Illegitimate Opportunities and Cannabis Cultivation

• In Event: 368 - Section on Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 02. Cannabis Cultivation and Legislation

Abstract

This study seeks to identify the extent to which college students seek employment in the cannabis industry to offset the cost of their education. There is a growing body of research focused on cannabis growers in general (Weisheit 1992; Hakkarainen et al. 2011; Potter, Bouchard, and Delacorte 2011; Barratt et al. 2012; Boylstein and Maggard 2013), yet none focused specifically on university students as growers. This study aims to explain student involvement in cannabis cultivation from the standpoint of Cloward and Ohlin’s (1960) notion of differential opportunities within deviant subcultures. Therefore this research also examines the extent to which opportunities to work in cannabis agriculture are related to actual employment behavior. This research is based on the results of a web-based survey administered to a random sample of 2,350 university students who were contacted by email between September 10 and 19, 2013. Students responded to 31 close-ended questions relating to their student debt, income sources, housing situation and expenses, employment status, academic standing and achievement, and demographic background. Students were also asked about whether marijuana was grown in the residence where they lived, the extent to which they were employed growing and/or distributing marijuana, their earning earnings from marijuana related employment, and their level of marijuana consumption, among other topical areas.

Author

• Joshua S. Meisel, Humboldt State University