Recognizing Cannabis Spaces and Relationship’s among Latinx and Black Communities in Los Angeles, CA.

Keywords: cannabis geographies, feminist geography, cannabis culture, spatial relationships
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 4/10/2021 04:40 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/10/2021 05:55 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 26

Abstract

Through this paper, I work through an analysis of how cannabis relationships and spaces have been shaped in Los Angeles, CA and what the role of the urban is in cannabis culture. I give attention to cannabis advocates, such as Steve M. Corchado, a Black cancer survivor and co-organizer of Millennium Medical Marijuana March 2000 that took place in Washington D.C. a day before the Millennium March on Washington for Equality on April 30th 2000. For instance, these two social movements, marijuana advocacy and LGBTQ+ rights, have questioned politics of stigmatization and suggested and created alternative visions for cannabis users and queer and trans folks. I employ comparative and transdisciplinary frameworks to unpack the ways in which cannabis spatial relationships are shaped by the larger design of urban city space. I put into conversation feminist geographies (Doreen Massey, Katherine McKittrick), cannabis studies (Nick Johnson, Michael Polson, Robert Chlala), and critical ethnic studies to understand the role of spatial relationality, pleasure, and sociality within cannabis culture in Los Angeles. I conclude by proposing a decolonial feminist framework to imagine alternative cannabis relationships and geographies. I ask: How can cannabis relationships offer an imaginary for alternative public spaces and what would it mean if go beyond cannabis dispensaries and into community cannabis gardens? This paper is part of my larger dissertation research that asks: What are cannabis spatial relationships? What can alternative cannabis spaces offer communities of color, specifically Latinx and Black folks?