Dominic Corva

Co-director

Research Consultant, California Center for Rural Policy

Dr. Corva received his PhD in Geography, with a graduate certificate in Law, Societies and Justice from the University of Washington (Seattle) in 2010. He is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Cannabis and Social Policy (CASP), a federal 501(c)(3) research and education nonprofit. His research has been published in Political Geography, the International Journal of Drug Policy, and the Lancet. Most recently, he has co-authored cannabis equity grant applications for Humboldt and Mendocino Counties that brought in more than $6 million, in partnership with the California Center for Rural policy. He is currently focused on cannabis markets and social equity program design, implementation, and outcomes.

Dr. Corva has conducted cannabis market and policy research since 2008, when he created and taught the first Cannabis, Law and Society courses ever offered at the University of Washington, Seattle. His findings have been presented by invitation to a wide array of public, private and NGO stakeholders. These include but are not limited to: Americans for Safe Access, the Drug Policy Alliance, the International Cannabis Business Conference, Seattle Hempfest, the University of Essex, the Association of American Geographers, the Association of Pacific Sociologists, California Cannabis Voice, the municipalities of Berlin, Germany and Montreal, the Province of Quebec, the University of Washington, Clark County in the State of Washington, the City of Seattle, the City of Bellingham, and Seattle Town Hall.

Accomplishments

• Forthcoming 2021, co-editor, The Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Cannabis Research
• 2020 Humboldt County County Type 2 Equity Grant Application ($2.4 million awarded)
• 2020 Mendocino County Type 2 Equity Grant Application ($2.6 million awarded)
• 2019 Humboldt County Equity Grant Application ($1.6 million awarded)
• 2019 With David Downs and Bruce Barcott. Special Report: Debunking Dispensary Myths. Leafly literature review. url: https://drive.google.com/file//1osj59y1stEz_vwsxV_O8_3s6rRC9wMLS/view.
• 2014 With Amanda Rieman and Mitch Earlywine. Rethinking dose-response effects of cannabis use in adolescence. The Lancet: Psychiatry 1(6): 416-417.
• 2013 “Requiem for a CAMP: a Post-Mortem for a Domestic Drug War Institution.” International Journal of Drug Policy 25(1): 71-80.
• 2009 "Biopower and the Militarization of the Police Function." ACME 8(2): 161-175.
• 2008 “Neoliberal Globalization and the War on Drugs: Transnationalizing Illiberal Governance in the Americas.” Political Geography 27(2): 176-193.

Selected invited presentations since 2018:

• 2019 November 16. The 2019 State of Cannabis Conference, panel on Cannabis and Social Equity. Long Beach, CA.
• 2019 October 17. “Progressive Policy-Making: Lessons from Cannabis Legalization.”Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology Meetings, Portland, OR.
• 2019 May 19. With Martin Lee and Zoe Sigman. Dockside Cannabis’ Elevated Education presents: Panel Discussion on CBD. Sodo, Seattle, WA.
• 2019 April. Nerd Farmer Podcast “Who is Getting Rich and Who Ain’t in the Legal Weed Biz: a Conversation with Dr. Dominic Corva.” Tacoma, WA.
• 2018 December. Cannabis Legalization and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Emerald Cup. Santa Rosa, CA.
• 2018 December. Academic Synthesis of Sustainable Development Panels for the International Cannabis Policy Conference. Vienna, Austria.
• 2018 April. “Re-thinking the Nature of Cannabis and Social Policy in the Context of Post-Prohibition” presented at the Schatz Energy Center’s Sustainable Future Series, Cal Poly Humboldt Arcata, CA.
• 2018 April. Speaker at Toke Talks “The Future of Cannabis.” Portland, OR.
• 2018 February. “The Nature of Prohibition as an Ecological Institution” presented at the Western Section Wildlife Society Workshop 4 C’s Cannabis, Culture and Compliance in California, Santa Rosa, California.