
Killer Weed
Marijuana Grow Ops, Media, and Justice
University of Toronto Press
Published on 7. February 2014
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-4426-4367-3 (ISBN)
Description
Since the late 1990s, marijuana grow operations have been identified by media and others as a new and dangerous criminal activity of "epidemic" proportions. With Killer Weed, Susan C. Boyd and Connie Carter use their analysis of fifteen years of newspaper coverage to show how consensus about the dangerous people and practices associated with marijuana cultivation was created and disseminated by numerous spokespeople including police, RCMP, and the media in Canada. The authors focus on the context of media reports in Canada to show how claims about marijuana cultivation have intensified the perception that this activity poses "significant" dangers to public safety and thus is an appropriate target for Canada's war on drugs.
Boyd and Carter carefully show how the media draw on the same spokespeople to tell the same story again and again, and how a limited number of messages has led to an expanding anti-drug campaign that uses not only police, but BC Hydro and local municipalities to crack down on drug production. Going beyond the newspapers, Killer Weed examines how legal, political, and civil initiatives that have emerged from the media narrative have troubling consequences for a shrinking Canadian civil society.
Boyd and Carter carefully show how the media draw on the same spokespeople to tell the same story again and again, and how a limited number of messages has led to an expanding anti-drug campaign that uses not only police, but BC Hydro and local municipalities to crack down on drug production. Going beyond the newspapers, Killer Weed examines how legal, political, and civil initiatives that have emerged from the media narrative have troubling consequences for a shrinking Canadian civil society.
Reviews / Votes
'A first-rate book about marijuana, grow operations, and the media in Canada.... The book is both rigorous and sound, and will be of use to academics and graduate students doing work in drug policy, media studies, and sociology... Highly recommended.' - R.Koop (Choice vol 52:03:2014)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
18 figures
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
558 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4426-4367-3 (9781442643673)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Susan C. Boyd is a professor in the Faculty of Human and Social Development at the University of Victoria.
Connie Carter is a senior policy analyst for the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.
Connie Carter is a senior policy analyst for the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition.
Content
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Marijuana Grow Ops: Setting the Scene
Chapter One: A Brief Socio-History of Drug Scares, Racialization, Nation Building, and Policy
Chapter Two: Problematizing Marijuana Grow Ops: Mayerthorpe and Beyond
Chapter Three: Marijuana Grow Ops and Organized Crime
Chapter Four: Racialization of Marijuana Grow Ops
Chapter Five: Civil Responses to Marijuana Grow Ops
Chapter Six: Using Children to Promote Increased Regulation: The Representation and Regulation of Children and Parents Found at Grow Ops
Chapter Seven: Alternative Perspectives
Appendix
Newspaper References
References
Notes
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Marijuana Grow Ops: Setting the Scene
Chapter One: A Brief Socio-History of Drug Scares, Racialization, Nation Building, and Policy
Chapter Two: Problematizing Marijuana Grow Ops: Mayerthorpe and Beyond
Chapter Three: Marijuana Grow Ops and Organized Crime
Chapter Four: Racialization of Marijuana Grow Ops
Chapter Five: Civil Responses to Marijuana Grow Ops
Chapter Six: Using Children to Promote Increased Regulation: The Representation and Regulation of Children and Parents Found at Grow Ops
Chapter Seven: Alternative Perspectives
Appendix
Newspaper References
References
Notes