Women's Use of and Access to Illicit Cannabis: An Investigation of Gendered Norms among College Students in Canada

In the present study, I investigate how often unacknowledged gendered norms shape young women's use of and access to illicit cannabis. I apply a "doing gender" approach to analyse 58 interviews conducted with cannabis using and non-using female and male college students in Canada in 2012, a time when nonmedical cannabis possession and supply were illegal. I identify prominent gendered norms and stereotypes that are critical of women's use and that create barriers to women's participation as either buyers or dealers in the illicit cannabis market. I show how these norms reinforce associations of cannabis use with masculinity and how they may direct social pressure against women's use. I engage with Deutsch's (2007) concept of "undoing" gender to provide a novel contribution to research on cannabis by illustrating women's strategies for resisting derogatory stereotypes. I highlight how women resist stigmatization of their use in the university context by drawing on presentations of social belonging, particularly scholastic success. However, I show that women may reinforce other stereotypes when appealing to such strategies. Legalization of nonmedical cannabis will create regulated commercial access alternatives to the highly gendered barriers that characterize illicit cannabis markets. My analysis suggests some increase in women's cannabis use may be expected as a result, although deeply embedded gender norms are likely to maintain downward social pressure on women's rates of use.