Theory of Criminalization

This article was originally published on the Marijuana Patients Organization site on June 1, 2011.

Turk’s “theory of criminalization” posits the organization and sophistication of both authorities and subjects affect the likelihood of conflict between them. Because law enforcement is organized (as it is a prerequisite for possessing power), conflict is more likely to start when subjects are organized. The level of conflict and level of criminalization is dependent upon the meaning that the prohibited act has for those who enforce the law.  To the extent the officials find the prohibited act very offensive, it is likely there will be high arrest and conviction rates and severe sentences. So one of the areas of focus on this is how you organize and sophisticate the movement.

The proponents of medical marijuana have to manage legitimacy differently from the authorities, who as Turk would argue, are already organized so can manipulate better.  The Medical Marijuana Dispensary Association (MMDA) seems to be a conscious understanding of the import of sophistication for the challengers, but I expect the distributors may be more aware of this than the patients/users who are not going to be so organized and who may undercut the sophistication.  If I’m right about the role of libertarianism, then those individual advocates are not likely to organize or “sophisticate” well.  If they dominate as the mouthpiece of the “resisters”, I think they will lose.  The more organized and sophisticated they can become (i.e., the more they buy into the MMDA or similar organizations and the distributor’s approach), the more Turk would predict normative legal conflict.  If the PR machine can do its job and the distributors can take the lead, I expect escalation in conflict before de-escalation in the conflict.