U of G professor Andrew Hathaway was interviewed for a headline-making story this week called “Baloney Meter: Would Home Cultivation of Pot Displace Black Market?” He discussed why individuals growing cannabis at home probably won’t make any significant dent in the illegal market.
The article follows the federal government’s rejection of a Senate amendment to Bill C-45 that would have allowed provinces to prohibit home-grown cannabis. The government says allowing people to grow cannabis at home will support its objective of displacing the illegal market, and it points to research to support this claim.
Hathaway, who teaches in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at U of G, has spent more than a decade researching cannabis use in marginalized and mainstream populations and has looked at implications for social policy development. He says he’s not convinced that home cultivation will significantly affect the cannabis black market with its large-scale distribution networks and product quality.
Hathaway’s comments on this issue have appeared in the National Post and Huffington Post.
Contact: hathawaa@uoguelph.ca