural, Elliot’s integrated delinquent, and Jessor and Jessor’s problem-prone behavior theories all focused onadolescents or teens. My study on the other hand, focused on young adults that ran a competent business. All of these studies tended to focus on adolescents that were experiencing a gap between biological and social maturity and therefore undertook rebellious attitudes and anti-social attitudes to break out of the juvenile roles they existed in when children . Moffit claims that there are two types of offenders, adolescent limited , and life course persisters . As adolescents transition into adulthood and take on more prosocial roles, the propensity for engaging in criminal offenses dissipates . This is relevant to understand why we see such high correlations between drug use and other types of anti-social behavior. It has less to do with the drugs as it does with particular life stages in American culture and the age of the group studied.

All members said underground in unison as if they knew what TBC was going to say . I am assuming they had discussions about mainstream versus underground music prior to me asking about it. For the group, conformity to the establishment, whether that be music, dress, drugs, or any other lifestyle sets one apart as a poser or a conformist. Thus, a dramaturgical hierarchy developed within the group as each member tried to conform the least to common norms and practices such as listening to mainstream music or participating in mainstream culture.One goal of this dissertation was to use a unique group of cannabis users and sellers to examine the commonly held assumptions and scholarly theories about drug use and drug users. The goal was to create a shift in our understanding of drug use, which today is still trapped in overly moralistic and pejorative assumptions about the lives, perceptions, histories and motivations of drug users. Our understanding of substance use is still largely informed by models that seek to pathologize drugs and their users and to either rehabilitate or incarcerate them. As Geoffrey Hunt explains, “In contemporary Western industrialized societies, our current approach to drugs is influenced by both a medical and a criminal vision that emerged a little more than a century ago. The concepts of addiction and ‘drug control’ have imposed themselves as the unquestionable truths of drug issues.” . Hunt goes on to explain how these two perspectives create a type of mental blinder that make it difficult to comprehend or frame the issue of drug usage in any way other than a medical or criminal problem in need of regulation and/or extermination. Moreover, cannabis drying racks commercial this has led to a pathologizing of the individual user and the social environment that the individual exists within while simultaneously ignoring social, cultural and spiritual functions the consciousness altering substance may serve.

In contrast, substance use scholars recognize that consciousness-altering substances are used and enjoyed by every known society, including our own, in some form or another. Paleontologist believe that humans may have cultivated opium and cannabis with the rise of agriculture over 10,000 years ago . And, new theories suggest that the production and cultivation of cereals, specifically rye in ancient Mesopotamia was for the purpose of manufacturing beer, and not bread, as previously theorized . Others speculate that animals used drugs before humans , and thus, substance use predates human history. Likewise, Andrew Weil argues that the desire to induce altered states of consciousness is an innate biological human drive, on par with sex and hunger. Considering the widespread use of consciousness altering substances throughout human history and perhaps even prehuman history, it is necessary to understand such uses from a more culturally relativistic perspective and to understand why these substances have such universal appeal. Despite this, the belief that drug use serves particular cultural and social functions for groups is conspicuously absent from the sociological and criminology literature. Reviewing the literature on drug use, except for a few notable cases , I found it difficult to find criminological or sociological literature on drug usage that did not entrap the issue within the medical or crime control perspective. I frequently found myself rummaging through cultural anthropologic literature in order to find literature that considers substance use from a cultural perspective. This dissertation sought to fill in this gap in the literature on substance use. Instead of taking a criminologic and/or medical perspective on drug use, I sought to understand the behavior from a cultural and socially relativistic standpoint. However, much to my chagrin, the use of these individuals neither completely refuted nor completely confirmed either the criminologic and/or medical literature or my own assumptions. This chapter will discuss the major medical and criminologic theories of drugs to see how they fit, or do not fit this group of cannabis users. The end of the chapter will discuss my observations of the group and propose a new theory to create a cultural and social understanding of drug use.

The classical or medical model of substance use frames the issue as defined by the appearance of withdrawal symptoms. One of the first sociological attempts to explain drug use was proposed by Lindesmith , although today it is regarded as belonging to the addiction model. Lindesmith countered popular notions of drug abuse at the time by suggesting that drug addiction was not the product of psychopaths’ desire to escape life, but resulted from the desire to avoid the pain of withdrawal symptoms. This perspective of drug abuse dominated up until the 1970’s . Although his theory helped to counter the more pejorative psychopath label ascribed to drug addicts by many psychologists, it did not explain why individuals used the drugs in the first place. Lindesmith discussed it as prescribed by doctors yet did not adequately address other factors that lead one person and not another, to use opiates. Likewise, his theory failed to explain the high proportion of users that took drugs on a regular enough basis for some to label that use “abuse.” Furthermore, the substance I am studying, marijuana, has relatively mild physical-withdrawal symptoms, and only for chronic long-time users. These mild withdrawal symptoms include restlessness, irritability, mild agitation and insomnia . Yet, the withdrawal symptoms are usually too miniscule and irrelevant to be termed addiction in the classical sense as proposed by Lindesmith, likewise, the theory fails to explain onset and the process that accompanies it. Lindesmith’s classical addiction model proposed that addiction was defined as withdrawal symptoms when drug using behavior, primarily opiates were removed. This failure led to the idea of psychological or behavioral dependence. This led to a psychological explanation of drug use termed the reinforcement model. Two types of reinforcement model explain drug use: positive and negative. As Bejerot explains, “The pleasure mechanism may…give rise to a strong fixation on repetitive behavior.” . In its most simplistic form, this perspective states that getting high is pleasurable and consequently, gets repeated by the user. The negative reinforcement, similar to the addiction model suggests users take substances for the purpose of avoiding physical or emotional pain. In the classic model, this pain is associated with withdrawal, in the negative reinforcement model, any type of pain can lead someone to seek out substances, such as the desire to drink if one is depressed.

As indicated earlier, both of these models fail to explain onset. And although the positive reinforcement model is particularly useful for understanding the substance I am studying, marijuana, it is telling that positive reinforcement is framed in medical jargon that seeks to situate use within an existing medical or mentally pathological framework instead of conceptualizing use as a desire for pleasure in itself. Many theories abound about cannabis’ addicting properties. Some suggest it has little to no physically addicting properties, while others suggest it has the ability to create dependence and affect an individual’s life . Most users are recreational users that use in a social context with friends. However, heavy users have the ability to develop mild physical and strong mental dependence. Researchers believe that over stimulation of the endocannabinoid system leads to changes in the structure of the brain that can lead to addiction. Similar to the Kings explanation of a balance to the world, researchers believe that the more cannabis one uses the more cannabis they will need to feel the same effect. Physical addiction is typically associated with withdrawal symptoms. The typical withdrawal symptoms of a cannabis user is irritability, mood and sleep difficulties, decreased appetite, cravings, vertical grow racks restlessness and other types of physical discomfort . My own personal experience with cannabis prior to starting the study lead me to believe that claims of marijuana addiction were exaggerated at best and a downright propagandist lie at worst. It was not until I saw addiction first hand did I see how powerful it could be for some people. The Kings for example, would smoke on average about once every hour. Likewise, Dorian explained to me that he frequently had to wake in the middle of the night to smoke cannabis because if he did not smoke he would be too restless to go back to sleep. High-C and TBC, would frequently smoke on their way to do drop offs for the collective and the other volunteers at the collective would frequently go out back and smoke every couple of hours despite ordinances preventing on-site use at many collectives. Indeed, Dorian once told me he could never work the typical nine-to-five because he smoked too much and the one job he had at Kmart he always showed up lit and would go to his car on his breaks to smoke cannabis. Furthermore, he claimed working a nine to-five kept him trapped in the system as nothing more than a corporate minion.One of the biggest concerns of marijuana opponents is the question of motivation, or lack thereof amongst cannabis smokers. As the American Council for Drug Education suggest, cannabis leads to, “A loss of ambition and initiation, a withdrawal from customary activity, and a regression to a simpler kind of life.” . Many consider cannabis as leading to a life of indolence, free from the cares of the world, and that cannabis users typically stop caring about their appearances.

The question of anti-motivation is relevant for many reasons. For one, it is a common conservative talking point that seeks to demonize a plant that has little to no dangers associated with it besides possible mild addiction. Two, the idea is promulgated through popular culture and seems to be blindly accepted as fact by both cannabis opponents and users alike. And three, it is indicative of the conservative in the box thinking indicative of society today. The common image perpetuated in the media of cannabis users, particularly espoused by groups such as the Partnership for a Drug Free America, is one where a productive, intelligent and highly motivated teenager uses cannabis, rebels, and retreats to a life of indolence and sloth. The user typically becomes a school dropout, working for minimum wage if working at all, all the while, living in their parents’ basement playing video games and eating junk food. Ironically, this is neither entirely truthful nor a complete lie. In order to understand the effect cannabis can have on and individual and his or her motivation one must understand the nature of drugs and drug usage. There are a variety of factors that can and does affect the high an individual user may experience, things such as route of administration, cannabis type and strength, an individual’s expectations and predispositions and the set and setting. Perhaps the most significant of these is the type of cannabis and the type of strain and the differing chemicals coumpounds within each strain. Based upon the type of strain, a veteran user typically wants a certain feeling and experience. Users typically use this to help them calm down, ease nervousness and restlessness, manage physical pain and help them to sleep. In this context, many cannabis users who consume indica dominant strains during the day can experience fatigue and anti-motivation. I know many users who consume indica dominant cannabis throughout the day and these individual typically resort to a life of idleness and apathy. Dorian told me a story about Jenna, a cannabis user he met at a collective. He told me the cannabis helped to relax her when she is around other people. Unfortunately, he also told me it makes her extremely tired and she ends up sleeping a lot. He told me she slept until 4pm each day. He said, she looked like she had slept all day, she didn’t wear makeup and seemed to have shown up to the collective in the exact same clothes she wore to sleep. Natty told me he ran in to many users at the Corner that fit this description, many people did not shave and looked unkempt. This is perhaps one of the worst aspects of cannabis use, especially for medical cannabis patients. Many patients need the pain relief and anti-nausea effect cannabis provides, but experience the cannabis as working during, and temporarily after the hallucination. Many wish they could get the relief without the high associated with the plant. Cannabis plants high in CBD and low in the psychoactive THC may help with this. CBD is a cannabinoid that mellows the mood and calms nerves while curbing the hallucinogenic effects of THC .

Unfortunately, that appears far from the case, as the modern legalization debate has been more focused on the financial opportunities cannabis provides rather than how it reproduces racial inequalities.What is cannabis? As this brief analysis of cannabis history shows, the answer is not a simple one. Considered by some as medicine, others as a guide to spiritual enlightenment, others the road to perdition and still others, human consciousness. Although it would be easy to paint all these ancient cultures as naïve, superstitious and ignorant of drugs, this is an ethnocentric view of a plant that has historically held a social significance that should not be underestimated. It’s powerful influence on human culture and its social significance spread it to every country on earth. And it is today still the most widely used illicit substance on earth. What I feel is particularly noteworthy about the history of marijuana is its transition from being considered a spiritual, religious and medicinal plant with the power to connect with the divine to a dangerous schedule I narcotic that is believed to lead to schizophrenia, suicide, murder and sex crimes. Although recent years and legislation such as Proposition 215 and Colorado and Washington’s legalization of the plant seems to suggest a step forward in viewing the plant as a non-addictive herb with medical qualities, there is a sense in which the power and beauty of the plant is still not recognized in our culture the way it was millennia ago. It is the goal of this dissertation to study and understand the perceptions of this plant by a group of cannabis growers, sellers and users from a relativistic perspective.Most collectives that exist in Southern California operate in disguise. Natty told me that he had a friend that worked at a collective that was raided. Luckily, because of some technicality, his friend was not prosecuted, clone rack but they did have to shut down the collective. Because of this, Natty made sure to keep the collective as hid as possible.

Although The Corner attempted to keep the collective hidden, Natty also tried to make sure people knew The Corner existed. He posted the location of the collective on a website called Weedmaps. Weedmaps is a type of social networking community for marijuana users to find, review and discuss cannabis, recommending physicians and dispensaries. Weedmaps uses a proximity map for the user to locate dispensaries and doctors around their area. They also have a link to delivery services around the area that the user is located. Weedmaps charges to list a delivery service. It appears there are a lot of amateur pot growers who wish to be listed as a delivery service without being associated with a collective. This way Weedmaps eliminates competition and keeps the organization more legitimate. Natty suggested there was an inherent danger with posting the collective on Weedmaps or any other type of social networking site, it alerts the police and federal agencies to the location of a collective, putting the Kings at risk of harassment by the local authorities. Although cannabis collectives are legal in California and are protected under SB420, various cities, Costa Mesa not included, have enacted local ordinances so restrictive that it makes it virtually impossible to operate within them. Any violation of a restrictive ordinance gives local police the ability to effectively shut down collectives or prevent them from operating. Furthermore, the local police have the ability to inform federal agents about the operation of a collective that they believe does not follow the rules. Since cannabis is still illegal on a federal level, federal agents can raid dispensaries at will. Despite president Obama claiming that federal agents would no longer be used to raid legal medical marijuana collectives, it still frequently occurs . Natty told me that cops never came in to the collective, but he strategically placed a “going out of business” sign on the front door of the collective a week after it opened to make the police think the collective was going to close soon. Natty told me the cops rarely do full on raids without warning. He told me that the cops typically find a small violation by the collective and uses that as an excuse to threaten to shut it down. After the threat of a raid, most collectives shut down their operation and move them to a location nearby, typically with the same staff. Most office buildings that house collectives rent to collectives on short-term leases because of the risk involved with the business.

Many of these office buildings tend to be unused, hidden or not centrally located, and deteriorating. I believe these are usually the only office buildings that will lease to medical marijuana dispensaires. Some collectives are stationed in buildings that look like they could only be inhabited by an illegal business. Unfortunately, the only way to keep a consistent and steady stream of patients was to advertise on Weedmaps and risk harassment by local authorities. The entrance lobby was plain with chairs and magazines on a coffee table that looked like a doctor’s office for the patients to sit on while they waited to be called in to the collective. The lobby has a series of video cameras to deter would be robbers. The front counter is where the patient shows their identification card and provides the collective with their recommendation letter . The rec, as it is frequently referred to, is examined by the front clerk and is confirmed by the recommending physician’s office. While a patient waits for the collective to confirm the legitimacy of the rec, the patient fills out new patient paperwork and signs an agreement that they will not visit another collective . After filling out the paperwork, and the legitimacy of the rec is confirmed, the patient becomes a member of the collective or cooperative and the plants that the patient can consume and possess are conferred to the collective. By conferring possession to the collective it allows the collective and the growers to possess much more cannabis than they would be able to legally hold without the aggregate possession. The front desk clerk then scans and copies all of the necessary documentation and inputs them into a computer that holds a database of all of the collective’s members. The front desk volunteer also serves as a bud tender at the shop. After the patient becomes a full member, the patient is shown through the door. The security guard also serves as an informal door attendant. The security guard serves the dual function of making patients feel safe, while discouraging would be robbers. Once the patient walks through the door, they are greeted with a very tranquil ambiance. The ambience is cool and mellow with reggae playing from the speakers and the smell of incense stirring the air. While the original entrance lobby was designed to give the impression of an official doctor’s office or pharmacy, the ambience inside the collective is designed to make the patient feel welcome and relaxed. In fact, Lucy Natty’s girlfriend and Corner co-manager frequently shows up with her dog as the dispensary pet.There are typically two attractive female volunteers that stand behind the counter at the shop. The Bud tenders are there to help the patients find the item they seek. Lucy is the most common tender, and her friends also help at the collective.

There is a gendered division of labor that exists in the cooperative. The Kings prefer to have Lucy and her friends work the counter while the male workers serve as delivery drivers. Lucy told me many times she would prefer to be the delivery driver, but that she understands that delivering cannabis to people outside of the dispensary might put her at risk of sexual assault or injury. Thus, the females to some degree use their sexuality to lure customers back to the dispensary, and the males deliver the goods to personal homes or other locations. Dispensary “volunteers” as they are called are a critical component to the functioning of the medical marijuana system. There are extreme inconsistencies between strains, strengths, and potency. Thus, the employees are critical to helping the patient select the right strain, strength and potency. The volunteers of the collective are kind of a mix between pharmacist and wine connoisseurs, hydroponic shelves informing the patients of types of cannabis, to effect, potency and even flavor. A common name for a collective employee is a “Cannasouir” or Bud Tender. Likewise, the staff at The Corner will typically ask a patient if they are comfortable with another patient being in the collective with them at the same time. This helps the staff maintain a level of privacy for their patients. Although The Corner members to maintain their privacy, its typically unnecessary as anybody who is at a collective must be relatively permissive about cannabis use. Some people however are private individuals and would like to keep their use a secret and those people typically use delivery services. The Kings explained that older people and females are more likely to use delivery services. The Kings explained that it was rare for patients to not allow others to join them in the dispensary when they are present. For those that prefer privacy, it is typically the elderly and females who may feel uncomfortable around people they do not know. Likewise, they explained that people that are already high on cannabis are much more likely to use delivery services as driving to a dispensary becomes too difficult for many. The inside of the collective is broken down into three sections. The cannabis in bud form is at the front. The bud is kept in glass cabinets like those that one would see at jewelry counter. The bud itself was kept in medium sized mason jars for the employees to pull out so the patients can smell the cannabis. Edibles, lollipops tinctures, topicals, concentrates and waxes are positioned at the left. In a mini-fridge near the edibles is a series of soda pop like drinks that contain THC. To the right there are pre-rolled joints and various souvenirs handed out to first time patients. To the furthest right is the cashier hidden behind another bulletproof glass wall where the donation to the collective is made. Tight security is necessary at the dispensary. Although it is a semi-legal operation in California, the fact that it is associated with marijuana, a banned substance in many areas of the world, makes it a frequent target for thieves and robbers. It is frequently suggested that the massive amount of money dispensaries hold, instead of the cannabis, is what makes the dispensaries attractive to criminals . Collectives typically carry massive amounts of cash, as banks will not do business with them. The Corner skates around this buy processing transactions under a different name. A trip through the back store of a marijuana dispensary is quite intimidating as you see pounds of cannabis in large bags littering the floor. Natty told me that if the DEA ever raided the place that there is no paper trail linking any volunteers to the collective. He told his volunteers that if the collective was ever raided to jump on the other side of the counter and say they were patients. There was no accounting of employees’ social security numbers or other information. Bud tender volunteers were paid under the table. This helped the employees avoid prosecution in the event of a raid. They typically have a lot of cash, as many patients do not like to have a credit card trail of their visits to collectives. However, when patients utilize their card and the volunteers swipe the card through their phone with a device the credit card statement is encrypted with a weird name such as garden nursery that is suggestive of a nursery rather than a dispensary. The back wall has an assortment of bubblers, pipes, bongs, ash catchers, adapters, down stems, vaporizers, vape cartridges and percolators, many of which can be combined together. It is quite interesting to see the massive assortment of materials that can be used to consume cannabis. Marijuana can be consumed through smoking joints, bowls, pipes, bongs, bubblers, hookahs and blunts; dabbing, or vaping. These different contraptions are used to consume different types of cannabis products such as cannabis, resin and oil . It is even more fascinating to think about the way these contraptions have evolved over the past two decades.

The limitations to this study is that by employing ethnographic study, the results found here may not be representative of the entire population or community of marijuana smokers or sellers. Thus, while the study should be highly valid, it may lack in reliability and consistency. Furthermore, it is difficult to access these populations, as marijuana smoking, growing and selling is still an illegal venture under federal law. Thus, although ethnographic data may not be as reliably consistent as other methods, it allows for an indepth study of a relatively understudied and difficult to access population. Likewise, this study could serve as a counter to the usually negative and scornful popular ideas about marijuana sellers so abundant in American culture.The question of objectivity is a common conundrum faced by researchers employing qualitative ethnographic methods. Can an individual be both objective of a group while simultaneously being deeply embedded enough to truly understand the culture and ethos of the group at hand? I believe that the only way to truly understand a group is to live like they live, think like they think, and adopt their philosophy in life. Objectively understanding the group comes through stepping back occasionally and distancing oneself. I have known the group members understudy for the past 15 years. Subsequent chapters will discuss how I know them. Being both and insider from knowing the group so long, and an outsider in the sense of studying the group from a sociological standpoint puts me in a unique position to do both. Therefore, while objectivity may be a question to be addressed, I believe that being both objective and immersed is possible and ideal.As Peirce suggest, vertical farming equipment supplier the self is an integral part of the research process and should be fully articulated in research and should not be downplayed or neglected. Krieger contends that by detaching oneself from the people being studied renders their experiences and lifestyles more difficult to see and understand.

In field studies conducted today it is common to divulge how the researcher knows the research participants. Such writing helps to grapple with biases that the researcher may possess, but it also serves as a critique of positivist methods that emphasize strict scientific detached observations. One critique of this outsider scientific approach is that many claim those European anthropological and urban ethnographic studies of minority communities tend to reproduce neo-colonial relationships with their subjects . As will become clear in this dissertation, this research is not simple, cold, passive and neutral science. Rather, it reflects a yearning for positive change and greater understanding of a vulnerable population that participates in a demonized practice. Likewise, I did sought the opposite of reproducing domination. I sought to illustrate an understudied and poorly understood dynamic of drug use that has historically been shunned and demonized an ostracized by the scientific literature. My first experience with this group, which will be documented in more detail later, occurred nearly fifteen years ago. At the time the group understudy were lowly cannabis dealers. They all lived in close proximity to me and through mutual friends, we got to know each other. These people were all life-long friends. In fact, even though I had access to a unique group of people, I never once thought to do a dissertation on their activities because I never thought of them as anybody other than people I knew. With this group, I frequently saw myself as an insider. In methodological literature, an insider is any researcher that shares a similar social location be it race, class or gender . As a working class male growing in the middle class neighborhood of Costa Mesa, I shared many of the same background characteristics of the group understudy. However, I did not share the same racial status as the group. This never seemed to deter me from being a part of the group however. In fact, I personally believe they forgot that I was conducting a study at all. These were people I have known for decades and the fact that I was conducting ethnographic research did not for a short period of time did not seem to change their behavior. The problem with insider knowledge however stems from the critique that a pure insider can never be truly objective and therefore, their observations are biased and tainted. I personally agree with both positions and sought to situation myself as best I could as both an insider and outsider.

Many sociological researchers would contend that me being a different racial group then the group understudy would make me an outsider . These researchers are primarily concerned about whites studying African Americans or Latinos because of the ability of researchers to reproduce racist and neo-colonial ideas. It was a question that came into my mind as I originally formulated the idea for this dissertation. Studying the drug rituals of middle class white suburbanites seemed like more of a joke than a real study. Moreover, one thing I realized I was doing was reproducing the ideas that white drug use was inherently non-problematic. One reason I wanted to illustrate this was not to reproduce racist assumptions that white drug use is non-problematice while minority drugs use is chaotic. Rather, I wanted to illustrate that drug use itself, is normal and ubiquitous in all social classes and racial groups. The unique access I had with this group allowed me to show this other side of drug use and selling. However, my status as an outsider comes about not so much by my race class or gendered social location, but by my position as a graduate student. As a strict observer and interviewer, I did not participate in the acts, routines and livelihoods of my subjects. The worlds of experiences that they conveyed to me could only be written down and copied to the best of my ability. I did not experience the hallucinations. I did not experience growing and caring for plants. And, I did not participate in the operation of a dispensary. Moreover, there were theories and beliefs they held that I still do not fully understand or relate too. They told me however, that one cannot understand the multiple reality of our world without experiencing another world. Their experiences and biases are unique and different from mine. Although they, much like I am, are critical of society, they take it to an extreme that borderlines near paranoia. When discussing their hatred of Republicans and their belief in domination of the world that only cannabis allows you to see, I did not share that view. Likewise, I am frequently critical throughout this dissertation of the factuality of their beliefs and their methods to solve the problem of domination. Yet, although our opinions frequently diverge, and the opinions of the Kings frequently diverge as well, I try to present their beliefs and activities as neutral as possible while maintaining objectivity as much as possible.

Although I consider myself and outsider within, the themes and ideas brought forth in this study are not mine, but are made possible only by the willing participation of the members at study. Thus, the thoughts and ideas are theirs, not mine yet written and told through the eyes of an outsider within researcher. This chapter is a general overview of marijuana. It looks at the plants origins, scientific classification and its unique effect on the human body and brain. Moreover, this chapter discusses the history of its cultivation, its use throughout the ages. Theories about its effects, its medicinal properties and how it was spread throughout the world were also noted. Also, this chapter touched on the effect it has on the brain and dispel some of the myths about its negative impacts on the body. It concludes with its recent history in America and California in particular as California has a unique and relatively open stance towards marijuana use.This chapter introduces the group understudy, the members of the group individually, and the research setting. It began with my “getting in” story, grow light shelves my initial introduction to the group and how I know these people. It proceeded in a narrative form describing the city and the setting and their connection to it. It will be descriptive but will incorporate various criminological and sociological macro theories to set the stage for understanding this group. Good ethnographies situate culture and experience within the broader social, political and economic climate of the time while paying attention to the racial, class and gendered dynamics of the group. Thus, the descriptive narrative introduction to the group serves as a way of introducing their life histories, and the social context in which they grew up and lived and how that led to their participation in the marijuana using and selling subculture. Various elements make this community distinctive and unique, from their self-produced music, their terminology and style of dress, to their incorporation of Rastafarian, hippie and stoner skater into their own unique infused culture. Many of these elements are directly drawn from the counter cultures seen on television and their cultural styling and marijuana use reflects that. The theories applied to this chapter were macro-level oriented as it sought to understand how the city, the setting and the larger social environment led these individuals down this path. By incorporating this macro-level orientation at the beginning, we saw how it directly weighs upon the micro-level interactions expanded upon in the subsequent chapters. I incorporated elements of conflict, labeling, Merton’s anomie and differential association into this analysis. I also critiqued social-control theory and various other theories to show why they may not be an adequate analysis for the members of this group. This chapter builds on the scholarship of marijuana and drug subcultures as a distinctively social phenomenon. This chapter looks at the practice of marijuana use and selling from a symbolic interactionist perspective. Instead of focusing on the use of marijuana as a practice that produces a desired hallucination, this takes the perspective that marijuana use, selling, and growing is a status symbol in marijuana culture. Marijuana viewed from this perspective, is a site of social bonding where adolescent can bond through a culturally unaccepted practice, and gain status and hierarchy through the production and selling of drugs. Thus, although the manifest or stated functions of marijuana use may be to enjoy a hallucination, many of my observations suggested a much more symbolic and performative latent function to participating in marijuana smoking. However, I do not discount the hallucination as a relevant aspect of smoking, as I do not see the two as mutually exclusive, in fact, I perceive the two as reinforcing. Rather, I drew attention to the manifest and the latent functions of marijuana and how it was used as a ritual to create feelings of bonding and communality amongst the group. This chapter predominantly looked at marijuana use and the practice of selling from a dramaturgical perspective. This chapter also looked at marijuana from the point of view of those who use it. This chapter focused on the use of marijuana as a reflexive critical cultural practice of the group. I suggested earlier that the reasons for using marijuana can be varied as the people who use it. Although the symbolic performative aspect of marijuana smoking is in my opinion a definite phenomenon, the use of marijuana for the hallucination is just as real. However, instead of casting marijuana use as a diversionary form of entertainment, these individuals suggest its use as a reflexive practice, a practice that allows the participants to meditate and think critically about themselves and society. Through a type of looking glass self-lens, the members of the groups view the act as a way to experience a different perception of themselves and society. This practice is understood not just as a hallucination, but as a way to be an observer of oneself and ones participation in society. Thus, reflexivity, rebellion and critical thought is the ultimate goal of this group’s marijuana use.In this chapter, I proposed an alternative view of drug use and selling. By countering common biological and criminological assumptions of cannabis, I was able to flesh out a new socio-cultural theory of drug use.

Our sampled farms were small , had conducted some form of clearing for production space, and three had constructed some form of fence or barrier around their crop. Nonetheless, specific land use practices and production philosophies differed between farms . We cannot disclose farm locations, as per our research agreement for access. Monitored farms were clustered within each watershed: one farm in Slate Creek, five in Lower Deer Creek, and two in Lower East Fork Illinois River; however, most farms were also located near other nearby cannabis farms that were not directly monitored in this study. We placed unbaited motion sensitive cameras on cannabis farms as well as in random locations up to 1.5 km from the monitored farms. This is an expansion on previous camera research that only assessed on-site wildlife at these same farms . We placed cameras approximately 0.5 m off the ground to capture animals squirrel-sized and larger. We set cameras to take bursts of 2 photos, with a quiet period of 15 seconds. To guide the placement of cameras, we overlaid the area surrounding each cannabis farm cluster with a 50 x 50 m grid and then selected a random sample of at least one quarter of grid cells . We selected a 50 x 50 m grid size because we wanted to be able to detect fine scale space use responses of wildlife. The random sample was stratified by vegetation openness and distance to cannabis farm in all watersheds, and additionally by distance to clear cut in the Slate Creek watershed, such that cameras were placed in proportion to the landscape attributes and a distance gradient was achieved. When a selected site was inaccessible, we selected a new one that also met the same stratification criteria. We rotated 15-20 cameras through the sampled grid cells, hydroponic rack system ensuring each camera was deployed for at least one round of two week duration. Because of rotations and field constraints, all cannabis sites were not monitored at the same time or for the same length of time .

Altogether, we monitored a total of 149 camera stations for a combined 4,664 trap nights. We then used a team of researchers trained to identify species found in the study area to sort photos by hand, grouping by species.To assess the local space use response of wildlife to cannabis production, we used single-season, hierarchical single and multi-species occupancy models. Our approach is a departure from the typical use of these models to estimate occupancy in that we knowingly violated multiple assumptions of occupancy models: first, because cameras were spaced relatively close together compared to the home range of species included in the study, we have likely violated the assumption of independent cameras; second, as a result of the aforementioned spacing as well as sampling across two years , we likely violated the model’s assumption of geographic and demographic closure . We have done our best to account for these violations in our use of regional fixed effects, as well as our narrow interval of replication . However, given our interest was in space use associations and not estimates of occupancy, we believe the violations are a minimal issue. This use of occupancy models is not particularly unusual, as the use of occupancy modeling to assess space use is becoming more common in wildlife response studies, and even traditional uses of occupancy modeling are influenced by wildlife space use . With the closure assumption violated, the occupancy probability estimate represents the likelihood that the animal occupied the site at any point during the study period, while the detection probability represents a combination of the probability that the species is detected and the intensity of use of the site within its larger range . This interpretation is common in camera trapping studies , but we proceed while being careful to acknowledge where appropriate that any covariate’s influence on detection probability is a combination of its effect on detection and the intensity with which an animal uses a given space. In addition, we have taken care to include variables in the detection process to account for what we anticipate to be the largest sources of variation in detectability, so that the other variables should primarily reflect space use intensity. We therefore interpret occupancy for the models as space use rather than true occupancy .

We operationalize detection as a combination of intensity of use, and camera detectability or error . For the single species occupancy models, occupancy and detection varied by species . Recall that for our models, we are interpreting occupancy as space use, and detection as a combination of detectability and space use intensity . Deer and tree squirrel occupancy probability increased with distance from cannabis farms, indicating potential avoidance. Domestic dogs, as expected, decreased in predicted occupancy with distance to cannabis farms. Interestingly, gray fox and ground squirrel occupancy probability also decreased with distance from cannabis farms, indicating that these species may be more likely to be found on and around cannabis farms . Six species had a meaningful detection response to cannabis farms . As expected, bobcat and ground squirrel detection probability increased with distance from cannabis farms, indicating that they may use areas further from cannabis farms more intensively. For ground squirrels, this implies that although they are more likely to be found closer to cannabis farms, they may use the spaces farther from farms more intensively. Again as expected, domestic dog detection probability decreased with distance from cannabis farms, confirming that they spend most of their time on and surrounding cannabis farms. Surprisingly however, deer, jackrabbit, and striped skunk detection also decreased with distance from cannabis farms. More frequent detections on occupied cannabis farms implies that these species may also be using the space on and surrounding cannabis farms more intensively . The other model covariates aside from cannabis also varied by species . For a majority of species, at least one regional intercept was meaningfully associated with occupancy probability. Elevation predicted occupancy for coyotes and striped skunks, and forest proportion predicted occupancy for jackrabbits, tree squirrels, and ground squirrels. Distance to highways was the only occupancy covariate that was not credibly non-zero for any species. As for detection, all covariates were meaningful for at least some species. The covariates for detectability, camera type and camera view, were credibly non-zero for four species all together. There was evidence for seasonal effects, with date and date2 meaningfully predicting detection for a majority of species. The activity indices had meaningful, and somewhat surprising results. Coyotes, bobcats, and tree squirrel detection was negatively associated with human activity, and ground squirrel detection was negatively associated with dog activity. However, coyote, gray fox, and jackrabbit detection probabilities were all positively associated with dog activity.For the multi-species occupancy models, almost no population-level parameters were meaningful .

No group meaningfully responded to cannabis in either detection or occupancy processes. No covariates were meaningful for occupancy or detection at the population level, aside from omnivore detection intercept. However, there was more variation at the species level . For the species that also had single species model results, the MSOM results largely matched, with occasional changes in credibility. For instance, for the deer SSOM, date and date2 were not credibly non-zero, but in the MSOM they were, even though the actual estimated values were similar in both . Despite the lack of population-level associations, some groups did have common responses to cannabis at the species level. For example, the occupancy probability for all ground bird species was credibly positive, increasing with distance from cannabis farms, which implies possible spatial avoidance of cannabis farms . For all ground bird species and both herbivore species, detection probability credibly decreased with increasing distance from cannabis farms, which may imply that these groups use areas around farms more intensively . Domestic species largely responded as predicted at the species level: cat and dog occupancy decreased with distance to cannabis, and dog and horse detection decreased with distance from cannabis . The other groupings were more mixed. Carnivores largely did not respond meaningfully to cannabis in either detection or occupancy . Omnivores had slightly more sensitivity, with three out of seven species responding meaningfully to cannabis in either occupancy or detection . For small mammals, tree squirrels and ground squirrels had opposite occupancy responses, rolling tables grow and only ground squirrels had a credibly non-zero detection response . This study assessed wildlife space use responses to active small-scale outdoor cannabis farms on private land. Our work provides a timely baseline for understanding potential wildlife community consequences from an emerging land use frontier. Our application of occupancy modeling to space use responses has yielded two main conclusions: 1) even at small scales, rural cannabis farming can affect local wildlife space use; 2) patterns of animal space use responses are species-specific, but there may be common patterns for herbivores, ground birds, and some mesopredators in how they use spaces near to cannabis farms. These results have implications for the cannabis industry and small farm strategies for conservation. Eight out of ten species modeled individually had a meaningful response to distance from cannabis farms, either in occupancy or detection. Although the population-level means were not meaningful, at an individual level, 13 out of 24 of the species included in multi-species models had a meaningful response to distance from cannabis farms, either in occupancy or detection. Our hypothesis that a majority of species would avoid farms was not supported, since the strength and direction of effects were species-specific. However, the results imply a general ability for cannabis farming to affect local wildlife space use. The relationships between occupancy and detection probabilities and distance to cannabis also indicate that there could be threshold effects relatively close to farms where the slope of the relationship is steeper , though further steps would be needed to confirm this relationship. These results are in contrast with research from the western US on vineyards and avocado production that indicates the ability of some wildlife to use farmed land in seeming preference over surrounding land uses . However, these other studies were conducted in areas where the agricultural land formed a corridor through more human-dominated land covers, which is the inverse of the landscape studied here. Our results are similar to studies on agroforestry systems with annual and perennial croplands, where there may be differential responses to agricultural land use and potential for filtering responses . Compared to the other covariates in the models, distance to cannabis farms meaningfully affected more species than any other single covariate other than the intercepts, or Date and Date2 . It was particularly surprising that wildlife responded to the physical land use of cannabis farms even more than human or dog activity, given that in other systems their space use intensity often responds more to human activity than human footprint , and is often negatively affected by the presence of dogs . This implies that cannabis farms may combine multiple potential sources of disturbance that wildlife may react to, and/or that the physical modifications for cannabis farms on their own are enough to trigger wildlife responses. More research is needed to disentangle some of the potential mechanistic pathways by which cannabis farms may affect wildlife. Overall, space use responses to cannabis were species-specific, confirming our alternative hypothesis for individual responses. While functional- or diet-group patterns are not as clear in this case as in other study systems , a few general patterns may be emerging, specifically in regard to herbivores/ground birds, and mesopredators. Our approach of using an occupancy modeling framework to assess wildlife space use associations was useful to identify some of these emerging patterns, because it allowed us to look at space use, separately from inferences on space use intensity . This is important because it helps capture different types of responses: attraction and deterrence, as well as potential behavioral shifts in activity patterns . For example, this helped identify opposing occupancy and detection responses from some herbivore and ground bird species. For medium to large herbivores and ground birds , occupancy credibly increased with distance from cannabis farms, while detection credibly decreased. This is the inverse of our alternative hypothesis that species using cannabis farms would decrease their activity intensity near to cannabis and suggests that while these species may generally avoid cannabis farms in space , the few areas that they do use, they may use more intensively.