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2025

Martin J.V., Dillis C., Starrs G., Schell D., Grantham T.E., Butsic V.

Wildfire impacts and mitigation strategies among California cannabis producers

The geography of cannabis production overlaps with high fire hazard areas more than any other crop in the state. Over the same period, licensed cannabis production has grown to a high-grossing industry, while remaining an important source of rural livelihood.

2024

Polson, M., Laudati, A., Sayre, N.

An oversupply of cannabis and high regulatory costs results in an unlicensed market. Based on over 150 extended interviews with people involved with cannabis cultivation in three regions of California, this report documents and interprets the persistence and transformation of unlicensed cultivation since legalization.

2024

Dillis, C., Petersen-Rockney, M., Polson, M.

Journal of Environmental Management

The marginalization of cannabis farms to the fringe areas of our state has created environmental conflict and negatively affects growers.

2023

Biber, E., Moira O’Neill, M., de Genova, H., Froehlich, D., Hossack, J., Park, T.

Social Science Research Network

Legal researchers analyzed local and state cannabis laws regulating outdoor and mixed-light licensed commercial cannabis cultivation.

2023

Dillis, C., Butsic, V., Martin, J., Reiman, A., Starrs, G., Grantham, T.

Environmental Research Letters

With the largest legal cannabis market in the world, California's cannabis crops face increasing wildfire impacts, leading to substantial economic loss.

2023

Getz, C., Petersen-Rockney, M., Polson, M.

After investigating the causes and effects of local cannabis cultivation bans, we recommend policy change.

2023

Dillis, C., Butsic, V., Georgakakos, P., Portugal, E., Grantham, T.

Environmental Research Communications

Water use on unpermitted farms varies by watershed. With scenario modeling, we project the impacts of compliance with water extraction and off-stream storage.

2023

Polson, M., Bodwitch, H., Corva, D., Getz, C., Laudati, A., Petersen-Rockney, M., Runsten, D., Taylor, K.

Left unaddressed, smaller businesses and farms will likely collapse. Of all actors in the cannabis market, the impacts of this current moment rest most heavily upon smaller producers.

2023

Polson, M., Bodwitch, H., Biber, E., Butsic, V., Grantham, T.

Land Use Policy

There are many barriers to participation in California's regulated cannabis industry. Is there a way to achieve environmental objectives, farmer compliance, and an equitable transition away from illegal markets?

2022

Polson, M., Butsic, V., Dillis, C., de Genova, H., Grantham, T., Herrera, L.R., Hossack, J., Laudati, A., Martin, J.V., Parker-Shames, P., Petersen-Rockney, M., Sorgen, J., Starrs, G.

This report presents multiple pathways for consideration by state and local governments in their efforts to improve cannabis cultivation policy.

2022

Parker-Shames, P.

Doctoral Disseration

Phoebe Parker-Shames' dissertation, submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley

2022

Dillis, C., Butsic, V., Moanga, D., Parker-Shames, P., Wartenberg, A., Grantham, T.

Agroecosytems

Where should we grow? Explore the vulnerability of California's cannabis agriculture to wildfire.

2021

Polson, M.

The War on Drugs, a History

Explore how the War on Drugs shaped cannabis cultivation, public opinion and governance in the context of the U.S. versus the globe.

2021

Polson, M.

The Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Cannabis Research

There are shades of gray between cannabis legalization and prohibition. Exploring this gradient illuminates how shifts in power structures impact the social reality of cannabis production and regulation, as observed in California

2021

Dillis, C., Bodwitch, H., Carah, J., Power, M., Sayre, N.

The Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Cannabis Research

Will regulation of cannabis production lead to its industrialization? Can more sustainable models emerge for communities and the environment?

2021

Wartenberg, A. C., Holden, P. A., Bodwitch, H., Parker-Shames, P., Novotny, T., Harmon, T. C., & Butsic, V.

Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Explore environmental impacts of cannabis production and how evidence-based policy can reduce harms.

2021

Dillis, C., Butsic, V., Carah, J., Zipper, S.C. and Grantham, T.

Environmental Research Communications

Well water irrigates California’s top-producing cannabis farming regions. Why? What are the impacts?

2021

Bodwitch, H., Polson , M., Biber, E., Hickey, G. M., Butsic, V.

Journal of Rural Studies

Despite legalization, illicit cannabis production continues in California. Surveys reveal that small farmers face outsized burdens to compliance.

2021

Parker-Shames, P., Choi, C., Butsic, V. , Green, D., Barry, B., Moriarty, K. , Levi, T., Brashares, J. S.

The Society for Conservation Biology

What are ecological impacts of cannabis legalization? To find out, we mapped the first season of legal cannabis farms in Josephine County, southern Oregon.

2021

Dillis, C., Biber, E., Bodwitch, H., Butsic, V., Carah, J., Parker-Shames, P., Polson, M. and Grantham, T.

Land Use Policy

How has legalization shaped patterns of farm location, size, land ownership, and regulatory compliance in California?

2021

Polsen, M. and Bodwitch, H.

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

Should collective systems of resource sharing developed under cannabis prohibition be explicitly addressed via legalization, policy, and programs?

2020

Polson, M.

Environmental and Planning D: Society and Space

As questions of cannabis legalization arise, exurbs struggle to differentiate the rural and urban.

2020

Dillis, C., McIntee, C., Butsic, V., Le, L. Grady, K., & Grantham, T.

Journal of Environmental Management

What cultivation practices help cannabis farmers store enough water to eliminate surface water diversions during California’s dry growing season?

2020

P. Parker-Shames, W. Xu, L. Rich, and J. Brashares

California Fish and Wildlife Journal

As legal cannabis agriculture expands in rural areas, wildlife will respond, but how? In the biodiverse region of Klamath-Siskiyou in southern Oregon, cameras positioned around small cannabis farms reveal individual responses of different species.

2019

Polson, M., Petersen-Rockney, M.

California Agriculture

Siskiyou County, and many other counties in California, chose not to recognize cannabis cultivation as agriculture. This ethnographic study reveals the effects on parity in farmer rights and access to resources.

2019

Schwab, B., Wartenberg, A. & Butsic, V.

California Agriculture

Are California’s cannabis regulations leading to industry consolidation and larger farms?

2019

Valachovic, Y., Quinn-Davidson, L., Stackhouse, J. and Butsic, V.

California Agriculture

What are the impacts of cannabis legalization on traditional rural livelihoods?

2019

Polson, M.

Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space

How have environmental concerns become cover for injecting exploitation, inequality and stigma into the policy and regulation of cannabis production?

2019

Wilson, H., Bodwitch, H., Carah, J., Daane, K., Getz C., Grantham, T. E., & Butsic, V.

California Agriculture

Cannabis legalization opens opportunities to study and share best practices. Our survey of growers reveals starting points.

2019

Dillis, C., Grantham, T., McIntee, C., McFadin, B. & Grady, K.

California Agriculture

How does water use by cannabis farms affect streams in California's North Coast? Our study starts at the source.

2019

Bodwitch, H., Carah, J., Daane, K. M., Getz C., Grantham, T. E., Hickey, G. M., & Wilson, H.

California Agriculture

Small cannabis farms are common. Permit licenses are not. A survey of grower incentives and economic implications of California's cannabis legalization.

2018

Polson, M.

In Economy, Crime and Wrong in a Neoliberal Era

Long before legalization, the use and distribution of marijuana was framed in neoliberal market terms.

2018

Butsic, V., Carah, J., Baumann, M., Stephens, C. & Brenner, J.C.

Environmental Research Letters

How does California’s rapid expansion of cannabis agriculture into "frontiers" of sensitive habitat compare to regulatory investments? What does this portend for global cannabis frontiers?

2017

Wang, I.J., Brenner, J.C. and Butsic, V.

Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

A booming cannabis industry expands agriculture into forest habitat. Science offers methods to understand impacts and shape policy.

2017

Polson, M.

The Illicit in the Governance and Development of Cities, Regions, and Networks: Corrupt Places

Explore marijuana’s pivotal role in defining the development of Humboldt County in rural North Coast, California.

2017

Butsic, V., Schwab, B., Baumann, M. & Brenner, J.C.

Ecological Economics

What factors influence the location and size of cannabis cultivation sites?

2016

Butsic, V. & Brenner, J.C.

Environmental Research Letters

Spatial patterns of cannabis grow sites reveal environmental impacts of an expanding industry.

2015

Polson, M.

Territory, Politics, Governance

Power shifts in the governance of medical marijuana redefine ‘community’ and territorial production.

2015

Carah, J. K., Howard, J. K., Thompson, S.E., Short Gianotti, A. G., Bauer, S.D., Carlson, S. M., Dralle, D. N., Gabriel, M., Hulette, L., Johnson, B.J., Knight, C. A., Kupferberg, S., Martin, S., Naylor, R., and Power, M.

BioScience

Investment in research, policy and governance can address negative impacts of cannabis cultivation to the environment.

2013

Polson, M.

PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review

A state-land-finance complex emerges from a changing political economy of marijuana in California.

Showing all 47 results