One for you, one for me: cannabis self-cultivation in Italy

ABSTRACT

Background

There are no Italian studies on the self-production of marijuana.

Objectives

Finding out about the various aspects of small-scale marijuana cultivation from the point of view of the growers.

Methods

Semi-structured questionnaire administered to a convenience sample.

Results

One-third had cultivated their plants indoors in their own or friends’ homes, the remainder had cultivated outdoors. The interviewees cultivated to obtain a better quality product, out of love for the marijuana plant, to save money, to alleviate health problems, for ethical reasons, to combat the narcomafia. One in three had sold marijuana to make a profit, to improve sociality, or out of solidarity. Customers were found through friends or word of mouth. Economic factors (quality, commercial value, quantity, costs, production times) were the main considerations for the definition of the selling price.

Conclusion

Our data highlight the distinction between the world of the self-producer and the illicit drug market.

KEYWORDS:

• Cannabis self-cultivation
• motivations
• drug market
• drug dealing
• selling price

Acknowledgment

I am very grateful to Manuela Maesano, Alessia Senocrate, Michela Gaino e Marco Pipinato for their help in collecting data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

Statement of ethics

The author has no ethical conflicts to disclose. The research was conducted ethically in accordance with the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki. All subjects have given their oral informed consent. Only unidentified data were provided.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.