RT Article
T1 Immoral in principle, unworkable in practice: cannabis law reform, the Beatles and the Wootton report
JF The British journal of criminology
VO 60
IS 6
SP 1567
OP 1584
A1 Seddon, Toby 1970-
LA English
YR 2020
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1738235254
AB In the late 1960s, the cause of cannabis law reform briefly rose to remarkable cultural prominence in several Western countries, notably the United Kingdom and the United States. Some 50 years later, as global cannabis prohibition is once again coming under intense critical scrutiny in many parts of the world, this paper revisits the events of the 1960s. Drawing on primary archival research, the paper recovers the story of the rapid emergence and development of the reform movement. The importance to reform discourse of ideas of personal freedom and civil liberties is explored and set in the context of wider shifts in liberal governance. In conclusion, it is argued that the challenge of cannabis regulation today needs to be understood in the context of contemporary regulatory capitalism.
K1 Cannabis
K1 Drug law reform
K1 Legalization
K1 Wootton report
K1 Counter-culture
K1 Regulation
DO 10.1093/bjc/azaa042