This diploma thesis focuses specifically on the phenomenon of self-medication with cannabis (Cannabis Sativa L.) in the Czech Republic exploring subjective perception of this treatment by ill persons and its sociocultural framework. It describes a situation when the state fails to effectively regulate medical cannabis and patients often seek practices of self-medication, which remains illegal. Theoretical part of this thesis aims to explain the self- medication and cannabis use in the sociocultural context. Practical part is based on an anthropological research, which was implemented in the Czech Republic from January 1, 2017 to May 1, 2017 in a form of the on-line qualitative questionnaire survey. The research sample consists of 107 subjects, who used cannabis and its derives for self-medication. The analysis was done by the Grounded theory method. The results demonstrate that people who seek cannabis self-medication in the Czech Republic consider current legal regulation of cannabis objectionable. Cannabis plants for self-medication are usually grown at home and people find information about specifics of the treatment on-line. Looking at experience of patients, this thesis describes specifics of the practices of cannabis self-medication and it could be useful for organizations working with...

Thesis advisor: Thomas M. Crea / Thesis advisor: Oscar A. Martinez / Background: Substance use in adolescence is associated with a vast variety of behavioral and health problems contributing to a public health burden including engagement in risky sexual practices, unwanted pregnancies, increased morbidity and mortality, violent behaviors, and school dropout, among others. The use of alcohol and marijuana in adolescence and young adulthood are risk factors for subsequent substance-related adverse effects. Parents play a key role in the prevention of substance use. This study has the aim of analyzing the influence of parenting styles used during childhood and the rearing process on alcohol and marijuana use among adolescents over time through adulthood. Results will provide information to contribute to “Ensure healthy development for all youth” which is one of the 12 Social Work Grand Challenges introduced by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare in January (2015). According to this initiative, every year, six million young people receive treatment for severe emotional, mental, or behavioral problems. Strong evidence is needed to show how to prevent problem before they emerge and by unleashing the power of prevention, and research can contribute to help youth to become healthy and productive adults (AASWSW, 2015). For the analysis, we use the typology developed by Diane Baumrid (1971) which defines four parenting styles considering the combination of warmth and control exerted by parents: authoritative, authoritarian, neglectful, and permissive. This framework emphasizes the mechanisms behind family contextual factors impacting youth development influencing substance use. Then, we explore the association of such parenting styles stratifying by race-ethnicity considering Whites and Mexican American adolescents. Material and methods: Multilevel, hierarchical regression analysis was conducted using three waves of the Add Health Survey data (Add Health Survey), a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents between 11 and 19 years old enrolled in grades 7-12 in the United States over four waves. We follow longitudinally the analytic sample of 12,143 participants where 1,640 were Mexican Americans and 10,583 were White Americans. We test the hypotheses of association of alcohol and marijuana use separately considering race-ethnicity, SES, and parenting styles and stratified analysis by parenting style and race-ethnicity for three waves collected in 1995, 2001 and 2008. Results: Alcohol use: Main outcomes for alcohol use were that Mexican American adolescents had no higher rates of alcohol use at baseline and were more likely to use alcohol at the 6 years follow up compared to White adolescents. The association between family SES level and alcohol use was no different at baseline (1995) but those kids in higher family SES level have higher odds of using alcohol than those low family SES in the following six and thirteen years. Regardless of race-ethnicity, adolescents from families with authoritarian parenting style were more likely to consume alcohol at baseline while those with permissive parents are less likely to use it. Adolescents from families with authoritarian parenting style used alcohol at a higher rate in the six years follow up, while those with permissive parents had lower odds of use. Stratified analysis showed that White children whose parents were authoritarian at baseline were more likely to consume alcohol compared to those with authoritative parenting. White adolescents with permissive parenting style had fewer odds of using alcohol at baseline. Mexican and White adolescents whose parents were authoritarian were more likely to use alcohol compared to those whose parents were authoritative at the six years follow up. Mexican American and White adolescents whose parents were permissive were less likely to use alcohol than those whose parents were authoritative at the six years follow up. Marijuana use: Mexican American adolescents have higher rates of use of marijuana compared to White adolescents at baseline and at the 6 years follow up. Independent of race-ethnicity, the association between family SES level and marijuana shows that those adolescents with high family SES showed higher odds of using marijuana at the 6 and 13 years follow up. In the stratified analysis, it was found that white adolescents with higher SES had more odds of using marijuana at six years and after 13 years. Independently of race-ethnicity, adolescents from families with authoritarian and neglectful parenting style were more likely to use marijuana at baseline and less likely to consume it if their parents were permissive compared to those with authoritative parenting style. Also, those youths, whose parents were authoritarian and neglectful at baseline, were more likely to use marijuana in the six years follow up compared to those with authoritative parenting style. However, those with permissive parents had fewer odds of using it in the six years follow up and at the thirteen years follow up compared to those with authoritative parenting styles. Authoritarian parenting style was associated with worse outcomes in terms of marijuana use for White adolescents at baseline and at the six years follow up. Permissive parenting styles was associated with less odds of marijuana use for White adolescents at baseline and at the six years follow up. Also, authoritarian parenting style was associated with higher odds of using marijuana in Mexican American adolescents at the six years follow up while permissive parenting styles was found to reduce the odds of use. The most important gap in terms of risk of using marijuana was found for Mexican American adolescents who were found to have high odds of using marijuana if their parents had been authoritarian or neglectful at baseline, at the six and thirteen years follow up. Findings may be beneficial to prevention specialists in developing programs targeting Mexican American youth to enhance parenting behaviors to deter alcohol and marijuana use. Actions need to be addressed to promote management of adequate parenting styles and better parent-youth relationship for both populations. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

This study created the new Collateral Consequences Survey on Marijuana-Related Stop, Question, and Frisk Experiences tool. The tool was administered to a sample (N = 73) 65.8% (N = 48) male, 31.5% (N = 23) female, 68.5% (N = 50) Black, 31.5% (N = 23) Latinx, with 90.4% (N = 66) born in the United States—with a mean age of 30.04 years (min =18, max = 55, SD = 9.42). Some 46.6% (N = 34) completed a Bachelor’s degree or higher, while 63% (N = 46) were employed—with a mean annual household income of $40,000 to $49,000 (mean = category 4.23, min = 1, max = 11, SD = 1.899). Participants suffered multiple long-lasting damages as collateral consequences from Stop, Question, and Frisk. Pearson Correlations showed the higher the global collateral consequences scores, then lower Age (r = -.572, p = .000); darker Skin Color (r = .281, p = .016); lower Income (r = -.269, p = 023); lower Life Satisfaction (r = -.469, p = .000); more Negative Impact on Physical Health (r = -.264, p = .024); more Negative Impact on Mental Health (r = -.413, p = .000); lower BMI (Body Mass Index) (r = -.439, p = .000); greater frequency of various types of marijuana-related police contact (r = .580, p = .000); and greater extent of invasive experiences with police (r = .117, p = .000). While controlling for social desirability, the significant predictors of the study outcome variable of the Global Collateral Consequences Score (GCCS-8) were as not born in the US (β = -.607, SEB = .294, p = .044); lower life satisfaction (β = -.141, SEB = .044, p = .002); lower Body Mass Index (β = -.042, SEB = .010, p = .000); more positive attitudes on marijuana equity and reparations (β = .347, SEB = .099, p = .001); greater frequency of various types of marijuana-related police contact (β = -.232, SEB = .099, p = .024); and greater extent of invasive experiences with police (β = .324, SEB = .084, p = .000). This model accounted for 62.4% of the variance (R2 = 0.669 and Adj R2 = 0.624). Qualitative data expanded on the quantitative data findings. Implications and recommendations covered how the new tool created for this study may be used in future research and for screening purposes to identify those needing interventions from police stress and trauma.

Background: Pregnancy substance use is linked to low birth weight. However, less is known about relative contributions of various substances and whether effects are due to decreased gestational duration, restriction of fetal growth, or both. The study goal was to use causal modeling to evaluate the individual impact of alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, and marijuana on gestational duration and fetal growth. Methods: Participants were 3164 urban black women recruited at entry to prenatal care and followed to delivery, with all gestational dating ultrasound supported. Pregnancy substance use was assessed via self-report (alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, and marijuana). Results: Alcohol, cigarette, and cocaine use were all individually and negatively related to gestational age at delivery. However, only alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use predicted fetal growth, with effects for alcohol and cigarette greater and more discrepant for older women. Overall, heavy cigarette smoking had the greatest individual impact on birth weight (up to 431 g). Heavy levels of use of all 4 substances by older women decreased birth weight by 26% (806 g). Conclusions: For perhaps the first time, reduced birth weight is apportioned both by type of substance and mechanism of effect. The use of alcohol and/or cigarettes was clearly more harmful to fetal growth than cocaine use. Findings demonstrate the need for continued emphasis on intervention efforts to address legal and illicit pregnancy substance use.

This project analyzes drug use in Mexico City between 1960 and 1980, the decades when the Mexican state began criminalizing common drugs like marijuana, and prosecuting the consumers of legal drugs such as toxic inhalants. In order to explain this contradiction, this dissertation assesses more than 3,000 Juvenile Court records, police files, health department and hospital documents, journal articles, drug legislation, and personal anecdotes. It argues that consumption and prosecution trends largely corresponded to socioeconomic class. Furthermore, these class-based consumption trends affected Mexican drug policies. According to the Mexican health department and penal reports examined in this dissertation, the Mexican state responded to the rise in drug use by pushing legislation to further criminalize marijuana. Yet the inner workings of that legislation tell a different story. Police records and Juvenile Court cases expose a rise in the detention and arrest of children who consumed toxic inhalants, a legal substance. The Mexican state found it more difficult to punish the children of middle-class government employees and professionals than the poor. In criminalizing poor, young drug users, the government could demonstrate its active efforts to address rising drug use. Consequently, the state created a new criminal class out of lower-class children who inhaled toxic legal substances in Mexico City. From a criminal and health perspective, this dissertation emphasizes the need to consider the impact of Mexican drug use trends on drug policy from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology & Special Education at the University of Zululand, 2007. / The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cannibas use on the adolescent's development. This was achieved by means of a literature study and an emprical investigation. The literature study found that the use of cannabis by the adolescent affects his physical, psychological (cognitive and affective), social and normative development.

The United States has long waged war against drugs resulting in, amongst other things, theworld’s largest prison population and costing society billions of dollars yearly. As a possible solution to the problem, legalization of recreational marijuana has emerged with Colorado as a pioneering state. The purpose of this study is to examine whether legalization has a casual effect on unemployment and arrests. This was done by performing difference-in-difference estimations with Colorado as the treatment group, Georgia and Arizona as the control group with unemployment and varying offenses as dependent variables. The results indicate legalization leading to a decrease in marijuana possession arrests. However, the non-drug related offenses and unemployment increased, albeit without statistical significance, which means that the null hypothesis cannot be rejected and leaves room for questioning of the results. This may be explained by there being more factors affecting those variables, Thus, using legalization as a mean to decrease unemployment and arrest rates can be challenged.

abstract: Marijuana legalization will likely result in increased marijuana consumption with uncertain social and health impacts. This thesis looks to share user perspectives on marijuana, specifically addressing how users represent marijuana risks, benefits, and uncertain or unknown dangers. Data were collected from an online social-media forum that initiated the discussion by prompting readers to reflect on marijuana risks in a context of growing accolades concerning its benefits. Grounded theory and thematic analysis were both utilized to identify consistent themes or patterns across user comments. It was found that users identified both benefits and risks of marijuana, while some users had disputes about certain known risks (such as impaired driving) or uncertain or unknown dangers (such as reduced dream activity). Despite disagreements about the degree of risk associated with a particular activity (such as driving and dreaming), this thesis found risks and benefits were discussed in relatively narrow ways that suggest more education is needed around the full spectrum of the effects of various strains, including benefits, risks, and uncertainties. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Communication 2019

The purpose of the literature review is to identify consistent patterns regarding adolescent use and abuse of chemical substances, especially alcohol and marijuana. Acute physical, cognitive and social effects of alcohol and marijuana use are outlined, and environmental and personal determinants of drug use and abuse are examined. Methods of prevention and intervention are discussed and, from the research findings, a model group counseling program designed for the school setting is proposed. Adolescent use of both marijuana and alcohol is found to be modal by age 16-17. The physical, cognitive and social effects are pervasive and especially damaging to chronic users. Youth are extremely vulnerable to suffering adversity from their drug use patterns.

The subject of this thesis is dope dealing in marijuana. However, the main interest in this topic is not centered on unique behavior patterns of persons engaged in this illegal activity nor is it much concerned with the activity itself. Rather, this study was designed to investigate empirically claims of labeling theorists and deviance theory. Through focused interviews with dealers of marijuana, an inquiry was made into deviant self-concepts on the part of those persons. More specifically, attention centered around the variables of type of dealer (lid or small quantity pound); length of time in dealing business; and contact with formal sanctioning agencies as possible conditioning or influencing factors in self- concept formation. The research was intended to examine, in a field situation, concepts that have to this point received more theoretical explication and discussion then empirical scrutiny.