Research:2019-07-13/Journal article/cannabis-cultivation-in-the-world-heritages-trends-and-challenges

Research record13 July 2019Journal article

Cannabis cultivation in the world: heritages, trends and challenges

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy

EchoGéo · 2019

Abstract

Despite cannabis being the most common illegal drug crop in the world and its worldwide presence, very little is known about its production, trade, and consumption at the global scale. This is due mostly to over a century of global prohibition and the dangers associated to researching illegal drug crop production. Worse, the limited data available about cannabis cultivation is most often inaccurate, unreliable, and highly controversial. While this has always been problematic, in terms of sheer knowledge and informed policy-making, it has now become even more acute of an issue as global trends towards decriminalisation and legalisation are already provoking negative unintended consequences in poor producing countries. This article is an effort to present the state of the current knowledge and the present and future stakes of the fast-changing cannabis industry and legislation.

The paper's abstract, reproduced as published.

SourceDOIPDF

Record created 4 May 2026 · maintained by landrace.wiki editors · page history

Published13 Jul 2019

TypeJournal article

VenueEchoGéo

Year2019

DOI10.4000/echogeo.17591

SourceDOIPDF

2019-07-13 2026-05-04 Cannabis cultivation in the world: heritages, trends and challenges Journal article Cultivation Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy EchoGéo 2019 10.4000/echogeo.17591 https://www.geopium.org/cannabis-cultivation-in-the-world-heritages-trends-and-challenges/ https://www.geopium.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Chouvy 2019 echogeo cannabis cultivation world heritages trends challenges.pdf Sets out the state of knowledge on cannabis cultivation as a global phenomenon at the cusp of legalisation. Reviews the unresolved Cannabis taxonomy debate (monotypic Small versus polytypic Hillig, Clarke and Merlin) and the inconsistency between the sativa/indica taxa as used in botany and the sativa/indica labels as used in the trade, citing Sawler et al. 2015 to show that strain labels often do not reflect a meaningful genetic identity. Traces the modernisation of cannabis cultivation from the 1970s sinsemilla shift in Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica and California, through Skunk #1 and the first modern hybrids, the introduction of cloning in the 1990s, the development of feminised seeds in 1999, and the more recent spread of autoflowering varieties. Catalogues the principal cannabis end products: herbal cannabis, sieved hashish (Morocco, Lebanon, Afghanistan), hand-rubbed charas (India, Nepal), bhang, and the modern solvent-based and solventless concentrates. Documents how production estimates from UNODC, INCSR and national authorities are derived almost entirely from eradication figures rather than from systematic ground or remote-sensing surveys, and shows how the Moroccan Rif estimates have remained implausibly stable across years of widely varying eradication intensity. Maps the global state of legal recreational cannabis, medical cannabis and hemp as of 1 January 2019. Argues that legalisation in the Global North is creating disruptive consequences for traditional cannabis farmers in the Global South: the loss of the competitive advantage of illegality, the threat to landraces from imported hybrid germplasm, the carbon footprint of indoor cultivation, and the rise of corporate consolidation. Foundational reference for the wiki's framing of landrace conservation under legalisation. Despite cannabis being the most common illegal drug crop in the world and its worldwide presence, very little is known about its production, trade, and consumption at the global scale. This is due mostly to over a century of global prohibition and the dangers associated to researching illegal drug crop production. Worse, the limited data available about cannabis cultivation is most often inaccurate, unreliable, and highly controversial. While this has always been problematic, in terms of sheer knowledge and informed policy-making, it has now become even more acute of an issue as global trends towards decriminalisation and legalisation are already provoking negative unintended consequences in poor producing countries. This article is an effort to present the state of the current knowledge and the present and future stakes of the fast-changing cannabis industry and legislation.