Advocacy Organizations and the Positive Discursive Shift on Marijuana Legalization

• In Event: 3245 - Pathways to Social Justice

Abstract

What drives local discourse about drugs? This study examines the dramatic growth in positive coverage about marijuana in U.S. states from 1990 to 2016. I argue that, when politicians are immovable on an issue, social movements can impact policy change by instead targeting voters, by gaining standing on and through a strategic reframing of the issue. Results from negative binomial regression analyses of state-level discourse in local articles, compared to statements promulgated by marijuana movement organizations in local articles, demonstrate that the marijuana movement significantly influenced the shift towards positive national discourse about marijuana.

Author

• Burrel James Vann, University of California, Irvine