An investigation of global patterns of small-scale domestic cannabis cultivation

The earliest empirical studies on cannabis cultivation focused on large-scale, commercially oriented growers (Weisheit, 1991; Bovenkerk & Hogewind, 2002), or covered rather small samples (Hough et al., 2003). These studies often based their conclusions on police data, and may lead to false perceptions of the prevalence of different types of growers and growing operations and related criminal behaviours (Wilkins & Casswell, 2003), with important consequences for future policy choices. The Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium (GCCRC) is a group of researchers interested in better understanding domestic cannabis cultivation, especially by small-scale growers. In 2011, given the absence of any significant international comparative research, the GCCRC developed the (semi-)standardized International Cannabis Cultivation Questionnaire (ICCQ 1.0) designed to facilitate international comparisons of small-scale cultivation. However, the cannabis policy landscape has changed since 2011, with medical and recreational schemes moving forward in multiple countries. We therefore have many questions about how these new policy settings may be influencing home cannabis growers. In response to the shifting policy landscape, the GCCRC launched their second global cannabis cultivation questionnaire in 2021. The overall aims are twofold; (1) to describe various aspects of small-scale domestic cannabis cultivation; and (2) to conduct comparative analysis of cannabis cultivation across countries and with the original dataset from 2012.