Drug use and conflict in inner-city African-American relationships in the 2000s

Inner-city relationships face numerous challenges including illegal drug use and its consequences. The nature of this challenge, however, has changed dramatically with a shift from the crack subculture of the 1980s and early 1990s to the subsequent marijuana/blunts subculture. This study presents data concerning 95 inner-city relationships where illegal drug use was present from people who were interviewed in 2004-2006 and reinterviewed in 2008. Hard drug use was still problematic in the 2000s even with the passing of the crack epidemic and its associated behavioral norms. Hard drug (primarily crack) users reported drug use was a problem, reported conflict over drugs, reported higher levels of conflict than others and were the most likely to have broken up with their partner. On the other hand, the experiences and subcultural norms associated with marijuana use appeared to be much less detrimental to relationship harmony. Subjects who used marijuana but not hard drugs reported much less relationship conflict. Indeed, many reported that they enjoyed using marijuana with their partner. These subcultural insights further the understanding that young adults have constructed a much more socially productive subculture regarding marijuana use than their predecessors had constructed around use of crack.     

Drug Use and Conflict in Inner-City African-Anterican Relationships in the 2000s

Abstract

Inner-city relationships face numerous challenges including illegal drug use and its consequences. The nature of this challenge, however, has changed dramatically with a shift from the crack subculture of the 1980s and early 1990s to the subsequent marijuana/blunts subculture. This study presents data concerning 95 inner-city relationships where illegal drug use was present from people who were interviewed in 2004–2006 and reinterviewed in 2008. Hard drug use was still problematic in the 2000s even with the passing of the crack epidemic and its associated behavioral norms. Hard drug (primarily crack) users reported drug use was a problem, reported conflict over drugs, reported higher levels of conflict than others and were the most likely to have broken up with their partner. On the other hand, the experiences and subcultural norms associated with marijuana use appeared to be much less detrimental to relationship harmony. Subjects who used marijuana but not hard drugs reported much less relationship conflict. Indeed, many reported that they enjoyed using marijuana with their partner. These subcultural insights further the understanding that young adults have constructed a much more socially productive subculture regarding marijuana use than their predecessors had constructed around use of crack.     

Integrating Mainstream and Subcultural Explanations of Drug Use Among Puerto Rican Youth

The broad question of how to integrate mainstream and subcultural explanations of drug use and other problem behaviors is addressed. An integrated social control model was examined with inner-city Puerto Rican youth. The model did apply to drug use and delinquency. Adherence to traditional Hispanic culture provides some protection against dysfunctional behavior.     

Environmental Setting and Early Drug Involvement among Inner-City Junior High School Youths

This study explores the drug use of a sample of inner-city junior high school youths by examining a hypothesized, interactive relationship between perceived toughness/drug use in their neighborhood and the youths' demographic, neighborhood orientation/involvement, and drug use context factors in regard to their involvement with drugs. The results dramatically showed that the youths' views of their environmental setting operate as a conditioning factor in understanding the correlates of their drug involvement. In supporting the hypothesis, prosocial correlates of drug use are stressed in settings characterized by high toughness/drug use settings. Our findings urge that serious consideration be given to examining social contextual effects on drug taking as a means to understanding this behavior among different sociocultural groups.     

Subcultural evolution and illicit drug use

This article articulates a subcultural basis to the evolving popularity for different illicit drugs primarily based on empirical research in the United States, especially among inner-city populations. From this perspective, drug use emerges from a dialectic between drug subcultures with individual identity development. The prevailing culture and subcultures affect drugs' popularity by imparting significance to their use. Innovations, historical events, and individual choices can cause subcultures to emerge and change over time. This subcultural view provides insight into the widespread use of licit drug, the dynamics of drug eras (or epidemics), the formation of drug generations, and the apparent “gateway” phenomenon.     

Drug Courts coming to Britain

This paper discusses research findings on non-biological risk factors associated with illicit drug use. There is an established body of North American research in this field, and a growing European literature. We find that there is an interplay of individual and environmental factors associated with drug use, with the permeation of their interactions potentially limitless. Within the behavioural science literature, we identify three main analytical dimensions for understanding ‘risk factors’. These are: ‘intrapersonal’; ‘micro-environmental’; and ‘macro-environmental’. We note that it is not new to emphasize drug use as a social activity, involving social interactions within particular social environments, but that, despite this, the balance of focus in research tends towards ‘extra-environmental’ or ‘individualistic’ interpretations. We emphasize that future research is best oriented towards generating data of practical value for the development of interventions rather than attempting to delineate causative factors. The failure of most risk factors research rests in its incapacity to capture the variety of social and environmental influences on drug use, and the relevance of these for developing socially appropriate interventions. In addition to recognizing the importance of targeting interventions towards ‘high risk’ populations and ‘high risk’ forms of drug use, we emphasize throughout the importance of the ‘risk environment’ in mediating patterns of drug use.     

Dimensions of Marijuana Use in a Midwest Catholic University: Subcultural Considerations

Theorists and researchers for over two decades have indicated repeatedly that marijuana use by college students has a subculture base. Crucial here is the impact that the subculture has on its members identities, values, attitudes, and belief patterns. While it may be true that not all members of a subculture evidence the same commitment to a subculture's attitudinal and normative patterns, nonetheless they share common patterns and the more an individual becomes involved, the more he manifests these subcultural patterns. Explorations of this subculture rationale are conducted utilizing a trichotomy of marijuana type users. The findings lend support more to the theoretical notion of subculture intervention as a threshold variable than a continuum variable.     

Etiologies and Consequences of Adolescent Drug Use:

This paper reviews recent results and work in progress from a longitudinal study of drug use etiologies and consequences. Early- and mid-adolescent drug use patterns, personality, and behavioral correlates were studies in a large sample of normal youth beginning in the mid-1970's. To determine the correlates and consequences of adolescent drug use, controlling for related tendencies such as lack of social conformity and deviat friendship networks, 654 youngsters were folled into young adulthood and their behaviors and lifestyles evaluated. Teenage drug use was found to disrupt many critical developmental tasks of adolesence and young adulthood. Tendencies to use many different drugs as an adolescent led in young adulthood to increased drug crime involvement, decreased college involvement, increased job instability, income, psychotism, and stealing episodes. Intervention efforts should be directed not only towards decreasing drug use, but also towards improving personal maturity, social skills, and economic opportunities.     

On Processes of Peer Influences in Adolescent Drug Use:

Data from longitudinal studies of adolescents carried out over the last ten years are reviewed to provide an integrated and dynamic perspective on the nature of friendships and processes of peer influence in adolescent drug involvement, within a general developmental perspective. Four interrelated questions are examined: (1) What individual attributes are especially important in the formation of friendships among adolescents? (2) Which of the two processes, selection or socialization, account for the similarity in values and behaviors observed in ongoing friendship dyads, and how important is similarity in friendship formation and dissolution? (3) What is the nature of friends' influence as compared to parents', and in which domains of adolescents' life do these influences exert themselves? (4) What mechanisms, role modeling of social learning, underlie proceses of interpersonal influences? Relational dyadic and triadic samples of adolescents matched to a parent and/or a best friend and observed at one point in time as well as over time provide important and relatively rare sources of data on processes of interpersonal influence. Sociodemographic characteristics are the strongest determinants of friendship formation, with participation in illicit drugs following next in importance. Both selection (assortative pairing) and socialization contribute to observed similarity in friendship pairs. Adolescents coordinate their choice of friends and their values and behaviors, in particular the use of marijuana, so as to maximize congruency in the friendship dyad. If there is a state of unbalance such that the friend's attitude or behavior is inconsistent with the adolescent's, the adolescent will either break off the friendship and seek another friend or will keep the friend and modify his or her own behavior. Both parents and peers can have strong influences on adolescents, depending upon the arena of influence. Parents are especially important for future life plans, while peers are most important for involvement in illicit drug use. However, for drug use itself, there are different patterns of influence depending upon the stage of drug involvement. Peers are especially important for initiation into marijuana use, while parental factors gain in importance in the transition from marijuana use to the use of other illicit drugs. Interpersonal influences of peers on ongoing marijuana and alcohol use result from modeling and imitation more than from social reinforcement and the transmission of values.     

A Comparison of Chronic Versus Casual Marijuana Users on Personal Values and Behavioral Orientations

Fifty-one chronic (daily) long-term marijuana smokers and 32 casual (1 to 3 times per week) users were interviewed and given a Rokeach Value Survey, a Personal Orientation Inventory (POI), and a Zuckerman Multiple Affect Adjective Check List. Value survey results showed that the two groups had the same general value structure. The POI showed no differences between the groups, and the adjective self-ratings were similar. The groups were significantly different on a number of social variables; number of user friends, longest period without drugs, perceived risks, etc., which indicated “drug subculture involvement.” Results are discussed from a sociological point of view.     

The Social Contexts of Drug Offers and Their Relationship to Drug Use of Rural Hawaiian Youths

This article examines the differences in drug offers and recent drug use between Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian youths residing in rural communities, and the relationship between drug offers and drug use of Hawaiian youths in these communities. Two hundred forty-nine youths (194 Hawaiian youths) from 7 different middle or intermediate schools completed a survey focused on the social context of drug offers. Hawaiian youths in the study received significantly more offers from peers and family, and had significantly higher rates of recent alcohol and marijuana use, compared with non-Hawaiian youths. Logistic regression analysis indicated that the social context differentially influenced drug use of Hawaiian youths, with family drug offers and context influencing overall drug use and the use of the widest variety of substances. Implications for prevention practices are discussed.     

Drug target discovery using retroviruses

Contemporary drug target discovery relies on a continuum of genetic and chemical-based screening technologies. These approaches conflate pharmaceutical and genetic principles, providing a conceptual platform that links dominant genetics with drug action. Thus, phenotypic genetic screens using vector-expressed dominant genetic effectors – trans-acting molecules that modulate gene function, such as peptides or RNA interference triggers – can reveal genes whose inhibition engenders a therapeutic effect. The correlation of this genetic inhibition with a specific protein activity defines a drug target candidate. Retroviruses provide a unique opportunity to stably deliver a variety of dominant genetic effectors to mammalian cells in a flexible predetermined fashion and are a favoured system for phenotypic screening. Here, the authors review recent innovations and approaches to therapeutic target discovery using retroviral vectors.     

Drug offenders in Taiwan and the United States: a cross-cultural analysis.

Using data collected from nationwide surveys of drug-using offenders in the United States and Taiwan, this article compares offender differences with respect to socio-demographic characteristics, childhood experiences, drug use and treatment patterns, and criminal histories. The results suggest that the experiences of U.S. drug-using offenders are more complex, with multiple routes and consequences of drug use, while the social constructionist view is more appropriate to explain the experience of Taiwanese drug-using offenders. Overall, U.S. drug-using offenders reported earlier drug and criminal involvement, experienced more prior arrests, and committed more non-drug-related crimes. Family problems were more prevalent among U.S. drug-using offenders than Taiwanese drug-using offenders. Drug-using offenders in the U.S. also reported using a variety of different drugs and participating in multiple treatment programs. The major agents supplying illicit drugs were known dealers, and friends or acquaintances of U.S. and Taiwanese drug-using offenders, respectively. The article concludes that to effectively eliminate the problem of drug misuse, the Taiwanese government should focus on treatment instead of imprisonment, while the U.S. should target troubled teens and families.     

Cigars-for-blunts: choice of tobacco products by blunt smokers

An important part of blunt (marijuana in a cigar shell) smoking is the ritual of the preparation process and the selection of tobacco product for the blunt. This article explores reasons for selection from the different tobacco products available in the legal commercial market. Based upon three years of ethnographic research with 92 focal subjects, the analysis focuses upon the practical, subcultural, and symbolic reasons that blunt smokers give for choosing tobacco products (cigars for blunts-CFBs) employed in the blunt preparation process. The blunt ritual also functions within the marijuana subculture to differentiate blunt smokers from joints/pipes smokers. This analysis explores the reasons users give for selecting among the most popular inexpensive cigar brands (Dutch Masters, Phillies Blunts, and Backwoods) all owned and marketed by a single cigar conglomerate. Blunt chasing--the smoking of a cigarillo or cigar following a blunt--is an emergent phenomenon that further expands the market for tobacco products among blunt smokers. Recently, many different flavors have been added to these tobacco products in order to attract young and minority blunt consumers.     

Defining Drug Use: A Model for the Integration of Measures Through the Census Tract

The nature and severity of drug use has been measured both directly and indirectly by various studies employing different indicators, although the majority of studies still tend to use single measures of drug use. The need to employ multiple measures in examining drug abuse is constrained by the fact that available data may have been collected through diverse methodologies and measured on different levels or units. The purpose of this study was to develop and test in Philadelphia a model using qualitatively different types of data integrated by the common geographic unit of a census tract. The types of data used included: archival data, key informant data, and survey data. Using this approach the paper examines the relationships of drug use measures to each other, to the social environment, and to drug market factors. Major findings of the analysis indicate that there are several independent measures of drug use as reflected in five composite indicators which differentiate behavioral activities or consequences of drug use. Moreover, heroin use indicators exhibit relationships with social-environmental characteristics and drug market factors which are different from those existing with amphetamine or synthetic drug use.     

The Comparability of Drug Use Rating Scales

College students (N = 161) were asked via a self-administered questionnaire about their frequency of drug use, duration of drug use, and sale of drugs to others for six categories of illicit psychoactive drugs. These items were combined to yield four indices of illicit drug involvement: frequency of marijuana use, total number of illicit drugs used, a Guttman scale of dichotomous items representing use vs nonuse in the six categories, and a summative index based on three related dimensions of drug involvement. Results indicated that all four indices were substantially related, suggesting that researchers can have confidence in the comparability of findings generated in past studies of college drug use using different drug-rating scales.     

Psychiatric and Physiological Reactions Produced by Over-the-Counter Medications

Abstract

Injecting practices of illicit drug users in San Antonio, Texas, were studied by means of informal field interviews and participant observation. The methods injection drug users (IDUs) employed to obtain drugs seemed to affect their HIV risk behaviors. Many of the methods involve reciprocal exchanges between a person who has drugs and a person who wants drugs. The exchanges frequently occur in the context of asymmetrical social interactions. The person with the drugs usually occupies the dominant role in the interaction and determines the needle hygiene for both parties. Analysis of the decision-making process of IDUs indicates that the party in the dominant role may choose not to disinfect a syringe for a variety of reasons. An understanding of the subcultural rules that govern these interactions may provide valuable clues to researchers or educators who are designing interventions aimed at reducing HIV risk behaviors among IDUs. This research suggests that for IDUs in subordinate roles, education alone may be insufficient to produce behavior changes necessary to eliminate risk of HIV infection.     

A Comparison of Drug use and Dependence Between Blunt Smokers and Other Cannabis Users

Ethnographic studies have suggested that blunt smokers represent a subculture of cannabis users whose drug use is moderated by social norms. The objective of this study was to compare rates of cannabis dependence/abuse and nicotine dependence between blunt and other cannabis smokers. The sample included adolescents and young adults (n = 4348) who reported some form of past-month cannabis use in the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Compared to smokers who never used blunts, blunt smokers had significantly greater odds of being dependent on cannabis and tobacco. Associations with cannabis dependence/abuse remained statistically significant with adjustment for smoking frequency and demographic characteristics. These findings highlight the need for differentiating types of cannabis users in epidemiologic studies. The study's limitations are noted.     

Model for Quantifying the Drug Involvement of Medical Students

We have applied a two-parameter normal item-response model to analyze data on “drugs ever used” by freshman medical students, then used the result to predict their subsequent drug use patterns over the first 18 months of medical school. Our results provide strong evidence for the existence of a single latent dimension of “drug involvement,” and they demonstrate that a student's initial position on this dimension predicts subsequent drug use well. The model applies to male and female students equally well, suggesting the dimension is not sex specific. Students' drug use is cumulative in the sense that an individual tends to add new drugs to all previous drugs, rather than “graduating” from a previous to a new drug, as he/she becomes more “drug involved.” Greater “drug involvement” is also associated with more frequent use of most drug categories.