Consumption Of Legal Drugs Research Articles

Cops and drugs: Illicit drug abuse by police personnel

Aim: Patterns and prevalence of psychoactive drug use are unique in the professions and vary by profession as well as by type of practice (e.g., private/public), gender, and career stage. In this study, we attempt to summarise the results of research over the past decades on the use of illegal substances by law enforcement officers.Methodology: A literature search was performed in PubMed, HeinOnline, GoogleScholar and other relavant database (such as US Department of Justice) from their inception through April 2022.Findings: In total, 26 studies met the search criteria. Research data clearly indicates that, in addition to alcohol and smoking, the use of illegal drugs is also prevalent among police officers. Our review shows that the prevalence of illcit drug use ranges widely (0,22% – 21,6%). Results suggest that estimates of the prevalence of illegal substance abuse by police are influenced by a number of factors, such as: research methodology. deliberate distortion of data; social differences.Value: Studies on substance abuse by police officers focus on legal drug consumption (alcohol and smoking) and mostly do not address illicit drug use. However, limited results show that, in addition to alcohol consumption and smoking, police officers also use illegal drugs. There are many consequences of drug use by police officers.

An intelligent mind in a healthy body? Predicting health by cognitive ability in a large European sample

Intelligence has been consistently demonstrated to be a predictor of health outcomes. However, the exact mechanisms are subject of debate. Environmental and behavioral risk factors have been suggested to affect the intelligence-health association, but the available literature has mostly focused on children and young adults. Here, we aimed to investigate the intelligence-health association in older adults. We analyzed data from the Study of Health and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a representative longitudinal survey in which participants above 50 years of age (N range = 10,000-30,000+) were interviewed in seven waves from 2004 to 2017. Indicators of physical and mental health (e.g., number of symptoms; self-reported depression) were associated with cognitive function variables (mathematical reasoning, word recall, verbal fluency) which were used as proxy measures for intelligence. Behavioral and environmental risk factors (e.g., legal drug consumption, physical inactivity, work environment) were examined as potential moderator variables for the intelligence-health association. More favorable health outcomes were modestly, but consistently associated with higher cognitive ability across variables (r range = |0.13|-|0.29|). Mixed-model Poisson regression analyses showed a reduction of 11% in self-reported symptom numbers with each unit increase in mathematical reasoning. Environmental and behavioral risk factors exhibited mostly trivial moderating effects on the intelligence-health association. Our findings reveal a positive association of intelligence and health in a representative longitudinal European sample. Environmental and behavioral risk factors offered little explanatory value for this association, suggesting a different underlying mechanism such as a general fitness factor that affects both intelligence and health.

A sport, mint a depresszióval szembeni védőfaktor

A tanulmány a sport és a depresszió összefüggéseit vizsgálja szabadidő- és a versenysportolók körében. A vizsgált faktorokat mérő kérdőívet (Beck-féle Depresszió Kérdőív rövidített változat) összesen 436 fő töltötte ki, ebből 139 szabadidősportoló és 297 versenysportoló volt. Vizsgálatom célja az volt, hogy a felmért mintán feltérképezzem, hogy a sport védő faktorként megjelenik-e a szabadidősporttal foglalkozó fiataloknál, illetve tud-e érvényesülni a sport védő hatása a versenysportolók körében is, a depresszió különböző tüneteivel szemben. Továbbá van-e összefüggés a nem, a végzettség, a foglalkozás és a legális szerek fogyasztása és a depresszió között. A kapott eredményekből látható, hogy a versenysportolók depresszió értéke tendenciájában nagyobb értéket mutat, mint a szabadidősportolóké. Továbbá a 18-20 éveseknél szignifikánsan magasabb depresszió érték tapasztalható, mint a 30 éveseknél és az afölöttieknél. Nemek tekintetében is jelentős eltérés mutatkozott, a nők javára. Az alacsony végzettségűek, valamint a nem teljes állásban foglalkoztatottak több depreszsziós tünetet észlelnek magukon. A legális szerek fogyasztását vizsgálva az alkohol és a depresszió között összefüggést tudtam kimutatni

Progresión y escalonamiento en el consumo de drogas: evidencia para Argentina

El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar, para Argentina, la progresión en el consumo de drogas que se inicia con el consumo de drogas legales y avanza hacia el consumo de marihuana, cocaína y otras drogas ilícitas. Utilizando la ENPreCoSP del 2011, se analiza la relación entre el consumo de alcohol y tabaco y su edad de inicio con el consumo de marihuana incluyendo variables de propensión y acceso. A su vez, se estudia la relación entre el consumo de marihuana y su edad de inicio con el consumo de otras drogas. Los resultados obtenidos van en línea con la teoría de escalonamiento, el consumo de drogas legales y su inicio más temprano tienen una relación positiva con la probabilidad de consumir marihuana, y el consumo de esta última también se relaciona directamente con la probabilidad de consumir otras drogas ilícitas.

Is changing the minimum legal drinking age an effective policy tool?

In year 1991, regional governments in Spain started a period of implementation of a law that rose the minimum legal drinking age from 16 to 18years old. To evaluate the effects of this change on the consumption of legal drugs and its related morbidity outcomes, we construct a regional panel dataset on alcohol consumption and hospital entry registers and compare variation in several measures of prevalence between the treatment group (16-18years old) and the control group (20-22years old). Our findings show important differences by gender. Our main result regarding overall drinking prevalence shows a reduction of -21.37% for the subsample that includes males and females altogether. This effect on drinking is mainly driven by a reduction of -44.43% in mixed drinks and/or liquors drinking prevalence corresponding to the subsample of males. No causal effects regarding overall smoking prevalence and hospitalizations due to alcohol overdose or motor vehicle traffic accidents were found. To our knowledge, this is the first paper providing evidence on gender-based differences to policies aimed at reducing alcohol consumption. Our results have important policy implications for countries currently considering changes in the minimum legal drinking age.

Antecedentes históricos y jurídicos de la prevención del consumo de drogas legales en los estudiantes universitarios

The investigation reveals from the historical study, the need to scientifically deepen in the problematic of the prevention of the consumption of legal drugs in the process of Health Education of the university students, in correspondence with their individual, collective and professional formation. For its study, criteria were established and stages were determined in correspondence with the significant changes and legal categories in Health Education. The conclusive analysis evidences the need to systematize the theoretical and methodological referents that sustain the development of prevention as a content of health education based on the principle of double pedagogical intentionality for the establishment of theoretical relations between the formative curricula, the personological and the pedagogical professionalism, from which the pedagogical professional preventive training emanates and is concretized in a methodology that has its dynamic axis in the preventive workshops with pedagogical professional orientation.

Is Changing the Minimum Legal Drinking Age an Effective Policy Tool?

In year 1991 regional governments in Spain started a period of implementation of a law that rose the Minimum Legal Drinking Age from 16 to 18 years old. This process was fully completed in year 2015. To evaluate the effects of this change on consumption of legal drugs and its related morbidity outcomes, we construct a regional panel dataset on alcohol consumption and hospital entry registers and compare variation in several measures of prevalence between the treatment group (16-18 years old individuals) and the control group (20-22 years old individuals). Our findings show important differences by gender. Firstly, our main result regarding overall drinking prevalence show reductions ranging from -11.57% for the subsample including both genders to -14.31% for the subsample of males. Secondly, effects on males are driven mainly by reductions in beer with alcohol consumption (-8.98%). Thirdly, effects on wine and/or cava drinking prevalence range from -12.62% for the subsample including both genders to -9.65% for the subsample of females. No effects regarding overall smoking prevalence are found. Fourthly, we do not find evidence that these reductions in alcohol consumption are translated into hospitalizations related to alcohol overdose. To our knowledge, this is the first paper providing evidence on gender-based differences to policies aimed at reducing alcohol consumption. Our results have important policy implications for countries currently considering changes in the Minimum Legal Drinking Age.

Anxiolytics and Antidepressants: Problem or Solution?

Mental disorders are serious neuropsychiatric diseases that affect the development of daily life of the person who suffers and during the last decades the number of affected has increased. In these cases, pharmacological treatment is an essential and necessary therapeutic tool. However, problems associated with these treatments, such as addiction, have been described after their use. Interestingly, these pharmacological treatments against mental disorders could improve other types of pathologies, as occurs in the mental illness of addiction. The objective of this work is to analyze the most recent scientific literature in relation to the problem of addiction to legal drugs, mainly anxiolytics and antidepressants, as well as the possible therapeutic use of these for the treatment of addictions. For this, an exhaustive search was carried out in the main scientific databases, selecting the most recent articles that use the keywords that interest us and that are published in the last 5 years. The data points to the great problem of consumption of legal drugs but also to a possible similarity in their mechanism of action between addiction to substances of abuse and mental problems, so that some drugs against mental problems could be used as a pharmacological tool in the addiction to substances.

Sleep Quality during Exam Stress: The Role of Alcohol, Caffeine and Nicotine

Academic exam stress is known to compromise sleep quality and alter drug consumption in university students. Here we evaluated if sleeping problems and changes in legal drug consumption during exam stress are interrelated. We used the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) to survey sleep quality before, during, and after an academic exam period in 150 university students in a longitudinal questionnaire study. Self-reports of alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine consumption were obtained. The Perceived Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-20) was used as a measure of stress. Sleep quality and alcohol consumption significantly decreased, while perceived stress and caffeine consumption significantly increased during the exam period. No significant change in nicotine consumption was observed. In particular, students shortened their time in bed and showed symptoms of insomnia. Mixed model analysis indicated that sex, age, health status, as well as the amounts of alcohol and caffeine consumed had no significant influence on global sleep quality. The amount of nicotine consumed and perceived stress were identified as significant predictors of diminished sleep quality. Nicotine consumption had a small-to-very-small effect on sleep quality; perceived stress had a small-to-moderate effect. In conclusion, diminished sleep quality during exam periods was mainly predicted by perceived stress, while legal drug consumption played a minor role. Exam periods may pose an interesting model for the study of stress-induced sleeping problems and their mechanisms.

Az elterelt fiatalok családi hátterének jellemzői Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg megyében

In the past 10-15 years, the consumption of illegal drugs has increased significantly both in Hungary and in our county. In parallel with the society's getting more and more open, the fulfilment of personal freedom, and the spreading of globalisation and individual culture, the use of drugs has become more and more accessible and acceptable to the young. This study briefly overviews the family background and problems of provincial young people consuming drugs. I have studied 3 problems within this topic: family structure, relations with parents, and family members' drug consumption behaviour. I suppose that family problems are connected with the interviewees' alcohol and other drug consumption. In my research I apply the Euroadad questionnaire. The sample covers 144 interviewees, 76.9% of whom have been "diverted" from jurisdiction. The other respondents have volunteered for the therapy.I have processed the data with the SPSS statistical program package. Having studied the respondents' family structure, I have found no significant difference regarding the co-habitation data for the past 30 days or the past year. The family members' alcohol and drug consumption bears a greater relation to the use of legal drugs than of prohibited ones. The family problems related to parents are connected to the young people's prohibited and legal drug consumption, and fathers play a particularly stressed role. The groups of party drug and amphetamine consumers struggle with more family problems than the groups of marijuana users.

Symbolic valorization in the culture of entertainment

Durkheim argued that a society's central ideals are valorized through a process of emotional transfer that occurs as the excitement of intensive interaction comes to be associated with key symbols. In this article, I argue that a very similar process may occur in contemporary society as people interact with, and become deeply engaged in, the practices of entertainment and consumption. The argument is based upon a single example, routines of early phase legal drug consumption among college students. Legal drug use, like many forms of entertainment and discretionary consumption in contemporary American society, can in some cases be understood as a form of play. Often participants become caught up in their play, so preoccupied with the fictional world of the play that the cognitive and emotional salience of the day-to-day world begins to fade. Here I argue that for some beginning users of alcohol and tobacco, becoming caught up in this way enhances users' convictions about the capacity of the drug to produce strong transformative experiences and thereby valorizes the cultural conception of the drug as a substance that can override the ability of the person to direct his or her own action. I conclude by suggesting that becoming caught up in the fictions of play is a practice that may have relevance for understanding the effects of a broad range of activities that we classify as entertainment and consumption.

Undergraduate students' motivations for the consumption of legal drugs

This qualitative research aimed at identifying conceptions held by undergraduate students regarding the term motivation, and motives leading them to the consumption of legal drugs. Data were collected through a questionnaire with four open questions, applied to 15 students of a public university in the central region of Mexico. In order to perform the data analysis, answers were classified in two categories: a) Undergraduate students' conceptions regarding the term motivation and b) Undergraduate students' conceptions regarding the motives for consumption. Such analysis indicated that students identify two types of motivations: external and internal. The external motivation includes family, mass media and friends; whereas internal motivation includes personal characteristics, need of belonging, curiosity, pleasure and idleness.

Descripción del consumo de drogas lícitas e ilícitas por género a través de la metodología de pares

It is possible that men consume a higher amount of legal and illegal drugs than women. This can be assessed using the peer methodology, that is an adaptation of the privileged access interviewers (PAI) method and allows to identify populations in which there may be a tendency to under state a phenomenon (hidden populations) To compare the consumption of legal and illegal drugs by gender. Drug consumption was assessed using a peer methodology in university students between 18 and 26 years of age. A random sample of 56 women (mean age 21.6 years) and 86 men (mean age 21.5 years), was studied. Women tended to report a higher proportion of tobacco consumption than men. Both genders had a similar consumption behavior of alcohol, total legal drugs, marihuana, cocaine, ecstasies and total illegal drugs. Among subjects that recognized the consumption of legal drugs, men have a higher proportion of illicit drug use and women have a higher proportion of smoking. Men have a higher awareness of the damages caused by drug consumption. The results in these small population sample do not support the hypothesis that men have a higher frequency and proportion of illicit drug consumption.

Hip pain in adolescents: Results of a cross‐sectional study in German pupils and a review of the literature

To determine the prevalence of hip pain (HP) in adolescents in East Germany and to evaluate the potential factors associated with HP. Cross-sectional epidemiological study of a total of 2368 pupils (1137 males, 1231 females; age 14.5+/-0.65, range 13-18 y). Demographic data and information on sports activity and consumption of soft legal drugs were obtained using a questionnaire. Physical examination was carried out by school doctors. Odds ratio (OR [95% confidence interval]) was calculated for common factors associated with HP. The prevalence of adolescents suffering from HP was 6.5% (n=151). Pain episodes were reported as occasional in 3.0%. A total of 69 subjects (2.9%) suffered from permanent pain during physical activity. Permanent pain when at rest was reported in 0.5% (n=12). Female subjects, students attending high school, smoking adolescents and adolescents with a consumption of alcoholic beverages had a significantly higher prevalence of HP. HP was associated with a significantly higher prevalence of low back pain and knee pain. The prevalence of pathological findings of the hip was 2.5% (n=60). Factors significantly associated with HP were: female gender (1.9-fold), attending high school (2.1-fold) and consumption of tobacco (1.6-fold). HP in adolescents seems to be mostly caused by functional disorders. There is a possible association between HP and psychological stress or consumption of legal drugs. Prophylactic measures are necessary in this age group in future.

Legal drug use in a general population: Association with gender, morbidity, health care utilization, and lifestyle characteristics

Legal drug use was assessed by a questionnaire to 15,986 men and women participating in the Finnmark Health Survey 1987–1988. Logistic regression analysis was used to quantify the relationships between legal drug use and gender, morbidity, utilization of health services, and lifestyle and sociodemographic characteristics. Drug use was higher in women than men, but the gender difference decreased with age. Women used more drug groups than men, and the gender difference increased with number of drugs used. Participating in outdoor activities was associated with lower use of drugs in both men and women. The data support the notion that alcohol use plays a more important role in the prediction of drug use in men compared with women. A significant gender difference in the consumption of legal drugs do persist after adjusting for co-morbidity and utilization of health services. Overall, this analysis shows that drug use depends on need (morbidity), followed by use of health services and lifestyle. Sociodemographic variables were shown to have minor influence.

Educational career and substance use in adolescence

In modern, competitive societies the social organisation of «youth» implies both the chance and risk of (intergenerational) vertical social mobility. It is suggested that it is precisely this basic feature that to a considerable extent gives rise to substance use. In particular the paper aims at analysing the impact of the risk of educational downward mobility as well as some related characteristics. Using LISREL VI, it is shown that this type of educational career pattern, actual or anticipated, substantially contributes to the consumption of legal drugs. Weight is given to an extended analysis of the mode of action involved in the relationship between substance use and the career pattern as well as associated characteristics, respectively. As far as home is concerned, social conflict and associated feelings on the side of the adolescents turn out to be a major ‘mechanism’ through which the observable impact of educational downward mobility can be traced back. Integration into both the cultural system of «legalized» drug use and subcultural contexts as provided by social cliques is a further condition that strongly influences substance use among adolescents.

Drug knowledge (prescription, over-the-counter, social): young adult consumers at risk?

This article reports the results of a survey testing the knowledge that 561 young adults have regarding the use and effects of various over-the-counter, prescription, and social (alcohol, nicotine, caffeine) drug products. The sample group as a whole, correctly answered, on the average, 71 percent of the questions on the Drug Knowledge Test, with women demonstrating somewhat greater knowledge. Four of the content areas—alcohol, contraceptives, O-T-C drugs, and general drug information were distributed equally among the high, moderate, and low knowledge categories. None of the questions dealing with nicotine were in the low knowledge grouping. The misinformation in certain areas that respondents demonstrated led to the conclusion that they were at risk and therefore, Caveat emptor (Let the buyer beware), as a viable perspective regarding the purchase and consumption of legal drugs was untenable. Since the Drug Knowledge Test elicited much student discussion and was readily modifiable, it was proposed that this instrument would be useful in drug and health education programs. Health educators were precautioned not to overlook problems associated with legal drugs in the current climate of the “war” on illicit drugs.