Universiẗat, Diss.--Münster, 2006. / Literaturverz. S. 248 - 268.

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Background: While recreational cannabis use is common, medical cannabis programs have proliferated across North America, including a federal program in Canada. Few comparisons of medical and recreational cannabis users (RCUs) exist; this study compared these groups on key characteristics. Methods: Data came from a community-recruited sample of formally approved medical cannabis users (MCUs; n = 53), and a sub-sample of recreational cannabis users (RCUs; n = 169) from a representative adult survey in Ontario (Canada). Samples were telephone-surveyed on identical measures, including select socio-demographic, substance and medication use, and health and disability measures. Based on initial bivariate comparisons, multivariate logistical regression with a progressive adjustment approach was performed to assess independent predictors of group status. Results: In bivariate analyses, older age, lower household income, lower alcohol use, higher cocaine, prescription opioid, depression and anxiety medication use, and lower health and disability status were significantly associated with medical cannabis use. In the multivariate analysis, final model, household income, alcohol use, and disability levels were associated with medical cannabis use. Conclusions/Scientific Significance: Compared to RCUs, medical users appear to be mainly characterized by factors negatively influencing their overall health status. Future studies should investigate the actual impact and net benefits of medical cannabis use on these health problems.

High-dose alcohol intoxication is commonly associated with impaired inhibition, but the boundary conditions, as well as associated neurocognitive/neuroanatomical changes have remained rather unclear. This study was motivated by the counterintuitive finding that high-dose alcohol intoxication compromises response inhibition performance when working memory demands were low, but not when they were high. To investigate whether this is more likely to be caused by deficits in cognitive control processes or in attentional processes, we examined event-related (de)synchronization processes in theta and alpha-band activity and performed beamforming analyses on the EEG data of previously published behavioral findings. This yielded two possible explanations: There may be a selective decrease of working memory engagement in case of relatively low demand, which boosts response automatization, ultimately putting more strain on the remaining inhibitory resources. Alternatively, there may be a decrease in proactive preparatory and anticipatory attentional gating processes in case of relatively low demand, hindering attentional sampling of upcoming stimuli. Crucially, both of these interrelated mechanisms reflect differential alcohol effects after the actual motor inhibition process and therefore tend to be processes that serve to anticipate future response inhibition affordances. This provides new insights into how high-dose alcohol intoxication can impair inhibitory control.

With the epidemiological transition, causes of death shifted from communicable to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and life expectancy increased, as these NCD deaths occurred later in life. However, in the United States, over the past years, life expectancy has been stagnating or decreasing despite decreasing NCD mortality rates. Analyses of the most important underlying causes of death with increasing premature mortality reveal that psychoactive substance use played a crucial role for these increases. Furthermore, it can be shown, that a high proportion of the increased premature mortality and decreased life expectancies happened in lower socio-economic strata. Substance use policies should thus focus on lowering the gap between substance-attributable mortality in higher versus lower socioeconomic strata.

Orte des Drogenhandels und -konsums werden von den meisten Menschen als Belastung wahrgenommen. Sie fühlen sich in ihrer Lebenssituation und Sicherheit verunsichert. Begleitet durch die Berichterstattung der Medien verbindet sich mit diesen Orten ein zunehmend negatives Sicherheitsgefühl der Bevölkerung. In der Kommunalen Bürgerumfrage 2016 gaben 48 Prozent der Befragten an, dass es in Dresden Orte und Stadtteile gibt, wo sie sich „unsicher“ fühlen. Insbesondere Prohlis, Gorbitz, Neustadt sowie Bahnhöfe und Wiener Platz werden als unsicher erlebt. Gerade der Wiener Platz ist das Eingangstor der Stadt, auch für Touristen in Dresden. Redaktionsschluss: 19. Oktober 2017

Dieser Band dokumentiert die Ergebnisse des von 2019 bis 2023 vom Sächsischen Institut für Polizei- und Sicherheitsforschung (SIPS) durchgeführten Forschungsprojekts „Crystal Meth in Sachsen“. Im Projekt wurde der Frage nach der Phänomenologie und den Hintergründen des Methamphetamin-Konsums im Freistaat Sachsen auf zwei Wegen nachgegangen. Erstens wurden öffentlich verfügbare Informationen in einer umfassenden Hellfeldanalyse zusammengetragen: Zahlen aus der Polizeilichen Kriminalstatistik und dem Auskunftssystem PASS der Polizei Sachsen, sächsische Länderdaten aus der Suchthilfe, Daten aus der externen Suchtberatung in Justizvollzugsanstalten, Informationen aus der Gesundheitsberichterstattung des Bundes sowie Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojekts zur Abwasseranalyse. Zweitens wurde eine umfängliche qualitative Interviewstudie mit Konsument:innen, Familienangehörigen und Vertreter:innen aus medizinisch-therapeutischen Einrichtungen sowie Behörden durchgeführt, um Einblicke in das Dunkelfeld und damit die vielfältigen Hintergründe des Konsums zu erlangen. In der Gesamtschau vermitteln diese beiden Studien ein ebenso spezifisches wie umfassendes Bild zum Crystal-Meth-Konsum in Sachsen, aus dem auch verallgemeinerbare Einsichten, Handlungsempfehlungen und Ansätze für weitere Forschung abgeleitet werden.