National Institute Of Drug Abuse Research Articles

Alcohol Availability and Crime: Evidence from Census Tract Data

1. Introduction This article uses census tract data from the city of Detroit and a reduced-form crime equation to investigate the effects of alcohol availability on crime. A fact of urban life in the United States is high crime rates, rates that differ across neighborhoods in cities and easy availability of alcohol. A disproportionately large number of crimes are committed by people who have just consumed alcohol (Cook and Moore 1993a). The homicide rate among youths in poor inner cities, where alcohol consumption tends to be high, is four times as high as the national average among all youths (FBI 1996). Parker (1993) reports that, all things equal, homicides are higher in high alcohol consumption neighborhoods than in low alcohol consumption neighborhoods. According to the National Institute of Criminal Justice statistics, 40% of all violent crime victimization, 40% of all fatal motor vehicle accidents, and 67% of all domestic violence in 1995 were alcohol related. In addition, 40% of all violent offenders in jail reported using alcohol just before committing the crime (Greenfeld 1998). Similarly, a disproportionately large share of crimes in the United Kingdom occurs in or near pubs during peak hours of operation (Hutchinson, Henderson, and Davis 1995). Besides being perpetrators, a large number of victims of crime had used alcohol at the time of their victimization. In this study, I use the term commission of crime more broadly to include perpetrators as well as the victims of crime. In spite of these statistics, easy availability of alcohol and its use continue to be part of the American culture. A Harris poll reports that 38% of adult males think they drink too much but will not change their behavior and 28% of high school students think that adults should be able to drink all the alcohol they want (FBI 1996). However, a recent study conducted by the University of Michigan for the National Institute of Drug Abuse found that over 80% of Americans disapprove of youth drinking (University of Michigan Institute for Social Research 1998). In spite of these statistics linking alcohol to crime, with the exception of the relationship between alcohol control policy and drunk driving, economists have not investigated the effects of alcohol availability on crime rates generally. Given the high correlation between alcohol availability and crime, Dilulio (1995) suggests using zoning laws to decrease alcohol availability as a means of decreasing crime. It is not clear whether there is a causal relationship between alcohol availability and crime rates. Does alcohol availability increase crime? If increased alcohol availability leads to increased crime, what is the mechanism through which alcohol availability affects crime? While answers to these questions may be important for policy formulation and implementation, my concern is with the investigation of the effects of alcohol availability on crime rates. If alcohol availability increases crime rates, it may be possible to formulate alcohol control policies that also depress crime. While there are few theoretical models that link alcohol availability to specific crimes, empirical studies of the effects of geographical availability of alcohol on crime rates generally are few and far between in the economics literature. More empirical studies could help establish the link that has been made between alcohol control policies and crime. Results of studies investigating the connection between alcohol availability and crime have implications for further research and policy. For example, if alcohol availability increases crime rates, then decreasing alcohol availability may decrease crime and improve social welfare. If there is a positive link between alcohol availability and crime rates, then alcohol availability should be included in the supply of offense equation as an added explanatory variable. There is, therefore, the need to better understand the relationship between the geographical availability of alcohol and crime rates in the economics of crime literature. …

Intervención psicológica en conductas adictivas

Objectivethe psychological intervention in addictive behaviours must of be adjusted the same as is accomplished in other disciplines, to the techniques utilization and «treatment packages» that they may have demonstrated their usefulness in said area. It is part of the supposed of the fact that any psychological intervention does nothas why be justified and, by so much, it does notexist no reason to apply to the patient treatments or technical that they may not have been validated Methodthere were reviewed the different typesof psychological treatments that at present have empirical support and that they are recommended by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the Psychology Society Clinic (Division 12 of the American Psychological Association). Were reviewed also some treatments with format of short psychological intervention recommended by theCenter for Substance Abuse Treatment Resultsin the treatment of addictive behaviours have been used different psychological intervention approaches, nevertheless, only the court therapies cognitivo-conductual possess empirical validity inthis intervention area. On the other hand, some interventions in short therapy format can be useful in the treatment Discussionit is concluded that the psychological treatment is a nuclear aspect in the treatment ofthe addiction to drugs and, that in base to the information that is had at present and unless someexceptions, the psychological interventions in addictive behaviours more recommendable are foundwithin framework of the cognitive-behaviour therapy

Gender differences in addiction and recovery.

THE DIFFERENT WAYS in which drug addiction is affected by gender was the theme of a daylong symposium held at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, January 29, 2000 as part of their Campus on the Mall continuing education program. The conference, entitled, “Sex, Science, and Drugs: Gender Differences in Addiction and Recovery,” brought together some of the top thinkers in the addiction field—before a mixed audience of laypersons and research scientists. Cosponsored by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the Society for Women’s Health Research, the panels raised many questions, offered some potential answers, and, finally, stated that men and women turn to drugs in gender-specific ways and for gender-specific reasons.

A Model Program for Bringing Neuroscience to Children: An Informal Neuroscience Education Program Bridges a Gap

Growing concern about science literacy in the United States has led to the active involvement of scientists in educational reform. Yet scientists have often found it difficult to communicate content knowledge in an effective manner to both teachers and children. This model project, funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, has been aimed at increasing the awareness and understanding of neuroscience among elementary school children to indirectly decrease drug use and unhealthy behaviors. The project created a partnership between neuroscientists, health professionals, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Omaha, Nebraska, to present hands-on activities about basic and applied aspects of the nervous system in a “reverse” science fair setting. Neuroscientists and health professionals created hands-on, interactive exhibits that the children judged. This particular study examined the perceptions of neuroscientists and allied health professionals regarding their ability to communicate neuroscience knowledge to school-age children and their understanding of the knowledge and interest of children about neuroscience in relation to children’s self-reports of knowledge and interest in neuroscience. Participation in a fair significantly raised professionals’ perceptions of their ability to communicate science content to fourth- and sixth-grade children. There was considerable discrepancy between the professionals’ assessment of what children know, and want to know, about neuroscience, and what the children do know and want to know about the nervous system. After observing children engaging in neuroscience activities, many presenters rated children’s interest levels in neuroscience and in their projects considerably higher than before. Presenting neuroscience concepts to the children was thus less difficult than the professionals had perceived prior to the fair. The reverse science fair approach is one way to foster the involvement of neuroscientists and health professionals in increasing knowledge transfer, and neuroscience literacy, in the formative childhood years.

A Time-Series Analysis of Crime, Deterrence, and Drug Abuse in New York City

Since Gary S. Becker's (1968) groundbreaking work on the economics of crime, economists have expanded upon both the theory and the empirical analysis of crime (e.g., Isaac Ehrlich, 1973; M. K. Block and J. M. Heineke, 1975; Ehrlich, 1975; Ann Dryden Witte, 1980). According to the standard theoretical framework, optimizing individuals engage in criminal activities depending upon the expected payoffs of the criminal activity, the return to legal labormarket activity, tastes, and the costs of criminal activity, such as those associated with apprehension, conviction, and punishment. Excellent reviews of the literature appear in Daniel Nagin (1978), Sharon Long and Witte (1981), Richard Freeman (1983), and Theodore G. Chiricos (1987). While some studies reported evidence that increases in criminal-justice sanctions reduce criminal activity (Ehrlich, 1975; Witte, 1980; Stephen K. Layson, 1985; Jeffrey Grogger, 1991; Steven D. Levitt, 1997), others found either a weak relationship, or none at all between the two (Samuel L. Myers, Jr., 1983; James Peery Cover and Paul D. Thistle, 1988; Christopher Cornwell and William N. Trumbull, 1994). Contradictory results can be explained, at least in part, by the empirical problems inherent in crime research, the most significant being the simultaneity between crime and criminal-justice sanctions.' Thus, after 30 years of empirical research there is no consensus on the impact of police and arrests on criminal activity. The purpose of this study is to provide new, and potentially more refined, evidence on the crime-deterrence relationship using a unique data set, which consists of monthly observations in New York City for nearly 30 years. This is the only data set of its kind, based on highfrequency observations of five different crimes, the corresponding arrests, the size of the police force, and a poverty indicator, spanning decades of experience in one city.2 Consequently, this is the first paper that employs high-frequency time series of individual crime categories to circumvent many problems found in studies that employ cross-sectional or low-frequency (e.g., annual) time-series data sets. We also use recent advances in time-series econometrics to test and correct for problems that may have contaminated the results of previous time-series analyses of crime. We find robust evidence for the deterrent effects of arrests and police on most categories of serious felony offenses. Another unique feature of the study is the addition of drug-use proxies. In the 1980's and into 1990 the media focused much attention on drug abuse, crime control, and the criminaljustice system. It had been claimed that in* Corman: Department of Economics, Rider University 2083 Lawrenceville Road, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648, and National Bureau of Economic Research; Mocan: Department of Economics, University of Colorado-Denver, Campus Box 181, P.O. Box 173364, Denver, CO 80217, and National Bureau of Economic Research. This research is supported by a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse to the National Bureau of Economic Research (Grant No. 1-R03-DA06764). An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1996 American Economic Association Meetings in San Francisco, CA. Ofira Schwartz, Keith Amadio, Joseph Bucs, and Ronald Teodoro helped in data collection. Timothy Potter, Jennifer Giellis, Erdal Tekin, Melissa Anderson, Paul Niemann, and Danny Rees provided assistance in data analysis. John Lott, Jody Overland, and especially Michael Grossman provided very valuable suggestions. We thank two anonymous referees for helpful comments. Any opinions expressed here are those of the authors, and should not be assumed to be those of the granting agency, Rider University, University of ColoradoDenver, or NBER. ' Franklin Fisher and Daniel Nagin's (1978) article describing the problem is a classic in the field. Recent literature suggests several new approaches to the simultaneity problem: using careful empirical analyses of individual rather than aggregate data (Grogger, 1991; Helen Tauchen et al., 1994), and finding better exogenous instruments for identification (Levitt, 1996, 1997). 2 Among the advantages of using just one city is the fact that there is one unit defining and collecting crime and deterrence data, which prevents inconsistencies across observations.

Rapid assessment: really useful knowledge or an argument for bad science?

The methodology of Rapid Assessment and Response is attracting increasing attention within the addictions field from a range of influential bodies, including the World Health Organization and the National Institute of Drug Abuse. At the heart of the rapid assessment approach are two assumptions: first, that answers to difficult questions on sensitive topics can be gathered quickly; and second, that some knowledge is better than no knowledge in a situation of impending public health crisis (McKeganey, 1999). Rapid Assessment and Response (RAR) is self-avowedly impressionistic: its proponents recognise that they are not in the business of conducting deep and searching enquiries that seek to understand every conceivable nuance of a social phenomenon. What is aimed for in rapid assessment is to accumulate just enough information to be able to assess whether a particular problem is occurring and how this may be resolved. For example, rapid assessment has been used in a range of developing countries to assess the local prevalence of HIV, and injecting drug use, and to identify the kinds of interventions that may be needed to reduce further HIV spread. Where traditional research in the behavioural sciences may take many months to complete, rapid assessment aims to produce ‘really useful knowledge’ in a matter of weeks. The methods of rapid assessment are not in themselves any different to that which might be applied in social research. The rapid assessor may conduct interviews or focus groups, review existing documentary data, conduct surveys or carry out limited observation. The difference between more traditionally-oriented research and rapid assessment is not in the particulars of the methods used but in the way in which such methods are employed. Where a more traditionally-oriented research project may involve interviews with between 50 and 100 individuals, rapid assessment may seek to get by with interviewing five or 10 key individuals. Similarly, where a more traditionally structured observational study may entail many months of fieldwork, a RAR * Fax: +44-141-330-2820.

Sexual and drug use behaviors among female crack users: a multi-site sample

The purpose of this paper was to compare female crack users who report exchanging sex for drugs and/or money with female crack users who did not report exchanging sex for drugs and/or money. A multi-site sample of ( n=4667) female crack users who participated in the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) AIDS Cooperative Agreement Project from 20 sites were interviewed. Statistical analysis compared two groups on selected variables of interest: women crack users who reported exchanging sex for drugs and/or money ( n=2658) and women crack users who did not report exchanging sex ( n=2009). Results indicated that both groups of women had frequent unprotected sex. However, women who exchanged sex had more sexual partners, had sex more often, used drugs before and during sex more often, and had a higher rate of STDs than women who did not exchange sex. In addition, African-American women, homeless women, and women who reported past substance abuse treatment were about twice as likely to exchange sex. Regional differences were also examined.

HIV risk behavior and drug use among heterosexual male crack users by prostitution involvement

Crack and prostitution, or sex exchange, have been linked to the heterosexual spread of HIV (e.g. Inciardi 1993, 1995). Previous studies have found that among female crack users there are subgroups who do and do not become involved in prostitution (e.g. Logan, Farabee & Leukefeld 1998; Logan & Leukefeld 1998). However, there has been little focus in the literature on subgroups of male heterosexual crack users who are or are not involved in prostitution. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in male heterosexual crack users who reported no involvement in prostitution as clients (n = 4,208), males who reported involvement in prostitution as clients but not in the month preceding the interview (n = 2,774), and males who reported involvement in prostitution as clients the month preceding the interview (n = 2,283) from a multi-site sample of male crack users who participated in the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) AIDS Cooperative Agreement Project from 20 sites across the nation. Results of the logistic regression indicated that having an STD three or more times and using drugs during sex were associated with ever being involved in prostitution as clients, while using drugs during sex and having 5 or more sexual partners the month preceding the interview were significantly associated with being involved in prostitution as clients at the time of the interview. Implications for interventions are discussed.

Medical Marijuana: Tribulations and Trials

Widespread use of smoked marijuana in the San Francisco Bay Area as a treatment for HIV-related anorexia and weight loss, as well as nausea related to prescribed therapy, prompted the design of a clinical trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of this controlled substance. The Community Consortium—the Bay Area's community-based HIV clinical trials organization—designed a first pilot evaluation of smoked marijuana compared to oral tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, synthesized as dronabinol or Marinol) in 1993. A legal source of marijuana could not be identified. Two subsequent applications to the National Institutes of Health were submitted in 1996 and 1997. During the intervening period, increasing numbers of people with HIV infection were obtaining marijuana for “medicinal use” from local Cannabis Buyer's Clubs. In November 1996, California voters endorsed the medical use of marijuana by approving Proposition 215. The federal government's attempt to oppose the voters' mandate led to public outrage. Organized medicine demanded more studies into marijuana's potential use as medicine. The consortium's 1997 proposal to evaluate the potential interaction between THC and widely-prescribed protease inhibitors was positively received. Funding and study-required marijuana cigarettes have been obtained from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and the first subjects are being enrolled in the trial. When politically sensitive research proposals include sound science, they can prevail if investigators are willing to persist.

Effectiveness of HIV Interventions Among Crack Users

SUMMARY This study is one of the first to concentrate upon chronic crack users in determining the effectiveness of HIV interventions in changing risk behaviors. A population of 185 crack users were randomized into two arms of an experimental design. One received a standard intervention, designed by the National Institute of Drug Abuse and a committee of grantees, and the other arm received a locally designed innovative intervention. Equivalent characteristics in both groups confirmed the effectiveness of randomization. Base line and follow-up measures are compared for both groups indicating significant behavioral changes for each of the two groups. Also, significant differences are noted between the standard and innovative interventions for a specific subgroup. The statistical tests of group differences employing composite variables included a multiplicative interaction term in the regression model. This study suggests the increasing need to develop, implement and evaluate intervention models targeted to ...

Use of the USDT flow immunosensor for quantitation of benzoylecgonine in urine

The flow immunosensor works on a principle somewhat distinct from other immunoassay systems in that it performs a displacement immunoassay. Antibody-coated matrices are saturated with fluorescently labeled benzoylecgonine (BE), which is released and measured in the presence of BE-containing urine and measured downstream from the matrix. The same antibody matrix can be used for many samples. A flow immunosensor instrument, built by US Drug Testing, Inc., has recently received ‘Premarket Notification’ (510(K)) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to screen urine for the presence of the cocaine metabolite BE. The performance of the flow immunosensor for screening BE in urine was validated by comparison with results of a blind study using the Syva EMIT, the Abbott TDx and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). Potentially interfering drugs were also spiked into urine and evaluated using the flow immunosensor. While the FDA approval is for determining whether the BE concentration is above or below the 300 μg/l cutoff recommended by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, we have also shown that the flow immunosensor can be adapted to produce quantitative determinations of the amount of BE in the urine samples. The reliability of the quantitation was confirmed by testing 100 urine samples containing unknown amounts of BE using the flow immunosensor, GC-MS and the Abbott TDx system. Comparison of quantitative data obtained using the immunosensor and GC-MS showed a 97% correlation, compared with a much lower value for data from the TDx and GC-MS.

Rape is a major public health issue.

This article discusses sexual violence as a major public health issue. and sexual assault are major forms of violence affecting women but often not included in mens categorization of violence. For the first time a redesigned National Crime Survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in August 1995 asked directly about rape. Twice as much sexual violence was reported in womens lives as had been previously known. The study Rape in America by the Crime Victim Research and Treatment Center of the Medical University of South Carolina examined the incidence and prevalence. This was funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse. Researchers found that US women aged over 18 years experienced 618000 acts of forced vaginal anal oral or digital/foreign object penetration. As to prevalence at least 12.1 million adult women have been victims of at least one forcible rape; 61% of rapes happened before the victim was 18 years old; and 29% before the victim was 11. They also develop higher rates of drug and alcohol consumption to self-medicate their psychological trauma leading to a greater likelihood of having drug and alcohol-related problems. Intravenous drug use itself puts users at risk for contracting HIV/AIDS. The American Medical Association Guidelines for Medical Settings Regarding Violence Against Women recommend that health care professionals should receive training on risk factors indicators prevalence and sequelae of violence including how to take a violence history. Finally treatment for both rape victims and offenders is also a public health issue.

Urine drug screens for drug abuse in pregnancy: Problems and pitfalls

U se of illicit substances is common in the United States. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, 70% to 90% of Americans 15-40 years of age have used mood-altering chemicals, and approximately half of these are women of reproductive age.1 Cocaine use in particular has increased dramatically, with a recent estimate that 20 million Americans have tried the drug at least once and that 4-6 million use it regularly. Drug use has escalated in all age groups, with the largest increase in those 12-25 years of age. The National Institute of Drug Abuse has also estimated that the frequency of cocaine use in pregnant women approaches 10%, with the rate significantly higher in urban areas such as New York City and Boston. Substantial adverse perinatal outcomes, including prematurity, low birth weight, abruptio placenta, congenital malformation, and fetal death, are reported to be associated with cocaine and other illicit substances. 2-5 Clearly, in addition to exposure to illicit psychoactive substances, multiple other factors are involved with increased risk for problems of growth and development in these children. 6 These include the concomitant use of tobacco and alcohol, poverty, nutritional deficits, a lack of nurturing and supportive parenting, and a lack of adequate medical care. Investigations conducted at large teaching hospitals report rates of substance abuse to be from 10% to 17% in pregnant women. 7 Drug abuse patterns, however, vary based on geographic locations as well as patient populations. The identification of illicit drug use during pregnancy has escalated in © 1994 by The Jacobs Institute of Women's Health 1049-3867/94/$7.00

The 'anatomy' of research funding of mental illness and addictive disorders.

To assess the level and sources of research funding for mental illness and substance abuse fields, we undertook a systematic survey of public and private funding entities. Applying standard definitions, we found that research support in these fields totaled approximately $859 million in fiscal 1988. This level of research support for mental illness and substance abuse is extremely limited and disproportionate to the overall costs to society by these disorders. Mental disorders and substance abuse accounted for $66.8 billion in health care costs in 1988; in the same year, research on these disorders represented only 4.7% of all health research support nationwide. The three institutes of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA) (namely, the National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], the National Institute of Drug Abuse [NIDA], and the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse [NIAAA]) support 64% of all mental illness and substance abuse research; other federal agencies add little more than 7.5%, with the Department of Veterans Affairs the largest at 2%. The pharmaceutical and hospital industries account for another 17% of all support; state funding is 8%, which is particularly surprising in light of the states responsibility for the chronically mentally ill. While there has been recent significant growth in the research budgets of the NIMH, the NIDA, and the NIAAA, other sectors have not grown commensurately, leaving the field vulnerable to the funding vicissitudes of these institutes. Greater coalition building and advocacy are necessary to expand the breadth and depth of research resources for the field.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Substance Abuse

The addiction field is rapidly expanding. Postresidency addiction fellowships for physicians have grown to approximately 65 programs nationally, and the budgets of the National Institute of Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse have been markedly increased. The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in concert with the American Psychiatric Association has expressed an intent to develop added qualifications in addiction psychiatry. Better training will lead to an increase in the number of physicians interested in addictive disorders and may help solve the significant manpower shortages that hamper the implementation and availability of treatment programs. This year's review will focus on advances in substance abuse epidemiology, risk factors and markers, and psychopharmacologic treatment approaches. Epidemiologic studies highlight the magnitude of addiction problems and suggest possible causes of changes in rates within and across cultures. A well-designed international epidemiologic study of alcoholism by Helzer et al,¹

Supervisor Training in Employee Assistance Programs:

The role of the supervisor in the constructive confrontation process has been established as central to employee assistance programs (EAPs) (Googins and Kurtz, 1980; Hoffman and Roman, 1984; Roman and Blum, 1988). Supervisors are in a unique position to identify troubled employees and intervene in a meaningful way. As a result, EMS have implemented supervisor training programs in order to enhance supervisors' skills in performing these tasks. These training programs have been implemented and accepted in virtually all EAPs (Trice and Belasco, 1968; Trice and Roman; 1972). Despite the general acceptance of supervisors and supervisor training as critical to the E M mission, there has been very little research in this area by E M professionals. Thus, with only a few notable exceptions (Googins and Kurtz, 1980; Hoffman and Roman, 1984; Trice and Beyer, 1981), supervisor training remains relatively unexamined despite its importance to the EAP field. This paper will present data from the first phase of a study project funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse to study the effectiveness of supervisor training. In this first phase a national telephone survey of EMS was conducted to obtain an accurate picture of the extent and nature of supervisor training practices within EAPs. On the basis of these survey data, an analysis of current supervisor training practices will be presented with particular emphasis placed on recent changes in the EAP and training environments. Finally, a number of recommendations are offered to enhance the quality of current training programs and help in designing new programs to meet the changing needs of EAPs.

Are There Multiple Paths to Delinquency?

Criminological research and theory generally proceed with the orientation, if not the assumption, that delinquency is the result of some series of events common to all delinquents. While some attention has been given to the concepts of typologies, multiple pathways, and different developmental sequences leading to different outcomes, rarely have these concepts been pursued empirically. This paper uses * This research was supported by grants from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice (Grant No. 86-JN-CX-0006) and the National Institute of Drug Abuse (Grant No. RO-DA-05183). Points of view or opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of these agencies. We are indebted to Linda P. Cunningham, Meg Dyer, Amanda Elliott, Linda K. Kuhn, Judy Armstrong Laurie, Deantha Ashby Menon,-Judy D. Perry, and Silvia Portillo, the dedicated research staff, without whom the data could never have been collected, nor the data so meticulously prepared for analysis. ** David Huizinga is a Research Associate at the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado. Over the past several years, he has been involved in research on social problems and currently is Co-principle Investigator of the National Youth Survey and Principle Investigator of the Denver Youth Survey, which are longitudinal studies of the causes and correlates of delinquency, drug use, and other social problems. Recent publications have appeared in Criminology,Justice Quarterly,Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Social Science Research. He also recently co-authored Multiple Problem Youth (with Delbert Elliott and Scott Menard). Finn-aage Esbensen is a Research Associate at the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado. He is currently an Investigator on the Denver Youth Survey, a longitudinal survey on the causes and correlates of delinquency, drug use, and other social problems. Recent publications have appeared injustice Quarterly, Quality and Quantity, and the American Journal of Police. He recently co-authored Criminology: Explaining Crime and Its Context (with Stephen E. Brown and Gilbert Geis). Anne Wylie Weiher is a Research Associate at the Institute of Behavioral Science at the University of Colorado. She is currently involved in a longitudinal research project examining the causes and correlates of delinquency, drug use, and other social problems. Prior research focused on psychological aspects of cancer. Recent publications have appeared in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology and Medical Anthropology.

The Medical Review Officer and Workplace Drug Testing

Rational drug-testing programs attempt to balance the need for accuracy of the process with the need to preserve the rights and dignity of the people being tested. U.S. Department of Transportation regulations prescribe the specifics of how urine specimens are to be collected, how to inform the specimen donor of the process to which he or she will be subjected, and certification of laboratories by the National Institute of Drug Abuse. These guidelines are an effort to assure that each collection site and each laboratory testing the urine of employees adheres to certain basic standards of quality control.

Passive Inhalation of Marijuana Smoke-Reply

In Reply.— Mr Falck cites a disparity between the results of our controlled studies on the excretion of cannabinoids in urine after the passive inhalation of marijuana smoke and the report of Zeidenberg et al. These authors reported that one subject who smoked an unspecified number of National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) placebo marijuana cigarettes each day developed a contact and excreted cannabinoids in his urine in levels as high as 260 ng/mL after 14 days of continuous daily exposure to marijuana smoke. He was confined in a locked ward with five subjects that smoked NIDA marijuana cigarettes heavily every day. This study was not designed to investigate the passive inhalation of marijuana smoke and, as a consequence, has many experimental flaws that compromise its scientific validity, eg: Why was only one control subject used? Why was the control subject required to smoke placebo marijuana cigarettes? What control

Cannabinoids in Plasma After Passive Inhalation of Marijuana Smoke

To the Editor.— A study of the concentrations of Δ 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and its metabolites found in plasma after the passive inhalation of marijuana smoke was done. This study was performed in conjunction with a study of the urinary excretion of cannabinoid metabolites after passive inhalation. In the latter study, the passive exposure to marijuana smoke was maximized. Four subjects simultaneously smoked four National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) marijuana cigarettes, each containing 26.2 mg of THC, in a manner such that a maximum amount of smoke was released into a small, closed room. The experimental details and results of the urinary excretion experiment are presented in the preceding letter. On the second day of the three-day urinary study, a third passive smoker participated. The plasma samples obtained from this subject during the one-hour passive exposure were analyzed for THC by radioimmunoassay (RIA)1 and for THC and its major