A variable is generally considered a mediator if it carries the influence of a given independent variable to a given dependent variable . Mediation is often assessed by how much the independent variable affects the mediator, and how much the mediator affects the dependent variable, and whether the effect of the independent variable on the dependent…
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Hierarchically organized data are commonplace in educational settings and in policy research
Outcomes before and after the policy is implemented are compared between the study group and the comparison group, which allows the investigator to account for whether a general secular trend was influencing both groups. I compared high school students’ marijuana use trends in the City of Los Angeles to trends in the cities that never…
Cannabis dispensed to adults has been shown to eventually get into the hands of adolescents
Adolescence is a time when community context becomes an increasingly important developmental influence . The communities where young people live shape their substance use perceptions and behaviors by how the environment encourages or prevents substance use, e.g., via the attitudes of their parents and peers or the availability of drugs and alcohol in their neighborhood.…
Local contexts took on a greater meaning with the transition to a retail model for marijuana access
Consequently, since medical marijuana was legalized in California in 1996 a patchwork of local legislation has developed where regulations governing marijuana differ from one local jurisdiction to the next. These local regulations include hundreds of medical marijuana dispensary bans enacted by cities in California, some of which have been in place for over a decade…
Marijuana is the most widely used illicit substance worldwide
After a brief detour through the harm reduction movement in the late 1980s and 1990s, I trace the rise of the anti-prohibitionist branch and how it relates to the two earlier branches of drug policy reform. I close the chapter with a brief description of the current state of the movement and the chief areas…
There is a growing body of research identifying links between tobacco and marijuana use
Interventions for marijuana use among young people should assess tobacco use and urges to use during treatment and focus on finding healthier substitutes than cigarettes to cope with urges. This study had limitations due to its cross-sectional design resulting in inability to make causal inferences about tobacco and marijuana expectancies. Prospective studies are needed. Second,…
BDI and HAM-D scores were log-transformed to adhere to linear regression assumptions
The youth were monitored with supervised urine and breath samples every 3-4 days for 28 days. If all toxicology tests were negative, the youth was scheduled for psychological evaluation and imaging. These sessions included a brief questionnaire and interview , neuropsychological evaluation, hair sample toxicology to confirm the urine toxicology results, and magnetic resonance imaging…
The primary structure involved in executive functions and impulse control is one of the last cortical structures to mature
Effect sizes are presented as partial eta-squared , and interpretations of statistical significance were made if p<0.05. We used Pearson correlations to examine associations between risk-taking, demographic, and neuropsychological variables. As an exploratory analysis, we performed hierarchical multiple regressions to examine whether BART performance predicted past 18-month substance use, as described below. Distributions of substance…
Human laboratory studies have found that withdrawal symptoms are more severe in dual users
The amount of water on a Teflon surface is roughly three times larger at 70% RH compared to 50% RH, 504 apparently influencing the uptake and subsequent release of HONO from that surface. While exposed Teflon surfaces are rare indoors, carpets and upholstery are commonly treated with perfluorocarbon surfactants. Absent the influences of oxidative aging…
Water on indoor surfaces is expected to contain aldehydes in addition to amines and amino acids
This feature likely reduces the influence of amine chemistry indoors. For example, trimethylamine, methylamine, triethylamine, diethylamine, ethylamine, and ethanolamine each react with nitric acid to form aminium nitrate particles, and the dissociation constants of diethyl- and triethylammonium nitrate were found to be similar to that of ammonium nitrate. Since the indoor concentration of NH3 tends…