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.