World Wide Weed ─ Global Trends in Cannabis Cultivation and Its Control

This collection of sixteen chapter-length essays explores cannabis production from economic, criminological, botanical, anthropological and historical perspectives. The book discusses how cannabis production and use spread across the world due to its unique properties as a plant and drug. The essays track the movement away from a colonial model where third-world producers export to first-world consumers, to the current situation where production is universally domestic. Coverage also includes enforcement of drug policies in the developed world and responses in terms of individual offenders, drug education and the creation of markets. The question of legal, regulated cannabis markets appears often and is posed with regard to harm-reduction, artisan cultivation, and already existing quasi-legal markets (like medical marijuana). The editors, Decorte (Institute for Social Drug Research, Ghent U.), Potter (criminology, London South Bank U.) and Bouchard (criminology, Simon Fraser U), introduce the collection in terms of globalization and conclude with ways forward in cannabis cultivation research. Most of the contributors are criminologists and approach their subject with a liberal attitude. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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