Inhaling thick smoke: cannabis subculture, community forming and socio-structural challenges in Nigeria

Abstract

Research on cannabis subcultures has a long history in Western countries. In Nigeria, there is a dearth of such studies. This study explored cannabis use and community forming and how users manage police’s extrajudicial practices and stigma from the broader society in Awka, Nigeria. We elicited data using participant observation and semi-structured interviews with men and women who use cannabis. Two forms of cannabis exchange rituals guided by reciprocity norms were common, facilitating social interaction and solidarity among cannabis users’ networks. These sharing rituals include passing joints from lip to lip and purchasing a single-use quantity for someone in need with the receiver expected to reciprocate that goodwill in the future. Cannabis users encounter challenges, including structural stigma, fear of arrest, and extrajudicial practices such as being pressured to offer bribes or pay for bail (constitutionally free) when arrested. Another (gendered) challenge was heightened social stigma, which women who use cannabis mostly experienced. Cannabis users form communities or subcultures around the drug, which cushion the effects of persecution by corrupt law enforcement agents and social discrimination. They also employ innovative ways of using cannabis to avoid detection, arrest, and stigmatization. With culturally specific findings from a non-Western context, our study furthers knowledge on cannabis subcultures. The findings have demonstrated that cannabis subcultures still exist in Nigeria despite the changing drug landscape and widely discussed tendencies towards normalization in the Global North. Our findings also indicated that cannabis users suffer stigmatization and human rights abuses. There is a need to address drug-related social-structural stigma and police corruption in Nigeria.

Keywords:

• Cannabis subculture
• community forming
• Nigeria
• police corruption
• stigma

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the participants for their time and for sharing freely with us their drug use experiences. We also thank Dr Sarah Jasmine Stork for the editorial assistance we received.

Additional information

Funding

Emeka Dumbili is currently receiving funding from Alexander von Humboldt Foundation through Georg Forster Postdoctoral Research Fellowship.