A post-structuralist analysis of the discourses and practices regarding the reclassification of cannabis in the UK

This paper presents a practical application of certain post-structuralist ideas to contemporary discourses and practices regarding the reclassification of cannabis in the UK. It is theoretically based on an interpretation of Michel Foucault's work, as advanced in other publications by Valero-Silva (2000, 2004). The extensive fieldwork on cannabis policy in the UK has been entirely conducted by Acevedo, as part of her PhD work (see also Acevedo 2004). In the first part, Foucault's general method of analysis will be introduced. It will start by explaining how certain domains of human experience are framed as a problem through the interplay between various discourses, identities, and relationships amongst individuals/groups. This heterogeneous ensemble of discourses, identities, and relationships that counstitutes a particular problematisation, is what Foucault calls the dispositif. Then, it will continue by highlighting the role of institutions in Foucault's work. Finally, it will introduce the archaeological and genealogical dimensions of his historical explorations. The second section of this paper will provide a general description of how the initial stages of Checkland's soft systems methodology can be used in the archaeological component of Foucault's method of analysis. This is to say, in the construction of a problematisation (dispositif) of cannabis. Finally, an initial approximation to the analysis of the event of the reclassification of cannabis in the UK (within the dispositif of cannabis) will be outlined. Copyright© (2005) by the International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS).