From Marimba to Sativex. Decolonizing Knowledge in Emerging Industries

The global shift toward cannabis legalization has sparked growing academic interest across disciplines, including geography. While spatial analyses of production, consumption, and regulation have proliferated, economic geography has yet to fully engage with the emergence and legitimation of cannabis industries. This article addresses this gap by examining Colombia’s medicinal cannabis as a critical case for expanding economic geography’s theoretical and empirical horizons. We examine the role of knowledge and epistemic diversity in industrial development, and highlight the importance of integrating endogenous knowledge systems, particularly those often excluded from formal innovation systems. By proposing a decolonial approach to economic geography, we foreground epistemic justice and the adaptability of knowledge systems as central to industrial legitimation. Drawing on qualitative and quantitative data, we challenge the assumption that external knowledge and technology transfers drive industrial legitimation. Instead, we show that regions where the industry has taken root possessed relevant knowledge but lacked mechanisms to mobilize it. This study contributes to economic geography by theorizing the emergence of controversial industries and by advancing a pluralistic understanding of knowledge in path development processes. It responds to calls for more inclusive frameworks in economic geography and offers a novel lens for understanding industrial emergence in the Global South.