The role of social justice regarding the adult-use cannabis regulation

: a scoping review of literature

Abstract

Cannabis is the most commonly used psychoactive substance in the world. Although there is a trend towards normalizing its use, approaches towards regulating adult use vary between countries. The aim of this study was to explore the social justice implications of regulating cannabis. To achieve this goal, a Scoping Review (SR) approach was used that encompassed a set of 31 articles. Data analysis was carried out using software specialized in qualitative research, namely NVivo. The study thus sets out to: (1) describe the role of social justice in cannabis regulation by identifying the emerging themes that operationalize the social justice approach in a cannabis regulation context; (2) identify the specific effects of regulation in the context of social justice. Based on the literature, a set of themes/sub-themes was generated, such as racial criminalization and racial capitalism, which proved to be crucial to understanding the systemic inequalities still present in cannabis regulation. As a result, it was possible to identify and produce guidelines that can inform policymakers in order to enhance social justice in the context of cannabis regulation.

Date of Award	10 May 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria Carmo Carvalho (Supervisor)