Cannabis, Moral Entrepreneurship, and Stigma: Conflicting Narratives on the 26 May 2016 Toronto Police Raid on Cannabis Shops

Thaddeus Müller

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.15.2.10

Authors

Thaddeus Müller

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.15.2.10

Keywords:

Cannabis, Moral Entrepreneurship, Stigma, Narratives

Abstract

On May 26, 2016, the police raided 43 cannabis dispensaries in Toronto, Canada, making 90 arrests. This article aims to describe the narrative of the responsible state agencies concerning the police raid and compare it to the narrative of those who opposed it, such as activists, as well as consumers and sellers of cannabis. While such concepts as moral entrepreneur, moral panic, and moral crusade have traditionally been used to study those in power, I will employ them to explore both the state narrative and ways in which counterclaims-makers resisted it. In order to do so, I will further develop the concept of moral entrepreneurship and its characteristics by relating it to studies of moral panics and social problems. This article will be guided by the following question: How did each party socially construct its cannabis narrative, and in what way can we use the concept of moral entrepreneurship to describe and analyze these narratives as social constructions? I have investigated the media coverage of the raid and ethnographically studied shops in Toronto in order to study the narratives. My findings show that both parties used a factual neutral style, as well as a dramatizing style. The later includes such typical crusading strategies as constructing victims and villains and presenting the image of a dystopian social world. In order to explain the use of these strategies, we will relate them to the shifting wider social and historical context and to the symbolic connotation of cannabis shops in Toronto in particular and in Canada as a whole.

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Author Biography

Thaddeus Müller

Thaddeus Müller is a Senior Lecturer specializing in Criminology at the Law School of Lancaster University. He has previously held positions at the University of Amsterdam, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design. His research has covered a broad range of topics that include the criminalization and regulation of cannabis, the public realm (the warm city), the Ajax Amsterdam hooligans, the marginalization of “ethnic” youth, the social construction of safety in public spaces, transgression in the rock/pop-world, academic fraud, and defaulting homeowners “fighting Wall Street.” More particular interests focus on the effects of stigma/labeling and the construction of empowering (counter-)narratives in order to resist them. He has also taught qualitative methods for over 25 years. His publications, including articles on ethnographic research, have appeared in such international journals as Symbolic Interaction, Critical Criminology, and The British Journal of Criminology. Müller is a former Vice President of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction and an active member of its European counterpart.

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