Adult marijuana users seeking treatment (N = 291) were randomly assigned to 3 treatment conditions: 1) a cognitive-behavioral relapse prevention support group (RPSG), 2) individualized assessment and advice group, and 3) delayed treatment control group. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of self-efficacy in goal setting and treatment outcomes based on self-stated goals (abstinence or moderation) for marijuana use. Measures of marijuana use, treatment goal, and self-efficacy for achieving one's goal were used. Goal choice was shown to influence treatment outcome such that, participants were more likely to achieve outcomes consistent with their treatment goal. The findings suggest that self-efficacy for goal achievement is more strongly related to outcomes for those with abstinence treatment goals, but appears to exert some effect across both goal types. / Master of Science

Thesis (M. A. (Clinical Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2019 / A study investigating third year psychology students’ attitudes towards the use of marijuana at the University of Limpopo was undertaken. The study was quantitative in nature and used a cross sectional survey design. A random sample of 165 third year psychology students was used. The Health Belief-Model was used as a theoretical framework, which guided the study and the reporting of the research results. The self-report questions were made up of several standardised questionnaires. Quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics namely, frequency tables and figures as they gave a clear overall picture of the data. The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine if there were any significant differences between male and female participants in terms of knowledge and attitudes. The results of the study found that overall respondents had negative attitudes toward marijuana use. The study also indicated that there were no gender differences in attitudes toward marijuana use. In terms of the Pearson correlation coefficient a weak positive relationship was found between self-efficacy and attitudes toward marijuana use amongst third year psychology students. The study recommended that workshops are organised to share knowledge about marijuana and its effects.

Since hunger drive is often used as a motivating factor in animal learning experimentation, it was decided to determine the effects of marihuana extract distillate on the eating behavior of rats. Carlini and Kramer (1965) found marihuana extract injections to have a faciliatory effect upon maze performance. They suggested that facilitation could have resulted from and increase in hunger drive. However, if the dosage level is high, this effect may last for a short time and be followed by a disinterest in food. Scheckel et al. (1968) report that some monkeys, at very high dosage levels of tetrahydrocannabinol starved to death in post-drug depressions. Human studies indicate some increased hunger or "taste enhancement" (Grinspoon, 1968; Hollister, et al., 1968; Ames, 1958). Ss were 20 male and 20 female adult Sprague-Dawley albino rats, maintained in home cages with ad-lib food and water. Each animal was assigned to one of five groups so that each group contained four males and four females. Each group received one dosage level of the drug throughout the entire experiment. Three dosage levels and two controls were used. Food deprivation levels of ad-lib, 12, 24, and 48 hours were assigned according to a balanced Latin square design. The drug, marihuana extract distillate, was administered through an intraesophogeal tube and hypodermic syringe. The study was divided into two parts, each of four weeks' duration. In the first, after administration of the frug, the animals immediately were placed into a cage with a known amount of food present. The food was weighed after three and 24 hours to determine the amount of food eaten. The second experiment in the study repeats all proc3edures except animals were not given food until 1/2-hour after the drug was administered. Results show an inverse relationship between dosage level of marihuana extract distillate and amount of food eaten. Effects of dosage level, hours of deprivation, sex, latency of food preparation, and the possibility of tolerance or increased sensitivity to the drug are discussed.

INTRODUCTION: The impact of marijuana use has become a national topic with the increase in state’s legalizing or decriminalizing the use of the drug. To understand the impact this new trend may have on the population, it is necessary to characterize the interaction between marijuana use and health outcomes. Previous research has focused on the acute effects of marijuana on mental health and longitudinal impacts of marijuana use in the adolescent population. However there are no previously published studies on the impact of early onset marijuana use on adult mental health. AIM: This study aims to determine the prevalence of early onset marijuana use and if there is a statically significant association between early onset marijuana use (<14 years old) and increased prevalence of adverse mental health outcomes in adult life. METHODS: This study was conducted using data from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The study population included 41, 285 participants 18 or older at the time of the cross-sectional survey. Adult mental health outcomes were modeled for both early onset marijuana users and non-early onset marijuana users using a multiple logistic regression model to calculate both adjusted and unadjusted odds ratios (AOR’s, OR’s) with 95% confidence intervals. Statistical analysis was performed to examine the association between early onset marijuana use and negative adult mental health outcomes including serious mental illness, any mental illness and lifetime depressive episodes. RESULTS: This study found that in adults aged 18 and older the prevalence of early onset marijuana use was 8.3%. The prevalence of early onset marijuana use varies by gender, with a prevalence of 5.1(95% CI 4.7-5.2) for males and 3.3(95% CI 3.1-3.5) for females. Early onset marijuana use had a statistically significant association with all three indicators of poor adult mental health. The AOR for early onset marijuana use and serious mental illness was 2.3(95% CI 1.972-2.758). The association between early onset marijuana use and adult depressive episode had an AOR of 2.1(95% CI1.906-2.389). DISCUSSION: These findings suggest that early onset marijuana use is a risk factor for adverse mental health outcomes in adulthood. Consistent with findings from other nationally representative surveys, the prevalence of early onset marijuana use is higher in males than females. Early onset marijuana use is associated with increased odds of past year serious mental illness and past year any mental illness. This suggests that legislature considering marijuana legalization must also consider policies addressing under age use of the drug. Further longitudinal research is needed to father assess the association between early onset marijuana use and adult mental health.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Martin A. Summers / This dissertation charts the medicalization and criminalization of the drug now widely known as marijuana. Almost no one in the United States used that word, however, until it was introduced from Mexico in the early twentieth century. Prior to that, Americans often called it hemp or hashish, and generally knew it as Cannabis - the scientific name given to a genus of plants by Carl Linnaeus. That transition in terminology from cannabis to marijuana serves as the crux of this project: It begins in 1840 with the formal introduction of cannabis into American medicine and ends in 1937 with the federal prohibition of marijuana. In between, it charts nearly a century of medical discourse, social concern, and legislative restrictions surrounding the drug – demonstrating that the origins of our nation’s war on weed are much older and more complicated than previous studies have suggested. In short, marijuana prohibition in the United States was not a swift or sudden byproduct of racism and xenophobia toward Mexican immigrants, but instead, the culmination of broad evolutions in public health and drug regulation coupled with a sustained concern about the potential dangers of cannabis use dating to the mid-nineteenth century. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

This study aims to shed light on several vexing questions surrounding marijuana at various levels of analysis. Why have some states adopted medical laws when others have not, and what are the implications of these adoptions for elites at the federal level? Why are certain areas within states hotbeds of marijuana use and production? Why, in the face of serious penalties, do certain individuals continue to use, produce, and sell this particular drug? How is the marijuana market structured and how much economic impact does it have? Possible sociopolitical factors responsible for passage (or failure) of marijuana-related voter initiatives and legislation in states are examined and the process of policy diffusion occurring between states that adopt such measures is detailed. An analysis of geographic variations in medical cardholder rates in Oregon is conducted using longitudinal data. Using a Respondent-Driven Sample and a detailed survey of legal and illegal marijuana users in Oregon, I identify differences between the two groups, elucidate differences between marijuana users and the general population, and estimate the economic impact of marijuana on Oregon's informal economy. Overall, the study finds that innovative, Democratically dominated states tend to pass medical marijuana laws and are the most at risk of doing so in the future. Within Oregon, county-level participation in the medical marijuana program is associated with Democratic party members, unemployment rates, and timber harvest levels. The Oregon marijuana market consists of a robust network of small producers, with individual users primarily managing distribution of the drug. Economic estimates indicate that the legalization of marijuana could generate between $37 million and $153 million per year in taxes for the state. Finally, historical evidence suggests that legalization of this drug could lead to its control; however, doing so could structurally transition the market from a robust network of small producers into tight oligopolic control by a limited number of producers, thereby disenfranchising small, artisan growers, communities traditionally reliant on marijuana for revenue, consumers who seek variety, and the plant's genetic diversity.

AIMS: Substance use and dependence is very common among people living with HIV-infection. Since substances like alcohol and marijuana as well as the HIV virus itself are believed to have negative effects on cognition and the brain, our aim was to test the hypothesis that current and lifetime marijuana and heavy alcohol use are associated with cognitive dysfunction in people with HIV-infection. METHODS: Boston ARCH cohort participants consisted of 215 HIV-infected adults with substance dependence or current or past injection drug use. In cross-sectional, regression analyses we tested the association between current marijuana use (number of days marijuana was used in the past 30 days), current heavy alcohol use (number of heavy drinking days in the past 30 days defined as ≥4 drinks for women and ≥ 5 for men in 24 hours), lifetime marijuana use (number of years marijuana was used ≥ 3 times per week), lifetime alcohol use (total Kg), duration of heavy alcohol use (# of years alcohol was use > 84 grams or > 6 drinks per day), and three measures of cognitive dysfunction: i) memory and ii) attention domains of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and iii) 4-item cognitive function scale (CF4) from the Medical Outcomes Study HIV Health Survey (MOS-HIV, range 0-100). Eight multivariable models were fit comparing: 1. current marijuana use by each cognitive outcome, 2. current heavy alcohol use by each cognitive outcome, 3. lifetime marijuana use by each cognitive outcome, 4. lifetime alcohol use (Kg) by each cognitive outcome, 5. lifetime marijuana use, duration of heavy alcohol use, current heavy alcohol use, and current marijuana use by each cognitive outcome, 6. lifetime marijuana use, lifetime alcohol use (Kg), current heavy alcohol use, and current marijuana use by each cognitive outcome, 7. the interaction between current marijuana and heavy alcohol use by each cognitive outcome, and 8. the interaction between lifetime marijuana and lifetime alcohol use (Kg) by each cognitive outcome. Analyses were adjusted for demographics, primary language, comorbidities, depressive symptoms, anxiety, antiretroviral therapy, HIV-viral load, CD4 count, lifetime cocaine use, cocaine use in the past 30 days, illicit opioid use in the past 30 days, and any prescribed opioids. RESULTS: Participant characteristics were as follows: Mean age 49 yrs., 35% female, 20% white, 66% ≥ 12 years of education, 86% English as primary language, 82% unemployed, mean Charlson comorbidity score 2.9, 28% scored ≥ 3 on the PHQ-2 indicating depressive symptoms, 44% scored ≥ 8 on OASIS indicating symptoms of anxiety, 58% had Hepatitis C infection at some point in their life, 86% were on HAART, 72% had an HIV-viral load < 200 copies/mL, CD4 cell count/mm3 was 10% <200 and 33% 200 - <500, mean HIV duration was 16 years, lifetime cocaine use was 9 years, 30% used cocaine in the past 30 days, 25% used illicit opioids in the past 30 days, and 61% were prescribed opioids. Current marijuana use was significantly associated with a lower MOS-HIV CF4 score in three of the fully adjusted models (1,5, and 6) listed previously with a decrease in 0.30 points for every day of use, but neither MoCA score. Current heavy alcohol use was also associated with a higher MOS-HIV CF4 score in model 5, increasing 0.36 points for every day of use. This finding did not confirm our hypothesis and in fact was opposite our projections. Lifetime marijuana use and lifetime alcohol use were not associated with any measure of cognitive dysfunction, and there was no interaction between lifetime marijuana use and lifetime alcohol use with cognitive dysfunction, and no interaction between current marijuana use and current alcohol use with cognitive dysfunction. CONCLUSION: Current marijuana use may be associated with cognitive dysfunction. We also detected an unexpected association between current heavy alcohol use and better cognitive function, but it is not biologically plausible. However, we did not detect associations between lifetime alcohol or marijuana use and cognitive dysfunction among people with substance dependence and HIV-infection. Further research, particularly on long-term exposure to substances, should include subtler measures of cognitive dysfunction and consider whether or not cognitive dysfunction that may be the consequence of marijuana and alcohol use is detectable among those who have many other factors effecting cognition. These results suggest that marijuana use should not be considered benign for individuals with substance dependence and HIV-infection.

Marijuana is the most common illicit drug that is abused by pregnant women, and recently many states have adopted various levels of relaxed marijuana policies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a potential association between residing in a state that allows medical marijuana use and maternal marijuana usage. Grounded in the theory of planned behavior, this study evaluated the prevalence and extent of maternal marijuana use in states that allow and states that do not allow medical marijuana use using the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). It was anticipated that more lenient subjective norms toward marijuana use and increased availability would support an increase of maternal marijuana use. The 2014 NSDUH was queried and analyzed using chi-square and logistic regression. The study revealed an increase of maternal marijuana use in states where medical marijuana was allowed, but the increase was not statistically significant. An increase of heavy users was observed in states where medical marijuana was allowed (54% versus 37%). Consistent with other research findings, this study revealed that young (OR = 3.56; 95% CI: 1.379, 9.213; p = 0.009) and unmarried (OR = 6.81; 95% CI: 2.485, 18.661; p < 0.001) pregnant woman were at higher risk for past month maternal marijuana use and had similar results for past year use. The unintended consequences of increased in utero marijuana exposure and its subsequent negative public health effects have been missing from the discussion of the relaxation of statewide marijuana policies. This study will provide policy makers responsible for changing marijuana policy with useful evidence on the unintended consequences of increased maternal marijuana use in areas where medical marijuana is allowed.

The purpose of this study was to examine single-issue voting in the youth population, specifically involving the upcoming medical marijuana ballot initiative to be voted on in Florida November, 2014. Single-issue voting is becoming a more prevalent trend in American politics. The young voter demographic has historically showed the lowest percentage of voter turnout thus giving it the highest potential to influence the outcome of an election if more voters showed up to the polls. This study sought to understand if a single issue such as medical marijuana could be that motivation to go vote. Data was gathered through conducting focus groups of students 18 to 24 years old. The content was analyzed and quotes were collected then compared against two existing mass communication theories. The qualitative nature of the work allowed the study to produce a picture of the essence of how some young voters thinks when an election is approaching. This information will be vital as the field of study begins to grow quantitatively as well. Though no definitive result was determined, young voters may be motivated to vote by a single issue but it is doubtful that issue will not be medical marijuana. This study aids an understanding of how a young voter is perceived as well as what issues were most important to those who participated. Organizations tasked with targeting this population could use these results to help cater a more effective message and reach a demographic that has so far been nearly unattainable.