Criminalizing Environmentally Beneficial Activities: Hemp and Canada’s Cannabis Act

Abstract

The focus of green criminology scholarship has been the human actions (or inactions) that result in environmental harm. As a result, considerable attention is paid to the legality of these actions—some environmentally harmful activities are proscribed by law, but some of the most significantly impactful activities (e.g., burning fossil fuels, producing and consuming single-use plastics, and adopting high-meat diets) are not regulated or criminalized. By contrast, insufficient focus has been placed on the environmental harms that result from the prohibition, over-regulation, and overall hampering of actions that benefit, or have the potential to benefit, the environment. That is, limited attention has been paid to the criminalization of environmentally beneficial activities—much of which is likely attributable to the rarity (actual or perceived) of such instances, as well as their perceived relevance to the scope of green criminology, and criminology more broadly. Nevertheless, there are key lessons to be uncovered through the ongoing study of such practices. (Brisman, .White (ed), Global environmental harm: Criminological perspectives, Routledge, 2011) book chapter, titled The indiscriminate criminalisation of environmentally beneficial activities, is perhaps the clearest presentation of the different ways in which certain activities that benefit the environment can be proscribed by law. The criminalization of pedicab drivers and illegal forms of garbage collection (e.g., dumpster diving) are the two main examples outlined, though (Brisman, .White (ed), Global environmental harm: Criminological perspectives, Routledge, 2011) also discusses the environmental benefits of hemp and its complex history of prohibition. Due to this history, and its immense potential in terms of sustainable farming and sustainable product manufacturing and consumption, hemp offers a unique and useful example of the myriad ways in which environmentally beneficial activities are criminalized, over-regulated, or otherwise hampered through various policies, practices, and discourses.