Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T14:30:07.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Change Is in the Air: The Smell of Marijuana, after Legalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2020

William Garriott
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Marijuana continues to be legalized throughout the world. In the United States, a unique approach to legalization is taking hold that focuses on the creation of commercial marijuana markets. This article examines the everyday realities of this approach to legalization through a focus on one of marijuana’s most legally significant attributes: its smell. In the context of prohibition, the smell of marijuana was a key tool of criminal law enforcement. In the context of legalization, its significance has expanded to include nuisance laws governing the presence of unwanted odors and commercial laws that facilitate economic activity in the marijuana market. By focusing on the sense of smell in the context of marijuana legalization, this article shows the implications of the market-based approach for drug policy reform. More broadly, this focus highlights the importance of the senses to sociolegal change and the ongoing construction of legality in the context of capitalism.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Social Inquiry , Volume 45 , Issue 4 , November 2020 , pp. 995 - 1026
Copyright
© 2020 American Bar Foundation

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The research on which this article is based was generously supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. I would like to thank my colleagues at Drake University for their multiple engagements with this piece, particularly those in the Law, Politics, and Society Program, the Drake Law Library, members of the Faculty Writing Project, students in the Senior Seminar, and my research team. I would also like to thank Heath Cabot and the four anonymous reviewers for their generous, constructive feedback. And, of course, I am forever indebted to those in Colorado who were willing to participate in this project.

References

REFERENCES

Aviram, Hadar. 2015. Cheap on Crime: Recession-Era Politics and the Transformation of American Punishment. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bedford, Kate, Casey, Donal, and Flynn, Alexandra. 2018. “Keeping Chance in Its Place: The Socio-Legal Regulation of Gambling.” Journal of Law and Social Policy 30: 1–10.Google Scholar
Bently, Lionel, and Flynn, Leo, eds. 1996. Law and the Senses: Sensational Jurisprudence. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Braverman, Irus. 2013. “Passing the Sniff Test: Police Dogs as Surveillance Technology.” Buffalo Law Review 61: 81–168.Google Scholar
Calavita, Kitty. 2010. Invitation to Law and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carroll, Rick. 2015. “Holland Hills Residents: Marijuana Greenhouse Stinks Up Neighborhood.” Aspen Times, March 29. https://www.aspentimes.com/news/holland-hills-residents-marijuana-greenhouse-stinks-up-neighborhood/.Google Scholar
Chapkis, Wendy, and Webb, Richard J. 2008. Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Colorado Division of Criminal Justice. 2018. “Impacts of Marijuana Legalization in Colorado.” http://cdpsdocs.state.co.us/ors/docs/reports/2018-SB13-283_Rpt.pdf.Google Scholar
Corbin, Alain. 1986. The Foul and the Fragrant: Odor and the French Imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Desautels-Stein, Justin. 2012. “The Market as a Legal Concept.” Buffalo Law Review 60: 387–492.Google Scholar
Drobnick, Jim. 2006. The Smell Culture Reader. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Dumit, Joseph. 2012. Drugs for Life: How Pharmaceutical Companies Define Our Health. Durham: Duke University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, Charlene. 2019. “Sensorium®: The Splash of Sensory Trademarks.” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 34, no. 2: 243–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eltarkawe, Mohamed A., and Miller, Shelly L. 2018. “The Impact of Industrial Odors on the Subjective Well-Being of Communities in Colorado.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 7: 1091 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16071242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elyria and Swansea Neighborhoods Plan. 2015. https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/646/documents/planning/Plans/Elyria_Swansea_Neighborhood_Plan.pdf.Google Scholar
Epp, Charles R., Maynard-Moody, Steven, and Haider-Markel, Donald. 2014. Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ewick, Partricia, and Silbey, Susan. 1998. The Common Place of Law: Stories from Everyday Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felson, Jacob, Adamczyk, Amy, and Thomas, Christopher. 2019. “How and Why Have Attitudes about Cannabis Legalization Changed So Much?” Social Science Research 78: 12–27.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisk, Catherine, and Gordon, Robert W. 2011. “‘Law As …’: Theory and Method in Legal History.” University of California Irvine Law Review 1, no. 3: 519–41.Google Scholar
Garriott, William. 2010. “Targeting the Local: Policing Clandestine Methamphetamine Production in a Rural U.S. Community.” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 25, no. 1: 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelardi, Liz. 2016. “Families Worry Pot Grows Are Near Homes, School.” Denver Channel.com, February 26. https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/marijuana/denver-families-worry-about-marijuana-grows-being-near-homes-school.Google Scholar
Geller, Amanda, and Fagan, Jeffrey. 2010. “Pot as Pretext: Marijuana, Race, and the New Disorder in New York City Street Policing.” Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 7, no. 4: 591–633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, Laura. 2015. “Legalizing Marijuana in the Shadows of International Law: The Uruguay, Colorado, and Washington Models.” Wisconsin International Law Journal 33, no. 1: 140–66.Google Scholar
Guide to DEH’s Odor Regulations. 2015. https://www.denverinc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Denver-Guide-to-Odor-Regulations.pdf.Google Scholar
Hageseth, Christian. 2015. Big Weed: An Entrepreneur’s High-Stakes Adventures in the Budding Legal Marijuana Business. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Sheryl N., Majury, Diana, Moore, Dawn, and Sargent, Neil. 2017a. “Introduction.” In Hamilton et al., Sensing Law, 1–30.Google Scholar
Hamilton, Sheryl N., Majury, Diana, Moore, Dawn, Sargent, Neil, and Wilke, Christiane, eds. 2017b. Sensing Law. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hill, Rob. 2016. “Good Chemistry Is Good Business Craft.” https://mgretailer.com/business/retail-merchandise/good-chemistry-good-business-craft/.Google Scholar
Howes, David. 2005. “Hyperaesthesia, or, the Sensual Logic of Late Capitalism.” In Empire of the Senses, edited by Howes, David, 282–303. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Howes, David. 2017. “Law’s Sensorium: On the Media of Law and the Evidence of the Senses in Historical and Cross-Cultural Perspective.” Hamilton et al., Sensing Law, 53–72.Google Scholar
Howes, David. 2019. “Prologue: Introduction to Sensori-Legal Studies.” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 34, no. 2: 173–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, Caitlin Elizabeth, and Stevens, Alex. 2010. “What Can We Learn from the Portuguese Decriminalization of Illicit Drugs?” British Journal of Criminology 50: 999–1022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, Trevor. 2014. “What’s That Smell? Legal Marijuana Growing in Colorado.” USA Today, August 11. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/11/legal-pot-causes-odor-complaints/13896885/.Google Scholar
Huspeni, Dennis. 2013. “Downtown Marijuana Business Draws Smell Complaints.” Denver Business Journal, December 6. https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2013/12/06/downtown-marijuana-business-draws.html.Google Scholar
Jackson, Deborah Davis. 2011. “Scents of Place: The Dysplacement of a First Nations Community in Canada.” American Anthropologist 113, no. 4: 606–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kilmer, Beau, and MacCoun, Robert J. 2017. “How Medical Marijuana Smoothed the Transition to Marijuana Legalization in the United States.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 13: 181–202.Google Scholar
King, Ryan S., and Mauer, Marc. 2006. “The War on Marijuana: The Transformation of the War on Drugs in the 1990s.” Harm Reduction Journal 3: 6. http://doi: 10.1186/1477-7517-3-6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kreit, Alex. 2016. “Marijuana Legalization and Pretextual Stops.” University of California Davis Law Review 50: 741–72.Google Scholar
Levine, Harry, Gettman, Jon B, and Siegel, Loren. 2012. “210,000 Marijuana Arrests in Colorado.” Report prepared for Marijuana Arrests Research Project. http://marijuana-arrests.com/210,000-Marijuana-Arrests-In-Colorado.html.Google Scholar
Mandiberg, Susan F. 2012. “Marijuana Prohibition and the Shrinking Fourth Amendment.” McGeorge Law Review 43: 23–62.Google Scholar
Mandic, Danilo, Nirta, Caterina, Pavoni, Andrea, and Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos, Andreas, eds. 2015. Non Liquet: The Westminster Online Working Papers Series: Law and the Senses Series: The Smell Issue. https://nonliquetlaw.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/law-and-the-senses_smell.pdf.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Stewart, Friedman, Lawrence, and Stookey, John, eds. 1995. Law and Society: Readings on the Social Study of Law. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Malloy, Robin Paul. 2016. “Law, Market and Marketization.” University of Bologna Law Review 1(2): 166–84.Google Scholar
Mattei, Ugo, and Nader, Laura. 2008. Plunder: When the Rule of Law Is Illegal. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Meares, Tracy L. 2014. “The Law and Social Science of Stop and Frisk.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 10: 335–52.Google Scholar
Meyer, Jeremy P. 2013. “When Pot Smells in Denver, The Nasal Ranger Goes in to Investigate.” Denver Post, November 10. https://www.denverpost.com/2013/11/10/when-pot-smells-in-denver-the-nasal-ranger-goes-in-to-investigate/.Google Scholar
Morgan, Blayne, Hansgen, Rachel, Hawthorne, Wendy, and Miller, Shelly L. 2015. “Industrial Odor Sources and Air Pollutant Concentrations in Globeville, a Denver, Colorado Neighborhood.” Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association 65, no. 9: 1127–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, Jon. 2016a. “Denver Officials Take Aim at Marijuana Growing Odors with New Rules.” Denver Post, April 12. https://www.denverpost.com/2016/04/12/denver-officials-take-aim-at-marijuana-growing-odors-with-new-rules/.Google Scholar
Murray, Jon. 2016b. “Starbuds Loses License for Denver Marijuana Grow in First Decision of Its Kind.” Denver Post, June 23. https://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/23/starbuds-loses-license-for-marijuana-grow-denver/.Google Scholar
Pistor, Katharina. 2019. The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Porteous, J. Douglas. 2006. “Smellscape.” In The Smell Culture Reader, edited by Drobnick, Jim, 89–106. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Provine, Doris Marie. 2011. “Race and Inequality in the War on Drugs.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 7: 41–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rindisbacher, Hans J. 2015. “When the Stink Begins to Rise: Nazi Smellscapes.” In Mandic et al., Non Liquet, 10–31.Google Scholar
Seaborn, Paul. 2017. “Colorado Marijuana Market Report.” https://www.du.edu/ideas/media/documents/colorado-marijuana-market-report-april-2017.pdf.Google Scholar
Seaborn, Paul. 2018. “Colorado Marijuana Market Report.” University of Denver. https://www.du.edu/ideas/media/documents/colorado-marijuana-market-report-september-2018.pdf.Google Scholar
Silbey, Susan. 2005. “Everyday Life and the Constitution of Legality.” In The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Culture, edited by Jacobs, Mark D and Hanrahan, Nancy, 332–45. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Silbey, Susan. 2019. “The Every Day Work of Studying the Law in Everyday Life.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 15: 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sprow, Michael A. 2000. “Wake Up and Smell the Contraband: Why Courts that Do Not Find Probable Cause Based on Odor Alone Are Wrong.” William and Mary Law Review 42 289–318.Google Scholar
Task Force Report on the Implementation of Amendment 64. 2013. https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/A64TaskForceFinalReport%5B1%5D_1.pdf.Google Scholar
Tomlins, Chris. 2016. “Organic Poise? Capitalism as Law.” Buffalo Law Review 64: 61–79.Google Scholar
Valverde, Mariana. 2019. “The Law of Bad Smells: Making and Adjudicating Offensiveness Claims in Contemporary Local Law.” Canadian Journal of Law and Society 34, no. 2: 327–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

CASES CITED

People v McKnight, 2019 CO 36 (2019)

Florida v Harris, 568 US 237 (2013).

Johnson v United States, 333 U.S. 10 (1948).

Mendez v People, 986 P2d 275 (1999).

People v Baker, 813 P.2d 331 (1991).

People v Stephenson, 165 P.3d 860 (1975).

People v Zuniga, 2016 CO 52 (2016).

Safe Streets Alliance v Hickenlooper, 859 F3d 865 (2017).

United States v Garza, 10 F.3d 1241 (1993).

United States v Johnston, 497 F.2d 397 (1974).

United States v Leazer, 460 F.2d 982 (1972).

United States v Morin, 949 F.2d 297, 300 (1991).

United States v Neumann, 183 F.3d 753 (1999).

United States v Norman, 701 F.2d 295 (1983).

United States v Pierre, 958 F.2d 1304 (1992).

United States v Pond, 523 F.2d 210 (1975).

United States v Russell, 670 F.2d 323 (1982).

United States v Sifuentes, 504 F.2d 845 (1974).

United States v Taylor, 162 F.3d 12 (1998).

United States v Valen, 479 F.2d 467 (1973).

STATUTES CITED

Boulder, Colo., Rev. Code § Sec. 6-16-8 (2020).

Breckenridge, Colo., Ordinance 38 § 11 (2015).

Denver Retail Marijuana Code § Sec. 6-214(a)(3) (2020).

Fort Collins, Colo., Ordinance 41 (2014).

Pueblo, Colo., Ordinance 8841 § 7 (2015).

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 1970, 84 Stat 922-3.