Beyond ghosts, gangs and good sorts: Commercial cannabis cultivation and illicit enterprise in England’s disadvantaged inner cities

This article focuses on the commercial cultivation of cannabis in England. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork with organised crime groups in disadvantaged locales, we argue that the rapid growth of cannabis cultivation is not the preserve of ‘ghosts, gangs and good sorts’. Rather, these new markets reflect significant socio-cultural and technological transformations and the involvement of independent entrepreneurial criminals who, for the most part, come from impoverished neighbourhoods that have experienced, in recent years, a significant decline in legitimate job opportunities. This article offers new empirical data that shed light upon the organisation of commercial cannabis cultivation. It also challenges dominant academic accounts of these markets.