UC Irvine

California occupies a special place in cannabis policy. It was the first state to prohibit recreational use of cannabis in 1913 and the first to allow its medical use in 1996. In 2016, California passed Proposition 64 that permitted recreational use of cannabis and had record public support rates —57%. However, the acceptance of cannabis did not arise with the same intensity across California. Counties and cities have discretion over deciding whether to allow or forbid cannabis companies within their borders, and many are still debating. In 2016, two-third of California cities supported the legalization of recreational use of cannabis. As of now, only one-third of local jurisdictions permitted the distribution, cultivation, testing, manufacturing, or sale of cannabis. Others have passed ordinances forbidding any cannabis-related economic activities within their borders. The case of cannabis legalization presents an ideal context to unpack the complex relationship between legality and legitimacy. One can expect that placing cannabis in a context of increasing legality will contribute to its legitimacy, i.e., dismantle old stereotypes and remove cannabis from the context of criminal justice. However, the idea of “legal cannabis” is not yet crystalized and remains in a liminal state. There is no consensus about what cannabis is and what it is not. Cannabis is a pain-relief medicine that is not available at the pharmacy and a recreational intoxicant that cannot be purchased at the supermarket (unlike wine, beer, or tobacco. This project looks at the adoption of cannabis regulation as an example of morality policies, through which local governments draw a boundary between “pure” and “polluted,” “ordered” and “disordered,” “safe” and “dangerous” places. The question is not whether cannabis is legal in California but where, how, and to what degree it is legal. Legalization is not something that happens overnight; it is a gradual process of social and cultural transformation that started in California well before the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016 and may extend long into the future. Therefore, I adopt a process-oriented approach, which allows us to speak about legalizing cannabis in California as a project under construction.