Cultural stigmatization and police corruption: cannabis, gender, and legalization in Mexico

Abstract

Mexico may well be the largest country in the world to legalize cannabis. Nevertheless, it is culturally conservative and a certain discrepancy exists between liberalization reforms and popular opinion regarding cannabis. Based on qualitative interviews with 100 cannabis users in Mexico City, we describe the gendered differences in perceptions and experiences of cannabis use. While the young women in the study stated that they used cannabis to deal with family issues, to be less shy with friends, and to feel more attractive, the young men emphasized pressure from school or work, aggressiveness, and integration into their peer group when accounting for their use. Furthermore, men reported police corruption and legal issues as the main problems associated with their use of cannabis, while women’s use was strongly conditioned by a fear of becoming less respectable in their families’ eyes and the stigma of being seen as a ‘lost’ or ‘bad’ woman. We argue that the consequences of cannabis decriminalization in Mexico are likely to be highly gendered: While men who use cannabis may experience fewer legal problems and encounters with the police, women who use cannabis are likely to continue to be culturally and socially stigmatized.