AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OFBrett Lacey, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice, presented on March 26, 2021, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: LEGALIZATION EFFECTS ON ILLEGAL MULTI-STATE CANNABIS DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Christopher W. Mullins Although a broad and detailed history of illegal cannabis trafficking networks exist, it remains a relatively understudied group in the current legal context. Prior research has been limited in three crucial aspects: it has been geographically limited to single states or jurisdictions, studies have been limited to examining one role while mentioning others only peripherally, and the majority of earlier similar studies were conducted from the 1980s through 2000s. It is unclear whether these findings represent current black market actors in the cannabis industry. This study will attempt to address these temporal, legal, and geographical gaps in empirical research through conducting in depth semi-structured interviews with 36 active illicit cannabis traffickers from California, Colorado, Illinois, and Oregon. Overall, it addresses how illegal cannabis distribution networks operate across varying roles, their decision making processes regarding legality, the processes involved in shipping or mailing cannabis, and the corresponding monetary system involved with conducting transactions without physical interaction. Overall findings mirrored prior research in that the black market of cannabis will persist and continue to flourish in the current legalization context. However, findings also indicated that black market actors are highly adept to adapting to policy, possess considerable business acumen, and detailed an entire system of trafficking and associated monetary system rarely mentioned previously. To theoretically contextualize this research, this study utilized institutional anomie theory, organizational adaptation theory, and rational choice theory.

Estudios e investigaciones prueban que su uso es beneficioso para aliviar graves dolencias de salud, pero la legalidad de su uso aún se debate a nivel mundial. ¿Qué es el cannabis medicinal?

Mr. B, a 22-year-old Caucasian male nursing student, ingested oral marijuana 100mg Pretzel for the first time under peer pressure.  Within 30 min he felt trippy with out of body experiences. He slept for 24 hours and woke feeling still as if out of his body looking at himself with disconnected, numb hands and feet; everyone and everything appeared cartoonish; and his voice was like an echo. He felt anxious with panic attacks, experienced eye floaters and could not tolerate sunlight so covered his bedroom windows with blankets and isolated himself from usual activities. His friends, who were not novice users, felt high for 24 hours but had no dissociative symptoms. The patient saw his PCP where UDS was positive only for tetrahydrocannabinol and all other lab tests were normal. He was treated with paroxetine 10mg, buspirone 15mg bid, and prn hydroxyzine 50mg for insomnia for 3 weeks but experienced nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, drowsiness and suicidal ideation. He was switched to escitalopram 5mg daily and lorazepam 0.5mg prn for anxiety for 2 weeks which resulted in 90% improvement in symptoms but when escitalopram was increased to 10mg he felt worse. When presenting to psychiatry he reported daily persistent anxiety worrying about having these symptoms for life and panic attacks every 3days relieved with lorazepam. He had a history of anxiety and panic attacks at the age of 8 around parental divorce with therapy for 6 months. There was a family history of anxiety and panic disorder. At 2, 4, 6-month follow-ups the patient reported thrice a week anxiety lasting 5 min but no panic attacks. He also had rare episodes of 2 min duration when everything around him seemed in high definition imagery. He felt stable on daily escitalopram and thrice a week lorazepam. Transient or prolonged cannabis induced Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder (DDD) is typically reported to occur after repeated use of inhaled cannabis with improvement with avoidance of the offending agent or use of SSRI, benzodiazepine, or rarely anti-psychotics. Cannabis’s psychoactive properties are primarily due to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC) which is the primary inhaled component, but metabolism by the liver after ingestion results in the more psychoactive 11 hydroxy-THC that has a slower onset but longer lasting effect. Cannabis’ potency has been increasing in recent years with current edible forms containing an average of 50% up to 90% THC. Our case emphasizes the importance of recognizing that even single use de novo marijuana can induce a protracted Depersonalization-Derealization Disorder. In this poster, we elaborate on the typical risk factors for DDD that include chronic use, adolescent age, cannabis potency, prior history of anxiety and panic attacks, precipitating stress, genetic vulnerability, and family history of anxiety/panic disorder. We also address the hypothesized neurochemistry underlying the association between dissociative states and cannabis use.

Diploma thesis entitled Contemporary Cannabis growth technology influence on yield and quality in the teoretical part deals with the legislation of cannabis cultivation, agrotechnology of cultivation, harvesting and hemp growing in the Czech Republic, in the European Union and in the world. In the practical part deals with experiments on the influence of arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi on the content of selected cannabinoids in cannabis plants of the Kompolti and KC Dora varietes in controlled greenhouse conditions at the Institute of Botany of the CAS, v. v. i. and subsequently in the field of Sasov biofarm with Futura, Fibrol, KC Dora and Finola varietes. The effect of inoculation on the increase cannabinoids content has not been demonstrated.

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Cannabis is increasingly accessible in the United States for recreational and/or medical use. Additionally, the Baby Boomer birth cohort exhibits a greater prevalence of cannabis use than prior generations of older adults. Past research has most frequently addressed the potential cognitive effects of cannabis use in populations of adolescents and young adults. Some of these studies suggest that cannabis use is chronically associated with worse performance on tasks of verbal working memory and executive functioning, however, due to methodological variation and a wide variety of potential confounds including duration of abstinence and frequency of use, results are still inconclusive. Through use of a longitudinal, publicly available secondary dataset, the Health and Retirement Study, immediate, delayed, and working memory were evaluated in older adults who have used cannabis within the past year, within their lifetime but not the past year, and those who have never used. Uncontrolled, one-way ANOVAs and controlled ANCOVAs were used to examine these effects. When controlling for age, gender, education, and race, current frequent users demonstrated significantly worse immediate memory performance than past and non-users. Results suggest that greater than weekly cannabis use may result in attentional and short-term memory deficits. Further, these effects may be mitigated by sustained abstinence over time. Certain limitations including sample size and measures of cannabis use warrant future studies to replicate and build upon these findings.

Background: Suicide rates in the U.S. have continued to rise over the last 2 decades. The increased availability and broader legalization of cannabis is a public health concern, particularly among adolescents. The objective of this study was to examine the association between the age of cannabis initiation and lifetime suicidal ideations and attempts in a sample of adults aged 18 or older. Methods: Data are from the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys (CPES), 2001 to 2003 (N = 15 238). The primary objective of the CPES was to collect data about the prevalence of mental disorders, impairments associated with these disorders, and their treatment patterns from representative samples of majority and minority adult populations in the U.S. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to test the association between cannabis initiation age (early ⩽14 years old; later >14 years old) and outcomes of lifetime suicide ideation and attempts. Cigarette use, cannabis use, gender, income, race, education, and age were controlled for the analyses. Results: Overall, 12.5% of participants reported suicide ideation, while 4.2% reported attempt. Early cannabis use was associated with a higher risk of suicide ideation (AOR = 3.32, 95% CI [2.75, 3.80]) than later cannabis use (AOR = 2.15, 95% CI [1.92, 2.39]). Early cannabis use was associated with a higher risk of suicide attempt (AOR = 4.38, 95% CI [3.48, 5.52]) than later cannabis use (AOR = 2.56, 95% CI [2.14, 3.06]). Wald chi-squared tests revealed significant differences between the early and late initiation for both ideation (χ2 = 26.99; P < .001) and attempts (χ2 = 26.02; P < .001). Conclusions: Significant associations were found between early initiation of cannabis and suicide behaviors. As suicide rates continue to rise, it is recommended that clinicians, treatment providers, and other professionals consider the use of cannabis at an early age as a risk for subsequent suicide behaviors.

Cannabis sativa has a complex history of classification and traditional use. Cannabis sativa ssp. sativa and spp. indica are the two major lineages of cannabis and, through artificial selection, many strains or cultivars are found within each group are bred together to yield hybrid plants. New methods of classification based on Δ⁹-Tetrahydrocannbinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD) content as well as minor cannabinoids and terpenes have emerged as a more effective classification of cannabis. However, the fidelity of cannabis varieties relative to their respective strain names and lineages (indica, sativa and hybrid) based on chemistry has been brought into question. THC and more recently CBD are collectively responsible for the psychoactive and therapeutic effects of cannabis and minor cannabinoids and terpenes are emerging as having their own unique bioactivity or synergistic effects in vitro. Considering the variation in cannabis chemical profile and infidelity to strain names or lineages, we investigated the cannabinoid, terpene and metabolomic profiles of 33 THC-dominant strains (113 samples) to evaluate existing and alternative chemistry-based classification systems using multivariate analyses. Here, we conclude that Indica-Sativa-Hybrid designations are insufficient in describing variation in cannabinoid, terpene and metabolomic data, and that a terpene-based profile classification revealed robust groupings in cannabinoid-terpene data. However, terpene profiles were not discernable in metabolomic data. To investigate how chemical complexity and variability impacts bioactivity, we compared the activity of cannabis extracts to that of pure THC (and CBD) to determine if THC alone is driving activity. THC, CBD, and plant extracts were tested in vitro for cytotoxicity in BEAS-2Bs cells and for cannabinoid receptor signalling activity using a human CB₁-HEK293 cell model. THC did not completely dictate 24-hour toxicity in BEAS-2B cells suggesting that other extract components (beyond THC and CBD) are contributing to cytotoxicity. While CBD alone was 2x more toxic than THC alone, THC:CBD do no predict toxic concentration. THC within extracts appeared to drive efficacy at CB₁ receptors by reducing intracellular cAMP accumulation but did not dictate variation in EC₅₀. THC in extract also appeared to increase percent cAMP reduction in cells regardless of low CBD content but a 1:1 balanced THC/CBD extract revealed reduced percent cAMP reduction. Pure compounds compared to extracts of the same THC/CBD ratio performed very similarly at CB1 receptors besides 1:1 extract preparation having reduced % reduction of cAMP compared to 1:1 pure compounds suggestive of NAM by extract components. Regression modelling of THC within extract revealed a significant positive relationship in % cAMP reduction (Emax) but no significance in TC₅₀ and EC₅₀. This work demonstrates the importance of rigorous analysis of cannabis chemistry as well as evaluation of extracts in bioactivity assays.

This is a paper that partly has studied the uses of Cannabis sativa in Sweden during prehistoric and historic times (mainly prehistoric) and partly have discussed and analyzed the previous science on the matter. The use of the species as a fiber material for ropes and textiles has been well documented in historical times and the use of the medicinal properties of the plant has been vaguely speculated upon. The archaeological evidence from prehistoric and historic use has been gathered and analyzed. The paper concludes that cannabis mainly has been used as hemp in order to provide household textiles from around year 0 up to the modern age in varying degree.

Male infertility is a significant public health problem. Although male factors are estimated to contribute to 50% of infertility, epidemiologic research on predictors of male infertility is scarce, and few modifiable risk factors have been identified. In particular, not much is known about the risk factors that determine semen quality in healthy males attempting to conceive. This dissertation uses data from Pregnancy Study Online (PRESTO), a preconception cohort of pregnancy planners residing in North America, to examine the role of several anthropometric and lifestyle exposures on semen quality. A subset of male participants provided data on semen volume, sperm concentration, and sperm motility using a novel in-home semen testing device. In the first study, we examined the effects of three anthropometric factors, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and weight gained since age 17 years, on semen quality. We found that men in the highest categories of BMI and waist circumference had poorer semen quality, particularly sperm concentration, motility, and total motile sperm count. Results were slightly stronger for waist circumference. Adult weight gain, however, was not appreciably associated with semen quality. Few studies have investigated the effect of marijuana use on semen quality. In the second paper we used PRESTO data to investigate the relationship between current marijuana use and semen parameters. We found that current male marijuana use was not appreciably associated with semen quality. Further control for potential confounders, including BMI, had little influence on the study results. In addition, results were similar among non-smokers of tobacco. The third paper focused on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) consumption and semen quality. We found that men who consumed higher quantities of SSB had poorer semen quality, particularly lower sperm concentration, total sperm count, and total motile sperm count. Adjustment for caffeine intake or current BMI had little effect on the results; however, the association between total SSB consumption was stronger among overweight and obese men. In conclusion, we observed that higher BMI and waist circumference were associated with decreased semen quality. In addition, increased sugar-sweetened beverage consumption may increase the risk of being classified as having low semen quality. Given that these exposures are common and modifiable, they may be important targets for public health interventions. / 2024-08-31T00:00:00Z