Reviews studies that examined perceived risk or beliefs about harmful effects associated with marijuana use. Perceived risk was construed as consisting of at least four areas (physical harm; parental disapproval; peer disapproval; fear of arrest). Perception of risk varied with several factors including age and gender. Secondary data analysis was…

Synthesizes evaluation of drug use programs (N=37) in schools for grades 6-12 by coding program characteristics and calculating weighted effect sizes (WES) for marijuana use. Program type and sample size were found to be significant predictors of program effectiveness. The primary finding for prevention program planning is that interactive…

This study evaluated the efficacy of 2 brief interventions for cannabis-dependent adults. A multisite randomized controlled trial compared cannabis use outcomes across 3 study conditions: (a) 2 sessions of motivational enhancement therapy (MET); (b) 9 sessions of multicomponent therapy that included MET, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and case…

This study examined whether a coping-skills-based treatment for marijuana dependence operated by encouraging the use of coping skills or via other mechanisms. Participants were 450 men and women treated in the multisite Marijuana Treatment Project who were randomly assigned to motivational enhancement therapy plus cognitive-behavioral (MET-CB)…

It has long been known that acute marijuana administration impairs working memory (e.g., the discrimination of stimuli separated by a delay). The determination of which of the individual components of memory are altered by marijuana is an unresolved problem. Previous human studies did not use test protocols that allowed for the determination of…

The Monitoring the Future (MTF) study involves an ongoing series of national surveys of American adolescents and adults that has provided the nation with a vital window into the important, but largely hidden, problem behaviors of illegal drug use, alcohol use, tobacco use, anabolic steroid use, and psychotherapeutic drug use. For more than a third…

The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is an epidemiologic surveillance system that was established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help monitor the prevalence of behaviors that not only influence youth health, but also put youth at risk for the most significant health and social problems that can occur during…

This descriptive study employed a within-groups analytic approach to examine patterns of sexual risk behavior and co-occurring general and race/ethnicity-specific risk and protective factors in a community sample of African-American youth (n = 436). Cluster analysis was used to classify young adults by levels of self-reported past year sexual risk…

Context: While literature exists on sexual risks for HIV among rural populations, the specific role of stimulants in increasing these risks has primarily been studied in the context of a single drug and/or racial group. Purpose: This study explores the use of multiple stimulants and sexual risk behaviors among individuals of different races and…

Youth's perceptions of the morality of alcohol and other drug use and the perceived legitimacy of laws regulating such use have received scant attention in the international public health literature. To date, the focus has mainly been on emphasizing the health and social disbenefits of substance use in an attempt to counter the perceived…

The problem of adolescent substance use has been examined extensively. Beyond simple prevalence estimates, however, little research has been conducted on substance use in the school context. The present investigation was an in-depth study of students' attitudes and behaviors regarding alcohol and marijuana use during the school day. Based on a…

This article deals with a 16-year-old boy who is referred by his parents to address his academic decline and mood symptoms. He was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) 7 years ago, but his parents had opted not to have it treated. The patient has prominent inattention and distractibility, with complaints of internal…

Adolescent use of marijuana and tobacco has increased throughout the 1990s. Perhaps as a part of this trend, increasingly there have been reports of adolescents who use marijuana or tobacco cigarettes dipped in embalming fluid. Unfortunately, most of these reports involve young people coming for drug treatment, many of whom were incoherent. The…

The 1990 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse is the 10th study in a series of national surveys to measure the prevalence of drug use among the American household population aged 12 and over. This report, which presents estimates of drug use prevalence for the civilian and noninstitutionalized population of the United States, is intended as a…

The two reports contained in this document are products of the 1988 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, the ninth in a series of national surveys designed to measure the prevalence of drug use among the American household population aged 12 and over. The Main Findings report provides details of the National Household Survey methodology as…