Medicinal Cannabis Users Downplaying and Shifting Stigma: Articulations of the ‘Natural’, of What Is/Is Not a ‘Drug’ and Oppositions with ‘Chemical’ Substances

Abstract

While sympathy exists among the public for chronically ill and/or disabled people who use cannabis medicinally, cannabis remains a prohibited substance in the UK. How do medicinal cannabis users negotiate this potential stigma when talking about their use of this substance? I reflect on the spoken discourses of 10 medicinal cannabis users (from a sample of 32), obtained by way of qualitative interviews, adopting a critical discourse analysis approach to the data. Specifically, I focus on their articulations around three related themes: cannabis as a ‘natural’ substance, discursive oppositions between cannabis and other substances, and articulations about what is/is not a ‘drug’. I examine how participants articulated these themes in ways that attempted to negotiate the potential for stigma that talking about their cannabis use involved. I found they used rhetorical strategies that downplay their own deviance, attempt to shift the application of stigma to users of other substances, or both. I argue that the more powerful the discursive resources that are articulated, the less rhetorical work an individual has to do to negotiate positive moral standing in an encounter. I also consider to what degree these articulations involved constructions emphasising individual self-control. I argue participants emphasise their individual self-control by asserting that cannabis is a ‘natural’ substance (connoting less inherent risk).

Quality of life beyond measure: Advanced cancer patients, wellbeing and medicinal cannabis

“…Where cancer and associated symptoms are seen as generating loss and a disassembling , consideration of hoped‐for‐wellbeing and contemplation of MC’s potential is used as a means of parsing a reconceptualisation and engaging in a reassembling : A coalescing and repositioning underpinned by desire and (anticipation of) reclaimed agency. Shifting from conceptualisations of wellbeing more broadly, to an anchoring of wellbeing with specific reference to MC, is particularly illuminating because the broader frame of cannabis use—both recreational and medicinal—is characterised by the blurring of experiences and distinctions: legal‐illegal, medicinal‐recreational, acceptable‐unacceptable, prescribed‐obtained and medical‐alternative (Morris, 2020 ; Pedersen & Sandberg, 2013 ). Our work here suggests the usefulness of expansion beyond the predominant social science focus on stigma, decriminalisation and illicit drug use in the context of cannabis and MC, towards critical consideration of embodied MC assemblages.…”

“…Complementing and at times contrasting this clinical realm, social science perspectives have been brought to bear, drawing from long‐standing interests in drug use, medicalisation and stigma (Athey et al., 2017 ; Becker, 1953 ; Järvinen & Ravn, 2014 ; Morris, 2020 ). Through such lenses, MC is comprehended as a contested substance and space: multiple, often conflicting, meanings are assigned to it; perceptions of its benefits and risks are wide‐ranging; and intensive work is undertaken at the often‐blurred boundary between licit and illicit and medical and recreational use (Kvamme et al., 2021 ; Pedersen & Sandberg, 2013 ; Zarhin et al., 2018 ).…”

Overview: Exploring the onto-politics of cannabis

“…Likewise, users might also seek to distance themselves from the stigmatised position of the deviant and criminal “drug user” ( Sandberg, 2012 ) by drawing on discourses that emphasise the “naturalness” of cannabis ( Duff, 2017 ; Morris, 2020 ; Tupper, 2012 ). In Western discourse, “nature” and “the natural” are typically associated with notions of virtue, morality, cleanliness, purity, vigour, and goodness ( Lypton, 1995 ).…”

“…In Western discourse, “nature” and “the natural” are typically associated with notions of virtue, morality, cleanliness, purity, vigour, and goodness ( Lypton, 1995 ). As illustrated by Craig Morris (2020) , cannabis users may lean on a discourse of the “natural” to enact cannabis as a benign and safe substance, as not really a drug (a non-drug). Such enactments enable users to both downplay the perception of cannabis as risky/problematic and to shift the potential stigma associated with illicit drug use onto users of “chemical” (i.e., dangerous) substances such as crack cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy.…”

“…Such enactments enable users to both downplay the perception of cannabis as risky/problematic and to shift the potential stigma associated with illicit drug use onto users of “chemical” (i.e., dangerous) substances such as crack cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy. Similarly, cannabis may also be enacted as a healthier “natural medicine” through juxtapositions with conventional prescribed medicine depicted as chemical and non-natural ( Morris, 2020 ). The enactment of cannabis as a natural “non-drug” is also evident in studies of small-scale cannabis cultivation, describing how cannabis is sometimes grown in greenhouses, and is materially and symbolically situated within a landscape of horticulture ( Hakkarainen et al, 2011 ).…”