Regulating the plant versus regulating the drug: learning from backyard cannabis cultivation in the Australian Capital Territory

The cultivation of cannabis has been shaped by underpinning social, political, and economic dynamics over thousands of years. Recently, a new wave of regulatory reform has opened up legal and decriminalized ways of growing, obtaining, and using cannabis plants and products. Yet in some locations, these reforms continue to be informed by conceptualizations of cannabis as “drug” invoking links to criminality. The dominant figuring of cannabis as “drug” has potentially silenced the figuring of cannabis as a “plant.” Using photo elicitation methodologies we explored “backyard” cannabis cultivation in an area of Australia that has legalized domestic cannabis cultivation for personal use. We found that current patterns, practices, and experiences of cannabis cultivators challenge the biosocial imaginings of cannabis as expressed in current legislation. By better understanding the nature of cannabis as a plant, the realities of domestic cultivation, and the relations that fold into its care and cultivation, policy makers may be able to design more coherent legislation. Our work suggests ways that regulatory systems could better attend to the nature of, and biosocial relations of cannabis the plant, rather than merely the drug, thus improving connection between regulations and people's experiences of home cultivation. The current disconnect reduces the likelihood that home cultivation—one policy that avoids the hazards of commercialization of cannabis—will be successful.