Transformative cannabis: workers de-stigmatize marijuana through narratives

Abstract

While cannabis companies profit from low-cost labor and consumers benefit from inexpensive weed products, individuals employed in cannabis workplaces seek to improve workplace protections and reduce stigma around cannabis. This chapter presents voices of five workers with concerns about occupational safety, living earnings and cannabis culture. In fall 2020, cannabis employees were interviewed as part of a study about workplace health concerns and labor unionism in Colorado’s legal cannabis sector during the pandemic. Workers narrated views about insufficient hourly rates of pay, customers who were reluctant to follow Covid-19 safety protocols, companies that refused to pay sick or hazard pay, and labor unionism. Workers’ narratives are described as counter-narratives, providing alternative representations of cannabis from the standpoint of laborers who desire dignity in the workplace and the end to stigma against cannabis. The storytelling approach reveals the transformative power of cannabis to address discriminatory behavior targeted at the cannabis plant and cannabis labor culture. Cannabis advocates and stigma reductionists are encouraged to support improved health conditions and labor unions in cannabis workplaces, while being critical of the global corporatization of cannabis.