Description:

When it comes to cannabis legalization and public health, the conversation tends to center around cannabis use. People want to know about the risks and benefits of increased legal access. But this approach leaves out legalization’s most important impact: reforms to the criminal justice system. Drawing on over a decade of research in Colorado, this presentation asks: what happens to our understanding of cannabis legalization’s impact on public health when justice reform becomes part of the conversation?

Will Garriott is Professor and Chair of the Law, Politics, and Society Program at Drake University. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Princeton University and an M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School. His research and teaching focus on the relationship between law, crime, and criminal justice, with specific interest in drugs, addiction, and policing. His work has appeared in journals such as Anthropological Theory and Law and Social Inquiry, where he also serves on the editorial board. He is former coeditor-in-chief of PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. He currently serves as coeditor of the book series, Police/Worlds: Studies in Security, Crime, and Governance with Cornell University Press.