Esta dissertação propõe um estudo sobre o interesse dos usuários de internet na Cannabis sativa, ou maconha, a partir da recuperação de buscas de usuários no sistema Google e sobre discussões na comunidade virtual do Facebook Quebrando o Tabu. O texto é dividido em três partes: na primeira, se apresenta a história da cannabis no Brasil e no mundo; na segunda, são expostos os mecanismos de buscas e as redes sociais; na terceira, há aplicações das metodologias propostas. Nesta última parte, usam-­se dados do mecanismo de busca e análise de discurso da comunidade para traçar as especificidades dos usuários de internet na pesquisa e discussão sobre a maconha no Brasil. Deseja-­se, de tal modo, contribuir para o debate acadêmico com a incorporação de análise e dados, além da reflexão sobre questões de legalização e descriminalização da cannabis no país. / This dissertation proposes a study about the interest of internet users on Cannabis sativa (also known as marijuana), based on the retrieval of search query logs in Google system and about the discussion on the Facebook page named Quebrando o Tabu. The text is composed of three parts: the first one presents the history of Cannabis in Brazil and around the world; the second one shows both search engine and social media; the third one develops the proposed methodologies. This last part uses search engine data and discourse analysis to set the distinctiveness of Brazilian internet users into research and discussion about Cannabis. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the academic debate by embodying data and analysis into the reflection about legalization and decriminalization of marijuana in Brazil.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2016-04-18T17:43:22Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Magalhães Ribeiro_.pdf: 3568423 bytes, checksum: 3b3c01923a2e97d9add6452ea85ceb79 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-18T17:43:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tiago Magalhães Ribeiro_.pdf: 3568423 bytes, checksum: 3b3c01923a2e97d9add6452ea85ceb79 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-29 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Esta tese teve por objetivo deslindar aspectos de uma história da subjetividade de usuários de maconha no Brasil mediante descrições e análises de racionalidades e de tecnologias de governo ético e de governo político que conformam diferentes processos de educação mediante a formação de sujeitos. Para tal, realizou-se uma pesquisa empírica que buscou compreender, de um lado, como o uso de maconha foi constituído, no Brasil de início a meados do século XX, enquanto problema pensável e administrável, com a produção, principalmente na psiquiatria e na medicina, de saberes sobre essa droga, seus usos e usuários, o que permitiu um avanço dos controles sociais sobre as práticas de alteração de consciência por meio do uso dessa substância. De outro lado, esta pesquisa visou compreender como esse processo de objetivação de sujeitos e de suas práticas em discursos de verdade se relaciona com os modos pelos quais, neste início de século XXI, consumidores de maconha problematizam e atuam sobre si mesmos e sobre os outros, procurando se constituir como sujeitos de suas práticas de alteração de consciência. A partir de fontes de pesquisa que vão de estudos médicos e psiquiátricos a interações entre usuários de maconha em um fórum virtual na internet, e fazendo uso de ferramentas analíticas elaboradas por Michel Foucault, notadamente a noção de “governamentalidade” entendida como superfície de contato entre o governo de si e o governo dos outros, analisou-se discursos e práticas de controle e autocontrole, identificando-se como racionalidades e tecnologias de governo policial e de governo liberal das condutas de usuários dessa droga incidiram e incidem diferencialmente sobre sujeitos usuários de maconha, tendo em vista, sobretudo, suas posições de “classe” e de “raça”. Os resultados da investigação apontaram, ainda, para uma coexistência de governamentalidades nas formas de gestão do uso de maconha no Brasil: de um lado, problematização e governo policial das condutas de traficantes e usuários pobres; de outro, possibilidades de resistência liberal, de estilização de autocontroles e propugnação de formas de autogoverno por usuários de classes médias e altas. Concluiu-se que o sujeito usuário de maconha foi construído historicamente, no Brasil, entre o início e o meado do século XX, como um sujeito patológico e criminógeno. Tal subjetividade tem sido contestada e reelaborada, principalmente neste início de século XXI, em nosso país, no marco da emergência de racionalidades e tecnologias liberais e neoliberais de governo das condutas, de modo a conformar um sujeito usuário de maconha auto controlado e gestor de si. Essa produção de subjetividade, contudo, se encontra limitada: teoricamente, pela dificuldade de se fundar uma ética em uma ideia de autonomia como pleno controle de si, e, praticamente, pelos profundos recortes e divisões socioeconômicas que caracterizam a sociedade brasileira. / This thesis aims to investigate aspects of a history of subjectivity of marijuana users in Brazil by means of descriptions and analyses of rationalities and technologies of both ethical government and political government which ones conform different processes of education by means of formation of subjects. In order to do that, an empirical research was carried out to understand, on the one hand, how the use of marijuana was constituted in Brazil from the beginning to the middle of the 20th century as a thinkable and manageable problem, with the production of knowledges about this drug, particularly in the fields of psychiatry and medicine, thus leading to the advancement of social controls over the practices of alteration of consciousness with the use of that substance. On the other hand, this research aims to understand how such process of objectivation of subjects and their practices in discourses of truth is related to the ways through which, in the beginning of the 21st century, marijuana consumers problematize and act on themselves and the others in an attempt to constitute themselves as subjects of their practices of alteration of consciousness. From research sources ranging from medical and psychiatric studies to interactions between marijuana users in a virtual forum on internet, and by using analytical tools designed by Michel Foucault, particularly the notion of ‘governmentality’, understood as a surface of contact between the government of the self and the government of the others, discourses and practices of control and self-control have been analyzed, enabling the identification of the ways in which rationalities and technologies of police government and liberal government of the conducts of marijuana users differently affected and still affect those subjects, especially considering their class and race positions. The results of the investigation have also pointed out the coexistence of governmentalities in the form of management of marijuana use in Brazil: on the one hand, problematization and police government of the conducts of drug dealers and poor users; on the other hand, possibilities of liberal resistance, stylization of self-controls and defense of forms of self-government by middle and upper class users. It has been concluded that the marijuana user was historically produced in Brazil between the beginning and the middle of the 20th century as a pathological and criminal subject. Such subjectivity has been challenged and reconstructed in our country, especially in the beginning of the 21st century, with the emergence of liberal and neoliberal rationalities and technologies of government of conducts, thus modeling a self-controlled, self-manager marijuana user subject. This production of subjectivity, however, is limited: theoretically, due to the difficulty to found an ethics on the idea of autonomy as total control of the self and, in practice, because of the deep socioeconomic cuts and divisions that characterize the Brazilian society.

The legalization of marijuana in Canada represents a significant change in the course of Canadian drug policy. Using a semiotic approach based on the work of Roland Barthes, this dissertation explores marijuana’s signification within the House of Commons and Senate debates between 1891 and 2018. When examined through this conceptual lens, the ongoing parliamentary debates about marijuana over the last 127 years are revealed to be rife with what Barthes referred to as myths, ideas that have become so familiar that they cease to be recognized as constructions and appear innocent and natural. Exploring one such myth—the necessity of asserting “paternal power” over individuals deemed incapable of rational calculation—this dissertation demonstrates that the processes of political debate and law-making are also a complex “politics of signification” in which myths are continually being invoked, (re)produced, and (re)transmitted. The evolution of this myth is traced to the contemporary era and it is shown that recent attempts to criminalize, decriminalize, and legalize marijuana are indices of a process of juridification that is entrenching legal regulation into increasingly new areas of Canadian life in order to assert greater control over the consumption of marijuana and, importantly, over the risks that this activity has been semiologically associated with. Although the government’s legalization decision seems to be a liberalization of drug policy at odds with processes of juridification, it is shown that legalization’s transformation of irrational and criminal marijuana users into legitimate consumers subject to a strict regulatory framework is entirely compatible with a neo-liberal perspective that is saturated by the myth of irrationality and the necessity of paternal power. The reaching of this counterintuitive conclusion helps demonstrate this dissertation’s primary contribution: the illustration of the value of Barthesian semiotics as a means of producing new and alternative insights into seemingly familiar criminological issues.

While the proportion of U.S. ambulatory, office-based visits with a primary symptom or diagnosis of pain has remained consistent from 2000 to 2010, the frequency of opioid prescribing among these visits nearly doubled from 11.3% to 19.6% [1]. Concurrently, the U.S. experienced an epidemic of opioid-related morbidity and mortality [2]. Medical marijuana, allowed in states with medical marijuana laws (MMLs), may serve as an alternative to opioids in the treatment of severe or chronic pain [3]. If marijuana is a substitute for opioids, MMLs that increase marijuana use may also be inadvertently decreasing opioid use. It has been hypothesized that this mechanism, marijuana for opioid substitution, may also be driving reductions in opioid-related morbidity and mortality [4, 5]. This dissertation has three aims. The first aim is to assess whether the hypothesis, that state MMLs can reduce opioid-related mortality, is plausible and whether it is consistent with the available literature. The second aim is to replicate prior state-level finding using individual-level data among participants surveyed in the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), between 1986 and 2009. These individuals are followed up for mortality up to December 31st, 2011. The final aim is to assess whether MMLs have a heterogeneous impact across subpopulations defined by age, sex, and/or race/ethnicity. In Chapter 1, we find evidence, from a limited number of quantitative studies, that show associations between more liberal marijuana policies and reductions in opioid prescribing, opioid positivity (i.e., use), opioid-related treatment admissions, and opioid-related overdose. From surveys, we found that a majority of medical marijuana patients use marijuana for indications where opioids are commonly prescribed and report reductions in prescription drug use, including opioids specifically. We found the overall quality of the quantitative studies to be moderate to strong. While results were farily consistent across studies, the reviewed studies all shared similar designs and assumptions. Further, regional heterogentiy in MMLs as well as opioid overdoses is never addressed. In Chapter 2, among all NHIS adult participants eligible for mortality follow-up and surveyed between 1986 and 2009, we observed 791 cases who died of an opioid overdose. Compared to controls, cases were more likely to be male, middle-aged, non-Hispanic White, separated/divorced; less educated, and have a family income below the poverty threshold. After adjusting for matched calendar year, participant sex, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, educational attainment, and poverty level, we find no overall association between state MMLs and the rate of opioid overdose. Adjusting for region depreciated the association towards a protective effect. Upon stratifying by region, we find that state MMLs were associated with a reduced rate of opioid overdoses in the West between 2006-2011, but not in the Northeast. In Chapter 3, we find no evidence that the association between state MMLs and opioid overdose is heterogeneous by race/ethnicity or sex. However, we do find evidence that age-dependent heterogentiy is present, and that this heterogeneity is magnified in the West. We find that Western MMLs are associated with a reduced overdose rate for individuals under the age of 60, but not for older adults. In the final chapter, we provide an overview of our findings in the context of the available literature, a discussion of the major strengths and weakness of our study findings, and a recommendation for the direction of future studies. In conclusion, we find that hypothesis that MMLs can reduce opioid-related mortality is plausible, and that the likely mechanism is substitution. However, in our study, our results were not consistent with this hypothesis overall, and signficant reductions were only present after stratifying by region and by sampling frame. The discrepancy between our findings and prior studies should be explored, particularly in light of how regional variations may impact measures of association.

Though the drug remains illegal at the federal level, in recent years states and localities have increasingly liberalized their marijuana laws in order to generate tax revenue and save resources on marijuana law enforcement. Many states have adopted some form of medical marijuana and/or marijuana decriminalization laws, and as of 2017, Washington, Colorado, Maine, California, Oregon, Massachusetts, Nevada, Alaska, and the District of Columbia have all legalized marijuana for recreational use. In 2016 recreational marijuana generated over $1.8 billion in sales. Hence, studying marijuana reforms and the policies and outcomes of early recreational marijuana adopters is an important area of research. However, perhaps due to the fact that legalized recreational cannabis is a recent phenomenon, a scarcity of research exists on the impacts of recreational cannabis legalization and the efficacy and efficiency of cannabis regulation. This dissertation aims to fill this gap, using the Washington recreational marijuana market as the primary setting to study cannabis legalization in the United States. Of first order importance in the regulation of sin goods such as cannabis is quantifying the value of the marginal damages of negative externalities. Hence, Chapter 1 (co-authored with Lin Tian) explores the impact of marijuana dispensary location on neighborhood property values, exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in marijuana retailer location. Policymakers and advocates have long expressed concerns that the positive effects of the legalization--e.g., increases in tax revenue--are well spread spatially, but the negative effects are highly localized through channels such as crime. Hence, we use changes in property values to measure individuals' willingness to pay to avoid localized externalities caused by the arrival of marijuana dispensaries. Our key identification strategy is to compare changes in housing sales around winners and losers in a lottery for recreational marijuana retail licenses. (Due to location restrictions, license applicants were required to provide an address of where they would like to locate.) Hence, we have the locations of both actual entrants and potential entrants, which provides a natural difference-in-differences set-up. Using data from King County, Washington, we find an almost 2.4% decrease in the value of properties within a 0.5 mile radius of an entrant, a $9,400 decline in median property values. The aforementioned retail license lottery was used to distribute licenses due to a license quota. Retail license quotas are often used by states to regulate entry into sin goods markets as quotas can restrict consumption by decreasing access and by reducing competition (and, therefore, increasing markups). However, license quotas also create allocative inefficiency. For example, license quotas are often based on the population of a city or county. Hence, licenses are not necessarily allocated to the areas where they offer the highest marginal benefit. Moreover, as seen in the case of the Washington recreational marijuana market, licenses are often distributed via lottery, meaning that in the absence of an efficiency secondary market for licenses, the license recipients are not necessarily the most efficient potential entrants. This allocative inefficiency is generated by heterogeneity in firms and consumers. Therefore, in Chapter 2, I develop a model of demand and firm pricing in order to investigate firm-level heterogeneity and inefficiency. Demand is differentiated by geography and incorporates consumer demographics. I estimate this demand model using data on firm sales from Washington. Utilizing the estimates and firm pricing model, I back out a non-parametric distribution of firm variable costs. These variable costs differ by product and firm and provide a measure of firm inefficiency. I find that variable costs have lower inventory turnover; hence, randomly choosing entrants in a lottery could be a large contributor to allocative inefficiency. Chapter 3 explores the sources of allocative inefficiency in license distribution in the Washington recreational marijuana market. A difficulty in studying the welfare effects of license quotas is finding credible counterfactuals of unrestricted entry. Therefore, I take a structural approach: I first develop a three stage model that endogenizes firm entry and incorporates the spatial demand and pricing model discussed in Chapter 2. Using the estimates of the demand and pricing model, I estimate firms' fixed costs and use data on locations of those potential entrants that did not win Washington's retail license lottery to simulate counterfactual entry patterns. I find that allowing firms to enter freely at Washington's current marijuana tax rate increases total surplus by 21.5% relative to a baseline simulation of Washington's license quota regime. Geographic misallocation and random allocation of licenses account for 6.6\% and 65.9\% of this difference, respectively. Moreover, as the primary objective of these quotas is to mitigate the negative externalities of marijuana consumption, I study alternative state tax policies that directly control for the marginal damages of marijuana consumption. Free entry with tax rates that keep the quantity of marijuana or THC consumed equal to baseline consumption increases welfare by 6.9% and 11.7%, respectively. I also explore the possibility of heterogeneous marginal damages of consumption across geography, backing out the non-uniform sales tax across geography that is consistent with Washington's license quota policy. Free entry with a non-uniform sales tax increases efficiency by over 7% relative to the baseline simulation of license quotas due to improvements in license allocation.

Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a associação entre dependência de maconha, transtornos psiquiátricos comórbidos e estágios de mudança em uma amostra de usuários de maconha que procuraram por tratamento. Um total de oitenta pacientes que procuraram por tratamento para dependência de maconha em um ambulatório especializado foram avaliados. Os dados em relação a dependência de maconha e transtornos psiquiátricos comórbidos foram obtidos através de um questionário sociodemográfico e o SCAN (Schedules for Assessment in Neuropsychiatry). A motivação dos pacientes para o tratamento foi avaliada através da URICA (University of Rhode Island Change Assessment). A gravidade da dependência da maconha foi avaliada através da ASI (Addiction Severity Index). Houve alta proporção de comorbidades psiquiátricas na amostra de participantes. O diagnóstico de esquizofrenia foi associado à predominância do estágio de mudança de precontemplação e os diagnósticos de transtornos do humor e ansiedade foram associados aos estágios de contemplação e ação. Conclui-se que pacientes dependentes da maconha que procuram por tratamento têm alta prevalência de transtornos psiquiátricos associados e que este fator pode influenciar a motivação para o tratamento. / This study aimed to explore the association among cannabis dependence, concurrent psychiatric disorders, and stages of change in a sample of treatment-seeking patients. A total of eighty patients who sought treatment for cannabis dependence at a specialized outpatient clinic were assessed. Data on cannabis dependence and concurrent disorders were obtained by means of the Schedules for Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN). Motivation was assessed through the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA). Cannabis dependence severity was assessed through ASI (Addiction Severity Index). There was a high prevalence of concurrent psychiatric disorders in this sample. Diagnosis of schizophrenia was associated with lower motivation scores and the precontemplation stage of change. Diagnoses of mood and anxiety disorders were associated with higher motivation scores and contemplation and action stages of change. We concluded that cannabis dependent patients who seek treatment have a high prevalence of concurrent disorders and the diagnosis of a concurrent disorder may influence motivation for treatment.

This study examines the impact of two types of trauma exposure, mistreatment by an adult as a child and exposure to stressful life events as an adolescent, and their impact on marijuana use as an adolescent and emerging adult and marijuana dependence as an adult. This study also investigates the mediating role of depressive symptoms on the relationship between trauma exposure and marijuana use and dependence. The AddHealth dataset, a nationally representative and longitudinal dataset, was used to assess these relationships. Results show that both types of trauma predict marijuana use and dependence. Results also show that there are indirect effects through depressive symptoms. These findings have implications on children and adolescents who are exposed to trauma, parents, teachers, and those working in the fields of mental health and therapy.

The tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use of adolescents was examined to see if any differences existed in the marital status of the adolescent's parents, the quality of family interaction for the adolescent, and the gender of the adolescent. Marital status was defined as intact families where adolescents were living with both biological parents, and nonintact families where adolescents had parents who were single, divorced, widowed, never married, and remarried. Data were from a survey that examined youth issues of 500 adolescents from a rural Utah county. It was hypothesized that marital type and quality of family interaction (family kindness, family hurtfulness, and family communication) would have an effect on adolescent tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use. Adolescents from intact families differed significantly from those in nonintact families in terms of substance use. This study also illustrated that being from an intact family is not enough to prevent adolescent substance use. Rather, the combination of having an intact family and perceiving family kindness had the greatest deterring effect on substance use among adolescents. Family kindness had the greatest impact in deterring tobacco and alcohol use. Family hurtfulness, on the other hand, was the strongest indicator of marijuana use. Gender was a factor in only one of the dependent variables, tobacco, with males using more than females.

Set on a farm on the Kaipara Harbour of Northland, New Zealand, this novel traces the lives of a family over a six year period near the end of the twentieth century. Themes include: Scottish and Croatian-Dalmatian immigration, Māori spiritual and cultural values, the weaving and assimilation of diverse cultures into a vibrant new culture, the economics of farming on marginal lands, father-son relationships, sibling rivalry, marijuana cultivation and the disparities between urban and rural lifestyles and expectations. The plotline follows the frustrations and subsequent actions of the eldest son as he seeks a future, which he realises is dependent on his acquiring the family farm. His impulsive behaviour leads to the climax of the story and puts himself and other members of the family in jeopardy and risks the family losing the farm altogether.

While neuropsychological deficits have been reported in healthy individuals who use cannabis, data in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are lacking. Given that MS is associated with cognitive deterioration, the aim of this study was to determine the cognitive effects of inhaled or ingested cannabis in this population. Fifty MS patients (25 cannabis users and 25 non-users) completed the Minimal Assessment of Cognitive Function in MS battery of neuropsychological tests. Cannabis users had significantly poorer performance on measures of information processing speed, executive functions, and visuospatial perception, and were twice as likely to be classified as globally cognitively impaired. Similar results were found after controlling for potential confounding variables. This study provides evidence that prolonged cannabis use in MS patients is associated with poorer performance on cognitive domains commonly affected in this population. The therapeutic benefits patients may derive from using cannabis should be weighed against the associated cognitive side-effects.