Think Tank for Social Research on Cannabis

Who We Are: Goals and Values

 

 

Written by Erin Hudnall, MA

April 2021

 

**citations are clickable, so please check them out! 

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In the fall semester of 2018, three graduate students at West Virginia University (WVU) collaborated on a class-assigned research project exploring how peoples' characteristics and political affiliations are tied to their opinions about cannabis legalization. Through their research, the students found that views on legalization are complex, and their relation to individual characteristics even more so. More importantly, as these researchers had recently read up on the few, but relevant cannabis studies, they realized that some of this complexity was due to misinformation or lack of scientific information about cannabis and its effects that served as the underlying logic for many of these complex views. The researchers puzzled over why such a gap in public and scientific knowledge exists, especially in light of the fast-paced changes to state laws allowing medicinal, recreational, or decriminalized cannabis in over 40 states at the time (NORML 2019).

 

Hoping to better understand this problem, the researchers further explored the historical use of cannabis in America and around the globe, which revealed a complex and politicized history. “Politicization” means that a certain topic or thing is manipulated for political gain. For the case of cannabis, Americans had utilized it in a variety of ways until 1937 when federal cannabis-control legislation was first introduced. Cannabis has since become a tool politicians can manipulate to serve specific ends, such as providing false justification for racist systems like the War on Drugs and mass incarceration. For example, 1937 saw the introduction of the Marihuana Tax Act, which required paying a tax for the possession of cannabis. Many scholars suggest that the real motivation behind this law was not concern for public safety through regulating drug use, but rather to eliminate industrial competition from the increasing production of hemp as well as to control and detain the recent influx of Mexican immigrants from the Mexican Revolution (Burnett and Reiman 2014; Holland 2010). As mentioned, this argument aligns with discussions about the War on Drugs and current federal drug laws where drug possession charges and policing are correlated with racial and class based discrimination (see The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander for one example of many).

 

Exploring America's history of cannabis politicization revealed a much larger issue than what the researcher’s current project addressed. The passage of the Controlled Substances Act in the 1970s completely outlawed cannabis, hindering public, private, and scholarly research to explore the positive and negative consequences of cannabis use. In the researchers’ view, this has led to a lack of scientific information and understanding of cannabis and an abundance of misinformation about the substance, and thus, a politically manipulated American public.

 

The students completed and presented their research project a few months later at a national conference of scholars, and received an award for their work. Bolstered by this positive reception, and with a desire to use public sociology to contribute to social research and public knowledge about cannabis, these researchers invited others to join their efforts, and the Think Tank for Social Research on Cannabis (TTSRC) was established in the fall of 2019. Currently, TTSRC is focused on developing and maintaining a positive organizational culture that provides multiple benefits for the collaborators involved, including undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. For example, one of the group's first meetings focused on establishing principles of the organization through consensus, and a four-part Vision and Mission was created. Since then, TTSRC continually evaluates its goals, values, and organizational growth and makes reflexive changes to our goals and values according to our growth and member input: 

 

1). Within the American context, cannabis use is a historical and ongoing social phenomenon with a complex legal history. Recently, the evolution of social norms and laws regarding cannabis creates a context in which cannabis use should be viewed as a social fact, not a social problem, necessitating focused research that considers both the positive and negative causes and consequences of cannabis use in American culture.

 

Regardless of America's past demonization of cannabis, drug use is a worldwide human behavior; cannabis is the most widely used drug to date, with recreational, medicinal, and religious uses; and the majority of Americans are in favor of federal legalization of cannabis (Pew 2021; Botswick 2012; Holland 2010). Since cannabis use has been historically prevalent within our society and many others, TTSRC treats cannabis use as a normal part of American and global culture rather than as a deviant or criminal behavior. Additionally, rather than problematizing cannabis use as a social issue to be controlled, TTSRC views social research on cannabis as a tool in cultivating scientific understanding of cannabis and its use in order to address real-world complications of state and federal legalization, such as how lack of federal legislation complicates cannabis access for medical patients.

 

2). The TTSRC will promote social responsibility and public sociology by sharing applied reports and findings, in a variety of accessible and creative forms, to inform the public of the social causes and consequences, both positive and negative, of cannabis use and its place in American culture.

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As mentioned, the political manipulation of cannabis and its use has led to much misinformation and limited scientific information about the substance. To begin addressing this issue, TTSRC seeks to be in constant conversation with the public about emerging cannabis research, both medical and social. This goal serves other ends as well. The modern relationship between the public and the scholarly community is not a transparent one. For example, only a small portion of scientific information is available to the public, since academic articles are published in pricey journals; academic conference attendance is expensive and usually guarded by association membership; and communicating scientific research to non-academic audiences through non-academic publications or platforms is not currently a common practice of scientists. This is a major problem. Science should not be an elite endeavor where scientists are secluded in “ivory towers'' pursuing whatever ideas seem the most interesting to them at the moment. Rather, scientists have a responsibility to use taxpayer dollars responsibly by working on problems the public deems relevant and communicating this knowledge and progress to the public openly. Such actions ensure transparency and accountability to the very people scientific discovery may impact.

 

Additionally, TTSRC recognizes that the politicization of cannabis and other substances has been used to uphold white supremacy, and TTSRC denounces white supremacy, racism, and all forms of prejudice or hate and the violent acts carried out in their name. In addition to sharing information and conducting research on the social aspects of cannabis and cannabis use, TTSRC focuses on sharing information about the ways in which legalization can support racial and social justice. We also focus on monetarily supporting organizations that work for racial and social justice. 

 

According to values of justice and equity for all, TTSRC explicitly denounces:

• White supremacy, racism, and white feminism

• Sexism and violence against women and children

• Police brutality

• Homophobia

• Transphobia

• Gun violence 

• Nationalism

• Language or acts that dehumanize any group  

 

In practicing these values in the context of TTSRC’s current home state, TTSRC explicitly denounces the following policies recently considered by the WV legislature: 

• HB 2174 protecting Confederate monuments and symbols

• HB 3283 banning athletic participation of transgender women and girls and requiring submission of a birth certificate listing sex-at-birth for admission to a public school 

• SB 246/HB 2519 allowing those with a concealed weapon permit to carry firearms on public college campuses 

• SB 387 requiring TANF recipients to complete drug testing and treatment programs to access social benefits 

• Various income tax repeal plans that will create greater income inequality in WV and disproportionately harm families with less resources 

• Policies that harm, police, and dehumanize those experiencing houselessness 

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*SB = Senate Bill and HB = House Bill, indicating where a piece of legislation originated within state government 

 

According to values of justice and equity for all, TTSRC practices antiracism and intersectional feminism, which encompass nonviolence and the acceptance of all marginalized groups. Within these values, we advocate for policies that support/like:

• Enhanced education and health care access 

• Racial equity in the cannabis industry, including expungement of records with legalization, job opportunities for the formerly incarcerated, and cannabis tax structures that ensure access for medical patients, such as the MORE Act

• The THRIVE Act, which seeks to create an equitable economy through racial, climate, and economic justice 

• The CROWN Act, which bans natural hair-based discrimination

• Policies that support harm reduction, syringe exchange, and humanizing, holistic substance use disorder treatment programs 

• Full implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and affordable healthcare

• Policies and ordinances that ban discrimination of LGBTQ+

 

3). The TTSRC actively pursues an ethical organizational culture of belonging where all partners - undergraduates, graduate students, professors, community partners, research participants, the public, and WVU --  can benefit from our organizational values and the ways we enact them. This includes trust, collaboration, respect, asking for help, showing up, and taking risks. 

 

TRUST

• We profess and practice our values. 

• We own mistakes, apologize, and make amends.

• We encourage members to take on only what they are able to without overcommitment. 

• We practice integrity in all that we do by choosing what is right over what is fast, easy, fun, or comfortable. 

• We stay aligned with our values when making tough decisions. 

• We lean into difficult conversations and decisions by leaning on each other. 

• We represent data and information accurately and completely. 

• We actively pursue kind, consistent, and clear communication. 

• We lead each other by our own examples, modeling the behaviors we value. 

 

COLLABORATION

• We take responsibility for and actively build our community experience. 

• We treat our partners and members as whole people. 

• We invite every members’ perspective during decision-making. 

• We recognize and celebrate the good work of our group and its members. 

• We practice gratitude for ourselves and one another and make time to be generous to each other through kind acts. 

• We avoid competition and comparison. 

• We take responsibility and care in developing our internal and external personal and professional relationships. 

• We surface and work through conflict and misunderstandings rather than ignoring them. 

• We give and receive feedback according to our values. 

• We rely on our members’ expertise and encourage understanding of individual strengths and limitations. 

 

RESPECT

• We honor personal and professional boundaries. 

• We acknowledge that burnout can prevent members from contributing at times and encourage members to practice meaningful self-care. 

• We extend generous interpretation of the words, actions, and intentions of members. 

• We respect members’ and each others’ time. 

• We talk to each other, not about each other. 

• We show up for organizational activities on time and well prepared. 

• We follow-through on our commitments to acknowledge that our group is sustained by voluntary, collective effort and to honor each members’ time investment in the organization. 

 

ASKING FOR HELP 

• We ask for help when we need it and encourage members to do the same. 

• We ask for what we need rather than blaming others or sitting in resentment. 

• When expectations are not clear, we ask for clarification. 

• We do not judge ourselves or others for asking for help or asking for what they need. 

• We encourage members to acknowledge when they cannot follow-through on a commitment and assist them in creating a contingency plan. 

• We say no when an opportunity or task is not meaningful or feasible for the group or an individual member. 

 

SHOWING UP

• We are thoughtful and engaged during organizational meetings and activities. 

• We encourage members to take initiative rather than just direction. 

• We expect members to contribute their point of view on organizational matters. 

• We encourage members to be and bring their whole selves to the table and express how they feel respectfully and responsibly. 

• We openly accept and manage complexity, contradiction, and paradoxes. 

• We support each other through personal and professional crises. 

 

TAKING RISKS

• We approach our work with a sense of possibility and positivity. 

• We take risks, even when the outcome is uncertain. 

• We accept that failure and mistakes are a part of life and of innovative organizations. 

• When there is a setback, failure, or disappointment, we identify and discuss key learnings in the interest of improvement. 

• We challenge or question the status quo or traditional way of doing things and are open to new ideas even when things are going well.

 

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4). The TTSRC provides multi-level mentorship opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students to assist in or complete their own original projects. The values listed above represent the kind of environment current members of TTSRC have identified as conducive to scholarly collaboration, learning, and skill development through the affirmation of the inherent worth of every person regardless of scholarly prestige or social status. 

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It is our hope that acting on these values and goals will help TTSRC become an effective agent for education and positive social change, as well as to grow the organization's presence and network. TTSRC’s work is reflexive to the dynamic context of cannabis legalization in America and around the world, so we accept that change is the only constant in our organizational life. We hope that you will join this conversation and evolve with us! 

 

For more information on the research informing our goals and values, please click here.