2025-06-13 –, BS 3.15 - 60 cap.
Background: In jurisdictions that have already legalised cannabis only 62% of domestic growers indicated in a global survey that their grows were compliant with the law. Research is needed to design a cannabis regulatory environment that would encourage higher levels of compliance with the law.
Objective: To study the policy preferences of domestic cannabis growers regarding cannabis production under a (hypothetical) legal cannabis model.
Method: We surveyed 11,479 small-scale cannabis growers (ICCQ V2) from 2020 to 2021. We analysed (descriptive statistics, regressions and cluster analysis) a subsample of 6,296 respondents who lived in 13 jurisdictions that had not legalised recreational cannabis (at the time) and one jurisdiction that had legalised recreational cannabis using R.
Results: Growers’ preferred policy would allow for unlicensed private grows of cannabis by adults, while selling cannabis would necessitate a license (59%). Paid employment was associated with increased support for this policy (63%). Lower levels of support for this policy were associated with selling own-grown cannabis (46%) and contact with police for cannabis cultivation (48%). Growers indicated that large pricing gaps between a legal and black-market cannabis price increased the likelihood of illegal growing activity.
Conclusion: An inclusive regulatory model that allowed for private domestic grows of cannabis, alongside legal cannabis sold at a price that is not substantially higher than black-market cannabis, would likely be met by high levels of compliance by people who are currently growing their own cannabis and not involved in distribution.
Michala Kowalski1, 2, Davide Fortin3, Daniel Bear4 and Gary Potter5
(Presenting author: Michala Kowalski)
1 National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
2 Drug Policy Modelling Program, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW Sydney
3 Univ. Lille, CNRS, IESEG School of Management
4 Faculty of Social and Community Services, Humber College
5 Lancaster University Law School, Lancaster, UK
Dr Michala Kowalski is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NDARC, UNSW. She was awarded her PhD in 2024, for her mixed-methods study of alcohol policy in New South Wales, which examined the role of evidence in policy, the leading problematisations in alcohol policy, and analysed overlooked effects of alcohol policies in New South Wales.
Michala’s current research program concentrates on alcohol policy, cannabis policy, evolving drug markets, and harm reduction. She is an active member of the Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium, and the Drug Policy Modelling Program Network.
Davide is a researcher at University of Lille (LEM) where his postdoc focus on the impact of heroin shortages on French users through longitudinal surveys, toxicological analysis and the study of darkweb. He obtained his PhD at Pantheon-Sorbonne University exploring the economics of cannabis regulation and focusing on its integration into the European Health System and the emergence of the market for cannabidiol. Davide is member of the Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium as he’s interested in better understanding domestic cannabis cultivation. Consultant at the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime on the analysis of drug market sizing and trafficking, Davide is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Padua on medical cannabis economics. He collaborates with MPG Consulting to advise governments in designing cannabis markets.
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