Research

Funded by the National Science Foundation, my current book project investigates race, gender, and class inequity in the U.S. cannabis industry.

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This book uses intersectional  analysis to examine opportunities and obstacles for women in the newly legalized, highly commercialized weed industry. Immersing myself in this industry for over a year, I worked retail in dispensaries, analyzed weed advertising and legalization campaigns, and interviewed 48 workers, executives, and entrepreneurs.

Centering the experiences of women of color, this study examines how licensed weed businesses draw on race, class, and gender to promote and legitimize a quasi-legal, socially stigmatized market. Individuals who try to participate legally in this industry, as this book shows, face structural and ideological barriers that privilege some while marginalizing others.

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This research calls for the development of new weed policy frameworks that redress the state violence of the “war on drugs” and foster social equity and justice post-prohibition.

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 [Illustration by Curt Merlo.]