First draft 16.2.2009
Third Annual Conference of the International Society for the Study of Drug Policy
2-3March 2009
UNODC, Vienna
Pekka Hakkarainen1 & Jussi Perälä2
Cannabis cultivation in Finland
1. Introduction
Domestic cannabis cultivation is an increasing trend in many European countries (e.g. UNODC
2006; Potter 2006and 2008; Decorte 2008a: Wouters 2008). This development has important
implications for policy and research. Drug markets and drug distribution are usually
discussed and studied from the point of importation, onwards and downwards to the level of
consumption. The origins of a drug, or the acts of production, are usually assumed to exist
outside the consuming country. In Finland cannabis in the drug market has traditionally been
imported hash. There has also been some import of cultivated marihuana from Eastern and
Western Europe. However, during the last few years domestic cannabis cultivation along with
piggybacking onto the developed cultivation technology and new strains has increased also in
Finland.
Increased domestic cultivation of cannabis challenges the view and policies based on the
assumption of foreign sources of drugs. For example, it has been stated in the central drug
strategy paper in Finland, "the important strategic goal in preventing drug supply is to keep
Finland as much of a low-level and risky market area as possible for international drug
trafficking" (Drug strategy 1997, p. 3). However, it can be argued that the effectiveness of the
Pekka Hakkarainen, PhD, Director, Department of Alcohol, Drugs and Addiction (DADA), National
Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), P.O.Box 30, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland,
pekka.hakkarainen@thl.fi
1
Jussi Perälä, M.Soc.Sci., Research fellow, Finnish Foundation for Alcohol Studies, P.O.Box 30, FI-00271
Helsinki, Finland, jussi.perala@thl.fi
2
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policy based on this strategy line may have been severely lowered along with the increased
domestic cultivation of cannabis. It is worth of noting that in some countries like the United
Kingdom and the Netherlands the share of domestically cultivated cannabis is already over 50
per cent of the cannabis consumed totally (European Monitoring…2004).
In addition to drug markets and distribution systems domestic cannabis cultivation may
contribute to the harms and consequences of cannabis use. The homegrown cannabis includes
usually high THC strains, often known as "skunk"3. If the THC content in cannabis available in
the market rises it could also have an impact on the burden of disease caused by cannabis
smoking. On the other hand, for growers cannabis for own use becomes relatively cheap and
it can easily lead to heavy use and social problems especially among young people. However,
in Finland we do not know anything about consumption patterns in relation to these new
forms of cannabis. A way to approach this is to talk to growers and see their perspectives on
the matter. In fact, there are different types of growers in line from those growing only for
their personal use to those purely business oriented growers (e.g. Potter 2006).
Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug everywhere in Europe. Therefore studying
domestic cannabis cultivation and cultivators is of a high social and political relevance. During
the last few years there has emerged a growing interest towards the studying of domestic
cannabis cultivation in different European countries. To give examples some recent studies
conducted in Belgium (Decorte 2008a), the Netherlands (Wouters 2008) and the UK (Potter
2008) can be mentioned (see also Decorte 2008b). An important finding similar in all studies
is that the cannabis market gets less hierarchical and less populated by criminal organizations
when the market share of home grown cannabis rises. They also emphasize that the cannabis
markets are in a state of flux, largely due to relatively autonomous processes fuelled by
technological innovations, but also partly in reaction to the policies being pursued by the
authorities.
In this paper we will give an overview about the Finnish cannabis cultivation and cultivators
based on the ongoing study of us. We will describe the trend of increased cultivation and
novel practices of cultivation in Finland. We will present some data for a preliminary and
"Skunk" cannabis is a potent strain of cannabis, grown through selective breeding and usually
hydroponics, that is a cross-breed of Cannabis Sativa and Indica (Wikipedia,31.10.2008); see also
Review of the world cannabis, Bulletin on Narcotics, Vol. LVIII, Nos. 1 and 2, 2006.
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tentative typology of different kinds of cultivators and their motivation for growing. We are
interested in their justifications for their home growing activity, and will argue that cannabis
cultivation can be seen as a special kind of moral economy which regulates actors’
relationships to drug markets and society at large. As a theoretical standpoint for that we will
use Luc Boltanski’s and Laurent Thevenot’s book “On justification – Economies of worth”
(2006, a French edition 1991).
Boltanski and Thevenot argue that there are six different and generally shared worlds for
moral justifications by which people in dispute can try to find an agreement and shared
understanding. These worlds are representing different kinds of moral regimes, and they give
criterions for justification and agreement. Each of these six worlds of qualifications is carrying
a certain form of worth. There are specific types of conventions imbedded in each of these
different worlds by which the common good can be reached. In descriptions of the content of
these six worlds Boltanski and Thevenot are resting on their readings of one classical texts of
political philosophy for each one: Augustinus (1), Bossuet (2), Hobbes (3), Rousseau (4),
Saint-Simon (5), and Adam Smith (6). These worlds are:
(1) The inspired world; e.g. inspiration, enrichment, love, passion, happiness, create,
discover, imaginary, unconscious, artistic
(2) The domestic world; family, home, reproduction, generation, tradition, hierarchy,
trustworthy, honest, habits, naturalness, respect, responsibility, milieu, conventions,
principles, good manners, proper behaviour
(3) The world of fame; the reality of public opinion, others, dignity, media, being
recognised, public image
(4) The civic world; citizenship, civil rights, participation, membership, unity, state, policy,
legal forms, legislation, law, rules, court, order
(5) The industrial world; efficiency, performance, future, functional, work, energy,
professionals, expert, specialist, environment, progress, control, instrumental action
(6) The market world; competition, value, money, profit, winner, opportunism,
businessman, salesman, client, buyer, millionaire, wealth, luxury
As we can see later all these six worlds of justification can be found in use in the talk of
cannabis growers.
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2. Study methodology
There are several signs pointing to that cannabis cultivation has been increasing in Finland
lately. This development challenges the drug policy based on an import paradigm and a threat
coming from outside countries. However, research data on the Finnish cannabis cultivation is
not available.
The aim of our study is to get research-based information about home growing phenomenon
in Finland. With this study we are trying to get some insight information about the cannabis
growing and growers. We learn about their motivations for growing and we can make
typologies of different grower types. We also get to know the economic aspects and reasons
for the cannabis cultivation.
We have started the study by conducting qualitative interviews with the cannabis cultivators.
In addition to that we are collecting police interviews, statistics and investigation papers as
well as data on media coverage on the subject. In 2009 we have also planned to conduct a web
survey among the Finnish growers based on the same questionnaire used by the Danish
researchers from the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research in Arhus.
Data
The main data for the study has been the interviews made with the cannabis cultivators. An
advertisement for the interviews was put in the Finnish internet discussion site on cannabis
cultivation (www.hamppu.net). There are over 7000 registered users in that forum. In the
advertisement we were looking for cannabis cultivators who would want to give an
anonymous interview. They were given options to give the interview by mail, phone or by
personal meeting. Over 70 persons contacted us willing to do a personal interview. So far 40
interviews have been made. The rest of the interviews will be made in the spring 2009 and
the total sum of interviews will probably be around 60. The interviews have been made all
over Finland. The interviewees have been between 18-58 years old and so far only two
women have been participating. The interviews have all been recorded and they have lasted
from 1,5 hours to over 3 hours. A couple of interviews have been group interviews with 2-3
persons.
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The interviewees have been small scale growers, producing maximum of one kilogram at a
time. Large scale commercial growers are not likely to participate into studies like this so we
applied permission from the Ministry of Interior to study the police's preliminary
investigation papers about cannabis cultivation. This data consisted of serious drug crimes
concerning cannabis cultivation from the years 2005-2008 all over Finland. The total sum of
these papers was 74. They all were not about commercial growing but they were reported as
cultivation cases if e.g. two plants were found alongside with a load of some other drug.
For the secondary data five police interviews were made in order to get some background
information of this phenomenon. Also some grow shop owners were interviewed to get
important background information. Media discussion, police announcements in the media and
news articles about cultivation also worked as a backround information.
3. Increased activity
Police
According to police the cultivation phenomenon has been raising radically during the last four
years without that the police has been targeting practices against it. The police has estimated
that approximately 10 000 households grow cannabis and that that there is one plantation in
every apartment building. The cultivation has increased during the last decades
(Hakkarainen, Kainulainen & Perälä 2008). In the 1980's the police confiscated only some
tens of plants annually and in the 1990's no more than some hundreds of plants annually.
Since the year 2001 the police has confiscated several thousands of plants annually. In 2007
police found 1400 plantations in which were 7600 plants and confiscated 36 kgs of
homegrown cannabis. In most of the plantations found by the police the number of the plants
was between 5 and 15. In the year 2008 they had confiscated 65 kgs of cultivated cannabis by
the end of june. The police says that it hasn't been taken any special actions towards
cultivation. According to the NBI (National Bureau of Investigations) laboratory the potency
(THC content) of cannabis was between 4-6 % (median is 2-3%). The highest potency in the
year 2007 was 17%. In the news police said that the cultivated cannabis is already
responsible of more than half of the cannabis (both hashish and marihuana) consumed totally
6
in some major cities. There is a huge demand to locally cultivated cannabis according to police
representatives.
Media
Media has reported of home cultivation every now and then and still a couple of plants found
can be a small article in some newspaper. In the main newspaper "Helsingin Sanomat" the
police representatives have been telling that the criminal groups have been offering money to
growers to start commercial cultivation. Homegrowing also does damage to rental apartmens
and may cause fires and water damages, says the police. On the other hand police says that the
only harm of the phenomenom is the harm done to apartments and that they only react to
cultivation because it is the law. Controlling and judging these cultivators takes a lot of the
police's and prosecutor's working hours. In general police authorities are still presenting
themselves in media quite unsure about the real situation. For example, they have stated that
even (if) there may be some big commercial plantations in the countryside, only a small part
of the cannabis comes to retail markets. In some news there are also told that cannabis plants
have been found growing up in some public placed.
Growing shops and internet discussion sites
Nowadays there are about 10 grow shops in Finland located in the biggest cities. According to
a new law these shops are not allowed to sell growing and smoking equipment at the same
place so they have had to divide shops into grow and equipment shops.
Internet has probably made cultivation more accessible to young growers. From there the
growers are able to get all the information about growing cannabis. From there they can order
seeds and growing equipment if they want. Probably the Finnish internet discussion site
hamppu.net has also affected to home growing. From there the growers can get information
about cannabis strains, electricity in growing and have discussions about everything,
including cannabis politics. They can buy, sell, exchange or even give away free equipment
and seeds on the pages of this site.
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Drug markets/consumers’ choice
Some interviewees told that the home cultivation increased in the beginning of the 1990's. Sky
(Finnish Cannabis Association) was founded then and began publishing Hupu (Hulllu
Puutarhuri, "Crazy gardener"), the guide for cannabis home cultivation. The first edition was
printed and and along with the book came some cannabis seeds. The book became available
from the internet in 1996.
There also happened a change in the quality of resin in the beginning of the 1990's or latest at
the mid 1990's. The quality of imported hashish went low and the good quality resin (e.g. gold
stamped hashish) was available for only some cannabis connoisseurs. The regular cannabis
smoker was easily offered low quality hashish. This resin was probably originally imported
from Morocco or from Eastern Europe. It was often hard which meant that it was old and
there were rumours that it was blended with very unhealthy substances (e.g. lid, animal
excrement or anti depressive pills). It became known as "ryssälätkä" [“Russki stuff”] or
"tshernobyl-lätkä" ["Chernobyl stuff"]. People who were introduced to homegrown cannabis
were easily convinced that using locally cultivated cannabis was a better choice. Of course
some people stayed in the hashish scene.
4. Interviews with cultivators
How it is to cultivate in Finland
Most of the Finnish cannabis cultivation takes place indoors. Although there is quite a lot
space to cultivate outdoors the climate is not in favour of outdoor cultivation. In northern
Finland the warm and light period is only about two months suitable for cannabis so at least
beginning of the cultivation has to be done indoors. There are also different kinds of risks in
outdoor growing compared to indoor growing: the animals may eat the plants, humans may
find them and the summer is too cold, dry or wet. Usually the plants don't survive in the forest
by themselves so they have to be doused every now and then. The soil for the plants has to be
good and often the outdoor growers has to carry a lot of mould to a growing site. The yield of
one plant cultivated outdoors is normally quite modest, even though there might be exceptions
when a good growing ground is found and warm summer with right moisture happens. The
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yield per plant can be compensated with the quantity: in a good safety place can one put lots
of plants. There are some hybrid strains (e.g. "lapin lumo", "fascination of Lappland" or FIN420)
breeded to stand the Nordic climate. Couple of interviewed growers told about the efforts
they are trying to do in order to crossbreed different species. They are dreaming that by
crossbreeding they could create a new species which can stand the Nordic climate and spread
freely in the countryside. Regardless of these breeding dreams, the most common outdoor
strain is probably Lowryder, which is available from many sources. It became very common
because it was distributed free through internet.
How to get seeds, equipments etc.
There is also exchange, buying and selling of seeds between growers in Nordic Countries.
Growers are able to get outdoor seeds for example with contacts from Swedish and Danish
internet discussion forums. Outdoor and indoor seeds are also available from the Finnish
discussion site. Seeds can be bought or exchanged. Other sources for seeds are the numerous
seed shops located all over the world. The most known ones are well trusted as seed
suppliers. Growers may order new seeds for every growing period. By doing so they are able
to change the strains and get pre-feminized quality seeds. Some growers stick to one
preferred strain. They may have a parent plant which gives cuttings for every growing
session. Cuttings are clones so they produce exactly the same quality cannabis every time.
Most common strains cultivated in Finland are probably Northern Lights, White Widow, Super
Skunk and Lowryder.
Growing equipment can be easily provided. There are approximately 10 grow shops located in
bigger cities where to buy all the equipment needed. According to a new law the growing and
smoking equipment cannot be sold at the same shop. Growing equipment can also ordered
from internet or bought second hand from the discussion forum. Basic equipment needed to
build up a growing system can be bought from any hardware store. The more sophisticated
and "stealth" the system is, the more expensive it is but the basic growing system can be build
up very easily and cheap.
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Scales of cultivation
As said before, most of the cultivation takes place indoors. Most of the cultivators grow one
crop and after that start growing another crop. Some of the cultivators have a continuous
production. They have at least two different sites for growing. At one they do the vegetarian
phase and at the other they do the "blooming" phase. Others prefer growing in soil, while the
others like the hydroponics. When done right, hydroponics gives more crop than cultivating in
soil. Other important factor for crop size is the lightning used. The two options are sodium
and esl's (energy saving lamps). Sodium lamp gives more crop but it is more easily detected, it
is not so safe if not protected right and it consumes more electricity. Despites it's
disadvantages sodium lamps are more used and the esl's are used by people who grow very
little crops. The size of the plantation is normally quite modest. The maximum number of
plants is ten and usually the plantation is located in a closet in apartment. The size of the
plantation is normally no more than two square metres. The people living in their own
houses have of course more options and they also can build more "stealth" place.
Principles of cultivators and reasons for growing
A common reason for home growing is using cannabis as an intoxicant. But the difference in
using cannabis as a drug is that the growers don't want to buy their cannabis from dealers
because of the hassle and the high prices. The other reason is more moral: they don't want to
associate with the so called organized crime, instead they start breaking the law by
themselves. As they see their own cultivation activity as a harmless “hoppy” without causing
any serious damage to anybody else, it has been seen in their minds more as a kind of civil
disobedience than a criminal act.
Nowadays one reason to grow and use one's locally cultivated cannabis is that the user's don't
want to use this hashish. Buying and using hashish is also supporting organized crime, which
is normally behind imported cannabis. Homegrown cannabis also has a totally different status
compared to imported hashish. "Hustling" and "hassling" is also one thing the cultivators
don't want to participate. There are some really or tragi-comic stories about associating with
drug dealers. Cultivating one's own cannabis is therefore not thought to be a criminal act. By
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cultivating you know what you get (e.g. strains and potency) and you are able to grow your
favorite strain.
Some growers prefer Indica strains which are described to have more effects on the mind
(THC), while others prefer the Indica strains which have more effects as relaxants (CBD/CBN).
Some prefer both and so they may cultivate both at the same time. Regardless of the
preferations it is to noted that nowadays most of the strains are hybrids because the old pure
strains have vanished during the decades of strain improvement. THC/CBD/CBN can be
altered with the growing period. The more one continues growing and the more darker the
buds of cannabis become, the more THC turns into CBD/CBN.
As an intoxicant cannabis has several advantages. It is often used as an alternative to alcohol.
Every interviewee didn't mix alcohol and cannabis because of the unpleasant feelings they
cause when taken together. If taken together the maximum amount was "a couple of beers."
It's effects were often compared to alcohol. Cannabis doesn't cause hangover or violence and
it maintains one's capacity to function quite normally. Normal everyday routines could be
quite interesting to do under the influence of cannabis. It was regarded as quite a healthy drug
which has nice flavor and scent. The variety of strains was also seen a good thing and the
identification of strains was compared to wine identification. Cannabis was seen to effect to
music listening (music sounds better) as well as to creative thinking and strengthening one's
feelings. Cannabis was regarded a couple of times "a drug which is quite close to being
perfect."
On the other hand nobody denied the bad sides of cannabis. It affects on the short memory. It
doesn't cause hangover but for many it caused "slowliness" on the following day. Using
cannabis was seen to form a routine quite easily and this way starts to passivate it's user.
Every day using was seen a problem. Cannabis causes hunger and overeating was seen as a
problem by some growers. Smoking cannabis was seen a healthy risk as well as the paranoid
feelings caused by the use. Few interviewed told about schizophrenic and frightened feelings
caused by the use of cannabis. Some told psychosis of feelings being close to psychosis caused
by the cannabis use. In a few interview some mentioned these feelings appearing because it is
illegal to use and the people cultivating have to live a double live all the time.
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On the whole home grown cannabis was seen safe to use. It also becomes very cheap. The stuff
produced mainly stays within the closed circle including cultivator/s and the closest people
around him/them. Only small part is said to go to people outside the cultivation circle. On the
other hand nobody denies that it is constant lure to make some money out of it. And so most
of the cultivators sell at least occasionally a little part of their production to people they know.
Different types of cultivators
Different cultivators may be divided into some types. It is to be noted that the types are not
obvious and that people can have different or several roles in the cultivation phenomenon.
First of all there are people who are either idealistic, cannabis activists or doing it for
themselves for different reasons.
People may be growing strictly for themselves. They may offer occasionally their precious
product for visitors but they never sell any of it (This kind of grower was mentioned as “old
hippie” or “Gollum” from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings). Cultivation can also be seen
as a hobby for these people which was compared e.g. to wine making at home. These people
may grow a only little at a time. They use it so rarely that one crop can last even for years.
The medical growers say that main reason for growing are the self-medication purposes. They
use it a lot so self cultivated cannabis is really cheap compared to prescribed cannabis.
The commune or cooperate growers cultivate cannabis together in their or in someone’s
apartment. They might have rules for cultivation to make sure that everybody gets their share
of the crop. Everybody pays the same amount and gets equal part of the product. The grower
usually gets a little more of the crop because he takes all the risks.
Overgrower is a person who grows a lot at one time. He says that he refuses to sell it and has a
"stash" for it so that he doesn't have to grow all the time. He uses his stash alone or with
friends and then starts to grow again.
Outdoor grower may operate alone but to get a bigger crop he usually works with someone.
They normally have to carry soil into the woods and water the plants at least occasionally. The
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most common outdoor strain Lowryder produces maximum of 10 grams per plant. To make
business of it, the yield has to be quite big.
Urban guerilla or guerilla hippie is a person who cultivates cannabis seeds in public places in
order to make the cannabis culture more visible (see also Potter 2006). He can also have other
roles as a cannabis cultivator.
All of these people have at least some idealism about cannabis cultivation. For the second
group belong people who also have some kind of economical aspect in their growing. Like said
before, most of the cultivators have at least occasionally sold a little of their crop and
therefore the line is hard to draw. The commercial cultivation anyway is quite modest
compared to some countries.
Commercial growers are different and split into different types. Cutting man gives cuttings
from the parent plant and in turn takes a couple of grams of the crop produced by the plant.
Some sell only part (maybe 1/3) of every crop and earn some money for it. Some sell a little to
cover their own expenses (electricity, fertilizers etc.) so the earnings are very modest. Some
are almost forced to sell a part of their crop to their friends who demand it. Some do it as a
way of life and instead of going to lousy work may even earn about 1000-2000 euros monthly.
Part of the growers could be called easy riders. They either sell several times part of their crop
or sell one bigger crop and spend the money by doing a trip abroad. Travelling is quite a
normal way to spend the money from cannabis sold to these people. Criminal growers are
people who try to produce a lot to be sold on the drug market. Criminal way of life is not
suitable for cannabis cultivation so occasionally the criminals try to tempt the growers with
know how to produce crops for them. Normally they don't succeed.
Growers were divided in a couple of interviews into different categories. The first type's
habitus is a "hippie with dreadlocks". The second are "the old school growers", older people
who have been inside the cannabis culture for at least a couple of decades. Then there are the
"youngsters" who don't know what they are doing. They are excited about this cannabis
culture and want to grow because it is cool. They may have experiences with other drugs and
may easily get caught with plantations when e.g. partying at home. Last but not least are "the
regular citizens" who secretly grow cannabis. They are not likely to get caught but on the
other hand they can lose a lot if they get caught. One interviewee crystallized that "some
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growers can lose, some can't. For some this home growing is part of the life and for some it is
their whole life."
5. Small scale cannabis cultivation from a moral point of view
Cannabis cultivation in its all forms is forbidden by The Finnish criminal law. Even a growing
of one or two plants is defined as a punishable act in the legislation. Because of the illegitimate
nature of cannabis cultivation, growers are in a constant dispute with the society. In the
interviews growers justify their action and make efforts to negotiate over an agreement for a
common good by using all those six worlds of worth presented by Boltanski & Thevenot
(2006).
The meaning of the inspired world is very easily seen in the talks of growers. They are
enthusiasts for their growing activity. They are interested in all new information in regard to
seeds, growing technology and best practices caught from the books, journals, internet or
more experienced growers. Some of them have even red all material available. They are
constantly improving their growing systems and sites. Most growers have employed different
strains of cannabis, and some of them have tried both indoor and outdoor cultivation. At the
top of the inspiration are trials of breeding, cross-breeding and cloning of own strains. To
sum up, an agreement in inspired world is sought by presenting growing activity as a dear
hobby, which is charged by love, passion and invention, and which means a lot for them.4
What comes to the domestic world there is a clear division of labour and responsibility in the
families. Usually they are men who are the growers. Their wives and girlfriends do not
necessarily accept their growing activity, but they allow it. However, in some families wives
may take part in the consumption of the yield and in some cases spouses are doing growing
together. In any case, couples are agreed that if they will get problems with authorities, it is
the man alone who takes responsibility of it. Of course if a grower is a single living person
situation at home is even simpler. However, in any case, if a person is growing in an
apartment, he usually is forced to restrict the quests invited home. To sum up, even if
growing cannabis in apartments may restrict their family life in some respect, informants
Actually, this kind of talk resembles closely the talk of a flower-loving woman, but it is worth of noting that
these cannabis gardeners are mostly men.
4
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present themselves as honest, respective and responsible actors following the conventions
made between the couples.
The world of fame is experienced very problematic and unfair by the growers. Images of
cannabis users in the public opinion are closely combined to the images of drug users in
general in Finland. Juha Partanen (2002) has even called the Finnish public opinion over
drugs as a narco-phobia. Distinction between cannabis and other drugs is not clearly made
except among the younger generations (Hakkarainen 2005). This is heavily criticized by the
cannabis growers. Because of negative public attitudes they are, in a way, doomed to lead a
double life and try to keep their ‘precious hobby’ out of the sight. This causes problems even
in their most private areas of life. For example, in addition to choosing the quests admitting
their home, they have to be careful with their landlords, janitors and neighbours. In a culture
where heavy alcohol intake and public drunkenness is widely accepted or at least tolerated,
cannabis growers with their alternative private habits of pleasure and intoxication find their
situation as highly unfair and unjust. They feel themselves as ideologically suppressed and
take it as a violation against their dignity and recognition.
Because of the criminal law the citizenship of cannabis growers is questioned in the civic
world. Of course, they are criticising drug policy and criminalising legislation hard. When
growing their own herb they don’t see themselves doing any criminal act as such. On the
contrary, they say that they grow their own stuff because they don’t want to support illegal
markets and organised crime with their money. They also argue that home grown cannabis is
safer to use and thus better for their health than the stuff available in the illegal markets. Most
of them are not for the total decriminalisation of drugs but what they want is rather some
kind of civic regulation and that cannabis growing in small amounts for own use would be depenalized. Some of them are even ready to pay some taxes for growing. Now their life
situation and participation as citizens are based on continuous hiding of their double life. A
fear of to be uncovered is restricting their needs for membership and unity. Some of them are
members of the Finnish Cannabis Association or its local satellites, but as a study conducted
among the Finnish cannabis activist has shown only a very few of the activists is able to do
anything visible for it (Kekoni 2007). On the contrary, they argue, the current drug policy is
driving them into their own sub-communities.
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The industrial world as moral regime is a world of performance, work, productivity and
efficiency. In a way these values are also prevalent among the cannabis growers. Even if small
scale home growers are not building companies or factories, they are interested in that the
work what they do with plants they do it as well as possible. Amount of the yield is a repeated
subject in the discussions and comparisons among the growers. They say that growing
cannabis demands a great precision, and they are proud of their expertise. Progress in the
amount and quality of the yield is a central drive for developing.
Home growers relations to the market world are contradictory and reserved. On the one hand
they don’t want to have any contacts to organised crime and the other ordinary actors in the
illegal drug markets. On the other hand, as stated earlier, most of the home growers cannot
resist making some money of it by selling at least occasionally a small part of their production.
However, this is not done for the big profits or an enlargement of the business. As they say the
stuff produced mainly stays within the closed circle containing the cultivators and their
friends. When production exceeds the needs for the own use, sharing with friends, gift giving
and the trade by barter are preferred for selling. Thus in the market world these small scale
home growers are negotiating agreement rather based on the values of traditional barter
economy than on the values of modern capitalism.
6. Conclusions
From a moral point of view cannabis cultivation is nothing but a simple or one-dimensional
phenomenon. Small scale home growers justify their action in several ways. Thy are in the
constant dispute with the society, and they are trying to negotiate an agreement for a common
good by using different moral regimes of the inspired world, the domestic world, the world of
fame, the civic world, the industrial world and the market world. This makes home growing a
political and moral issue embedded in the culture and worth of the western civilisation in
various aspects.
In Finland domestic cannabis cultivation is in a clear increase and quite evidently the cannabis
markets are becoming more and more herbal. This development sets a challenge for the
Finnish drug policy based on the import paradigm. Images of organised crime and other
foreign enemies are not very suitable for the domestic home growers leading quite an
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ordinary life and arguing for their citizenship and civil rights in their own country. Thus
changing the paradigm may demand for going deeper into our own cultural heritage.
References
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